GEOFF Gardner and his late wife packed up the car and hit the road from Taree on the New South Wales Coast some 14 years ago but only made it as far as Broken Hill.
“We’d had a big wholesale nursery on a place called Oxley Island near Taree,” Mr Gardner said.
“Our main supplier was Kmart, but then Kmart went out of plants, so instead of trying to chase more markets we just shut up shop there. We went for a drive and got as far as Broken Hill.”
Mr Gardner said the pair thought the locals were great and liked that the town was “in the middle of nowhere.”
He began working for a contractor who worked with the Road and Transport Authority, while his wife, a horticulturist, decided to buy an old house to convert into a vintage and plant store called Blue Doe.
“It came about probably six years ago,” Mr Gardner said.
“My wife started this up herself, she bought the place and set it up. We’d go to Adelaide to buy plants and vintage and bring them back.”
Mr Gardner said adapting to a dry, desert climate and the impact it has on plants was a big change coming from the coast.
“In the Summer you spend all day watering the plants,” he said.
“And by the time you finish watering it, it’s almost ready to be watered again.”
Mr Gardner said his wife had a natural green thumb and could answer any questions about the plants for sale, but he sometimes can struggle to remember all the information.
He said the best part about the job is getting to have conversations with people passing through the store.
“The people in Broken Hill are just great, though I think they come to visit my cat more than they do me!” He said.
Blue Doe is at 74 William Street, Broken Hill.
