As a senior scientist in cannabis crop production at Extractas Bioscience it stands to reason that when Lizzie Preece turns her agricultural expertise to growing flowers, she gets results.
With husband Travis and children Annie, 8, and Toby, 5, the gardening-mad mum has taken the original farmhouse on Cressy property Little Forest and set up a home business growing and selling flowers.
The 1910 property originally belonged to her great great grandparents James and Georgina Bayles, and by the time her dad had taken over management of the farm her family was living in a more modern home “further up the road”.
“This place was rented out and over the years became dilapidated – the garden, which had been beautiful, became overgrown and unkept,” Lizzie said.
“After I’d finished university in 2007 I moved back here with Travis and we started renovating.”
Lizzie admits she started working on the garden well before they even moved in and the pace only increased during maternity leave when they were expecting their firstborn.
“I remembered how gorgeous it was when my grandmother lived here and after she passed I just wanted to get it back a state that would make her proud,” Lizzie said.
“She used to have a lot of garden parties to raise money for New Horizons because one of my aunties had Downes Syndrome.”
With the same philanthropic tendency Lizzie will once again open up the garden for a good cause – to help the Cressy Holy Trinity Church raise money to restore its stained glass window.
Little Forest, which takes its name from the bordering river, will be one of four farm gardens to open to the public on November 25: Pisa, in Macquarie Rd, Cressy; Forest Vale, on Poatina Rd, Cressy; and Longford Hall in Malcombe St, Longford.
The gardens will be open between 10am and 4pm, cost is $25, which includes a Devonshire tea, sandwiches and beverages in the Cressy Church Hall throughout the day. Payment is taken at any of the four venues.
“Roses were my first love and I had planted heaps at mum’s, so I planted about 100 plus roses straight up, along with Pierre de Ronsard and David Austin roses, ranuculas, tulips, peonies and other spring bulbs,” Lizzie said.
“I was going for that traditional cottage style garden and then I got sucked into the dahlia world – I bought a couple and then it just got out of hand.
“When I started posting on Instagram I was soon approached by florists wanting to sell them, and now I’m at a stage where all my flowers are booked out next year, they’re already spoken for.
Every Monday morning the whole family is out cutting flowers at the crack of dawn before work and school and filling buckets ready to deliver.
As brides-to-be demand mainly white flowers, such as Boundary Snowflake and Café Au Lait, Lizzie has resorted to putting in extra beds of simple white dahlias to add to more than 50 varieties and colours already established such as Powder Puff, Coconut Ice, Samoan Prince and Elma Elizabeth.
The dahlia season is from January to the end of April so they won’t be on show for the open garden, but the Preece’s have plenty of gardening triumphs to show off, such as the grafting of old fruit trees to produce new varieties, a big vegetable patch and the garden apiary where they are sourcing and selling beautiful fresh honey with a highly sought-after soft floral flavour.
“Soil health, irrigation, the right time to pick, dealing with pests and diseases – my ag science knowledge comes in handy and I’m happy to answer questions,” Lizzie said.
“And I will of course have some bunches of flowers for sale to help with the fundraising.”