KEEN gardener Sarah Vlatko started growing flowers in her backyard purely for enjoyment, but after receiving interest from people wanting to buy them, she now delivers them throughout Broken Hill.
Ms Vlatko said though she’s always loved flowers, she’s never had an opportunity to grow her own before because she didn’t ever have access to land to plant them.
“I’ve always loved flowers, they’ve always been something I love to receive and give,” she said.
“Even when I was in Sydney, I always wanted to find a bit of land for chickens and flowers, but it just never really eventuated because the price of land was so expensive.”
Though Ms Vlatko grew up in the territory, she lived in Sydney and Melbourne before moving to Broken Hill.
“I’d been in marketing in Sydney and Melbourne,” she said.
“I thought I’ll go into nursing and I can live wherever I want.”
As a student nurse she came to Broken Hill with a friend, and the pair both decided to stay.
“We both still live here, seven years later,” she said.
Along with her husband, photographer Jacob Vlatko, Ms Vlatko began arranging the garden in her South Broken Hill home to be able to plant flowers.
She said her process is mostly trial and error to see what can grow in the harsh climate, and she picks what she plants based on her personal taste.
“I just pick what I like,” she said.
“I’ve looked at Floret Flower Farm, she’s a big one in the States, and she’s sort of coined this whole idea of micro flower farms.
“You don’t need a lot of space and it’s sort of planting a little bit off label, planting things closer together to get more productivity.”
Currently she has a range of dahlias growing in different shades of warm pastels, and said she’s aware of trying not to use too much water as most of the flowers she’s planting aren’t native.
“We have to be conscious of water because we know it’s not plentiful,” she said.
“So we have water tanks and drip irrigation, which is water efficient.”
Ms Vlatko also said she tries to keep her garden as organic as possible and doesn’t spray any pesticides.
“I don’t spray any toxins, it’s all fertilizer like seaweed mix and that sort of thing,” she said.
While she’s tried her hand at small-scale gardening and potting in the past, she said her husband’s expertise in the garden has helped her to learn.
“I’ve always pottered around with plants,” she said.
“But I didn’t have any success until I moved in with Jacob. He’s a grower, he grows all the veggies.”
“I’ve definitely failed more than I’ve succeeded.”
Ms Vlatko sells her flowers via her social media accounts, where she can be found under Vlatkos Flowers.
