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Blooms from the garden of Vivian Evans 20.JPG

'Blooms' from Viv’s garden

Gardening has always been a part of my life… Memories of giving frogs a swing in my nanna’s yard as she pottered around in the garden, making fig jam together, big pomegranates by the garage and pink valerian sticking out from under the house foundations. At 60 Nan and Pop moved into town from the Dairy farm into a home previously owned by Italians and full of fruit trees such as figs, plums, bay trees and blooms. 

 

My Mum is a great gardener who has beautiful blooms of many types filling every part of her block from the front, down the sides and out the back yard. Camelias, roses, bulbs, zygos, ferns and so much more! My Aunty Fay was a renowned florist who lived in Donald, Victoria and had people from Melbourne ordering her arrangements that would head to the city on the train.

My 30+ year old garden is nestled in a 100 acre bush block and is totally organic with a crazy mix of natives, introduced species, shrubs, trees, bulbs, succulents, herbs, veggies pretty much anything I can get my hands on. 

 

Lots of lovely goodies from my Mum and gifts from friends over the years. Most of which I can name who gave me the gifts as I wander around my garden. Sally’s agapanthus, Flame trees from Vincent and Lizzie, Kurrajongs from the Broeksemas, a lilac from Trish’s mum, dahlias from the Garden Club, salvias from a motel owner in Tamworth etc etc

 

In 2022 I had the opportunity of an introductory floristry course at Coonabarabran TAFE. It was a lot of fun and I learnt so many tips. I also learned how environmentally unfriendly the floristry industry is with sprayed blooms… where not an insect survives (good when being imported), huge global miles on the blooms, that the blocks that flowers are pressed into that sit in the vase are full of microplastics, waste of plastics and much more.

 

Gifting blooms to friends in town involved vases or jars being wrapped in towels and inside buckets to keep them stable for the 8km journey across a bumpy dirt road before hitting the highway into town. It wasn’t until I purchased some tin jugs from an organic wholefood store in town that I discovered if the jug was full of water and full of flowers that it sat on the floor of my car completely stable. These were great and I secured a few more different sizes for myself.

 

In 2024 sadly my step dad passed away and one of the loving bunches that came flooding into mum’s home was a ‘Hug in a Jug’... while this was a ceramic jug it got me thinking of my tin jugs and the possibilities of creating just a few arrangements to decorate one of our local cafes in an art gallery. I approached Fiona of ‘Me & Co Coffee’ to see what she thought of the idea and she loved it!

 

So I have had the joy of creating numerous little jugs filled with blooms from my garden… so many colours, so many blooms and foliage. I am proud that they are 

  • Organic - that means you will come across an occasional interesting critter

  • The tin jug, which you buy with the blooms, can sit sturdily on the floor of your car to be transported home or to friends and will be reusable for many more blooms!

  • As they are local they don’t have the big global miles of transport

  • The labels are tied on with natural string and made from recycled, sometimes painted and always hand drawn.

 

Where can you find them? SPACE gallery 41 John Street Coonabarabran

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