Since 1992, Merryn Carey has propagated plants in Dignams Creek. She caught the bug working as a volunteer for Greening Australia when living in the western part of Sydney. ‘I just knew it was something I wanted to do. I just had to do it. When I moved here as a young idealistic mother of a two-year-old, I set out to be self-sufficient. I soon worked out how hard that is. Possums and wallabies could eat or destroy everything that had taken months to grow. It changed me from an idealist to become more of a realist, and it led me to focus on edible and useful plants. If people see value in the plants around them, maybe they’ll look after them a bit more, and sort of honor and treasure them.’

Merryn explains that growing local natives for re-vegetation started up near heavily developed areas. ‘When I came down here, that bug hadn’t caught on. I would go to the markets with a whole lot of local natives and people would say, “Why would we want to buy them? There are plenty of them out in the bush. I want different things for my garden.” Fair enough. Gardens are our own special places, and the bush is the bush. I decided to try growing bush tucker. From a small start South Coast Flora has become a specialist grower of a large range of local native tubestock, bush food species, and some fruits, nuts and berries that suit the South Coast region.’

The two-year-old that Merryn moved to Dignams Creek to raise, is now raising children of her own here. Heather returned to co-manage the business with her mum just after the fires. ‘We all made these little mental pacts with ourselves after the fires. For me, it was the right time to get things back on track after being physically disabled for quite a while. Heather decided that if this place survived, that she would come back and live here for a while. It’s interesting how lots of different parts clicked into place.’

You can find a beautiful variety of plants grown by this mother and daughter team at:

• Moruya Markets on Saturday mornings;
• Candelo Markets on the first Sunday of each month;
• Bermagui Markets on the last Sunday of each month; and
• Bermagui Farmers Market on a Thursday afternoon.

Check out the South Coast Flora website or make contact via their Facebook page

Or email mailsouthcoastflora@activ8.net.au to request an updated stocklist or to make an enquiry.