Grown from this corner.
A social enterprise growing gardens that grow community.
An engineer who found the golden trifecta in gardening: maths, science and beauty.
I came to flowers the long way, after spending 15 years in tissue engineering, management consulting, and social procurement. This path never made sense until The Corner Garden brought everything together: maths, science, engineering, project delivery, and creating social value through commercial operations.
We moved to Kingsville at the end of 2023, into an Edwardian corner house that had decades of concrete, compacted soil and a garden of agapanthus and lawn. All our neighbours loved a sticky beak as I transformed our neglected garden to the most colourful on the street.
I started growing from seed because I wanted better quality flowers and plants than what I was getting in the shops. With all the transportation and cold storage, the shop flowers would only have a few days’ vase life by the time I got home. I was also bringing plants home from the nursery that were so severely root bound, they would die shortly after planting or only last a season. Once I started growing from seed, I understood the quality of the plants I had been buying, and it wasn’t good.
When my three-year-old and I set up a seedling sale out the front, The Corner Garden was born. Our community bought 200 seedlings that morning, and have been asking for more ever since.
While I might not be designing nanomaterials, or negotiating million dollar opportunities for social enterprises in the world’s largest tram network anymore, my engineering and commercial mindset comes to the garden everyday. My practice is science-led and community minded, bringing design, soil health, and maintenance to grow gardens that grow community across Melbourne’s west.
A corner garden in Kingsville that is a destination for pollinators, flower lovers and gardeners big and small.
The Corner Garden is a real place: a corner house in Kingsville where I grow speciality cut flowers across Melbourne’s seasons. I transformed my garden to a thriving pollinator haven, turning our neglected and compacted soil to the healthy foundation for the plants and flowers you can see.
Every flower and seedling is grown from seed, tuber, bulb or corm. Flowers are cut the same day they’re out for delivery, and are grown pesticide-free. They aren’t flown in from overseas, sprayed with more chemicals at biosecurity borders, and then stored in a fridge for two weeks. These flowers are as slow and as local as you can get.
Now in my second year of growing, I know what our community loves and what grows well in our conditions.
Amaranthus caudatus Red · Cosmos Lemonade · Ranunculus Picasso Romantic · Scabiosa Black Knight · Zinnia Isabellina Creamy Yellow
The garden is also where Growing Gardeners was born, watching children’s delight in discovering the garden through everything they can see, touch, smell, nurture and (enthusiastically) cut over time. The Growing Gardeners program builds skills for life and gives kids screen-free learning that does nothing but good for their brains, their community and the environment.
The long way round to the garden.
The skills that make The Corner Garden work weren’t all learned in a garden. Engineering taught me to think in systems: what happens in February affects what’s ready in October, and that the fungal activity in your soil is the reason the flowers look the way they do. My chemistry degree also comes in handy when I’m testing your soil’s pH and NPK levels to understand why your plants keep dying. Social procurement taught me that commercial operations can deliver social value to the community they sit within, and to always question how things are done, and how they could be done better for and with our community. These skills have helped me grow The Corner Garden into what it is today, and I’ve got bigger plans in the works.
Engineering and chemistry background
Seasonal planning, soil health, crop rotation and garden design approached with a science-led systems mindset.
Social procurement experience
Creating value in local supply chains informs a grown-not-flown sourcing ethic. Local matters: economics, environment and community.
200+ varieties trialled and grown
A curated growing list informed by my extensive experience knowing what performs in Melbourne’s environment across the year.
Community supported education
Growing Gardeners creates a sustainable garden integration in the curriculum, supporting schools with seedlings and expertise for free.
The house with the flowers.
The Corner Garden is based in Kingsville, and locally known as ‘the house with the flowers’. My daughter’s extensive fairy garden statue collection lines our fenceline, and is a particular delight of the toddlers and kindergarteners getting out of the house with their parents.
This garden has become a daily destination for flower lovers (young and old) on their walks, dog owners who seem to have appointment viewing with my Groodle, Millie, and fellow gardeners who love to see the weekly changes and growth in the garden.
Although it is a community anchor in Kingsville, The Corner Garden also serves communities across Melbourne’s west, and even into Docklands and Brunswick East.
If you want a garden that gives back to you, your neighbours and the pollinators.
To talk through a garden that’s been frustrating you for years, the best next step is to book a free consult.