It took a big change – a redundancy from her media job last year – to turn Angie Thompson’s dream of owning a small-scale flower farm into a reality, but now Trampoline Flower Farm’s bloom-laden cart is the talk of Thirroul.
“I've been amazed by the interest and well-wishes this little venture has attracted. Friends and strangers have become really invested in it,” Angie said.
“A man stopped by, seemingly after work. Did someone in the estate get unexpected flowers that night? Because of my little flower cart? It makes me smile. I like the idea of helping to create the type of place I want to live.”
Transforming a bamboo-laden backyard into a field of swaying everlasting daisies and fragrant sweet peas isn’t easy and Angie has faced unique challenges in starting her new enteprise.
“Our backyard is set really far back from the road, down quite a few stairs with sides too narrow for any machinery. All that mongrel bamboo had to be hauled up and all the bags of horse poo needed hauling down,” she said.
“The blue metal runs 40cm deep in some parts and remediating the soil has also been slow-going. The thick, clay soil is no picnic either. I’ve got some muscles now that I’ve never seen before in my life. I feel lucky that I get to have a shot at this now, while I’ve got good bendy knees and can bounce back from a tumble down the clay-slicked hills, because it’s not necessarily something I could start 10 years from now.”
The torrential rain and howling winds of the past year have also brought sleepless nights. “The ground got so sodden last month, it wouldn’t hold another drop of rain and I was sure I was going to lose everything to flooding," Angie said.
"The wind is probably worse. I’ve spent a few nights lying awake listening to the big gusts, imagining my sweet peas ripping from the trellis, or hearing the crash of a tray of seeds going belly-up.”
While production is ramping up, Angie hopes to eventually move beyond the Friday and Saturday afternoon flower cart that sits at her farm gate on Wrexham Road – she'd like to attend a few markets next year and eventually supply the DIY bridal market. To that end, the planting continues.
“I’ve got snapdragons in the ground, a few types of cosmos, zinnias, lots of things from the Proteaceae family and lots of young, native perennials – kangaroo paw, coneflowers, strawflowers, wax flowers, hakea, flowering gums, acacia, Christmas bush, a couple of banksias,” she said.
"I'm about to put a ton of dahlias in the ground after what turned out to be a very stressful and competitive buying process. The most desirable dahlia tubers get snatched from your shopping cart before you can possibly pay for them. Who knew the flower world was so Hunger Games-y?”
For all the hard work, the results have been worth the slog.
“I had always loved gardening when I was a kid but never contemplated doing it as a job," Angie said.
"We can’t all necessarily … grow pretty flowers for a living. I’m lucky I get this little window to try but it got me thinking about whether we are too quick to dismiss the passions of our childhoods when we go out into the world and pick jobs.
"These past few months have felt like finding my way back to something that mattered.”
Follow the Trampoline Flower Farm on Instagram to see when you can snag a bunch of flowers straight from the farm gate in Thirroul
