Sarah Heales cultivates thriving venture at Pepper's Run Flower Farm Chiltern

"I have a funny history with plants," the 29-year-old laughs.

"My mum and sister could grow anything, but ... not me."

Her partner Tim Smith (an architect and builder) is a "great green thumb" and has a thriving vegie patch on their 15-acre property, Pepper's Run, at Chiltern.

Growing up in inner city Brisbane, Sarah's sights were set on a corporate career; she studied publishing and gender studies at university and secured a job in commercial real estate.

But life - and love - has a funny way of upending plans.

Sarah met Tim (from Rutherglen) on a trip to Sydney in 2018 and the couple kept up a long-distance romance until COVID struck.

She took a leap of faith and moved to the North East in August 2020, working remotely for a Brisbane agency while Tim was setting up his own business locally.

"But being inside on the computer every day and not talking to anyone was driving me crazy," Sarah says.

So she began looking for something different to do.

"I wanted to do something outside - something that would connect me more to nature and to people in the community," Sarah explains.

"Because I was so new to the area - and because of the isolation of COVID-19 - I didn't have those social connections."

The couple had purchased some land nestled in a little pocket of the Chiltern-Mount Pilot National Park about one kilometre out of town.

"We loved that it was on the forest and I really liked the cute little tumbledown miner's cottage," Sarah says.

It was an abundant clump of flowers near Tim's vegie garden that would plant the seeds of an idea for a new venture.

"We had this patch of cosmos and zinnias that were going gangbusters," she recalls.

"I got into the habit of taking little bunches to friends and family; and even to people in my pilates class at Albury.

"You realise when you give someone a bunch of flowers how happy it makes them.

"People connect memories with flowers - they'd say to me, 'Oh this reminds me of my mum's garden or my grandmother's garden'."

In February 2021, Sarah quit her job - "probably prematurely," she laughs - and decided to go into flower farming.

She signed up for the government's NEIS (New Enterprise Incentive Scheme) program, which offers training and support to set up your own small business.

"It's a great course - I highly recommend it," Sarah says.

And she researched.

"I read books, I listened to podcasts, watched YouTube videos and studied the work of Erin Benzakein, the rock star of the micro flower farming world," Sarah explains.

Without formal qualifications or experience, it was to prove a huge learning curve.

"I had to research what will and won't grow in the climate and work out whether to start with seedlings or tube stock," Sarah explains, adding there were some "massive fails" along the way.

"I'm not sure whether it was the weather or my poor sowing but 60 per cent of the seeds sown in transplant trays failed."

Initially Sarah planned to produce flowers for the commercial market.

But after talking it over with Tim, she realised she wanted to share the experience with others and 'pick your own' was born.

Pepper's Run Flower Farm officially opened on Boxing Day 2022, the property named after their rescue dog, Pepper.

"We'd hoped to be open in November but the winter ran on through spring and delayed the flowers," she explains.

Now in full summer bloom, there are 28 different varieties of flowers to pick on the quarter acre of garden.

From marigolds ("mini ones for the fairies"), strawflowers and sunflowers to amaranths, corncockles, calendulas, snapdragons and statice, the selection is limited only by your imagination.

Visitors are sent off with a small pair of secateurs to wander up and down rows, cutting at whim to fill anything from a small jar ($10) through to a bucket ($100).

There's no special skill required - Sarah's only tip to visitors is to "think of it like a haircut - cut a bit longer because you can always go shorter".

Without a doubt, it's sunflowers that top the favourites list, according to Sarah.

There's yellow, orange, cream, red, chocolate, lilac-centred, teddy bear (fluffy) and double dazzlers (extra fluffy!).

"Kids love the single giant sunflowers," she says.

"People also love cosmos (they are dainty and float above other flowers) and dahlias (there are so many different colours)."

Sarah says visitors have poured in from across the region including Benalla, Jindera, Glenrowan, Wangaratta and the Border.

"It's been really popular with young families; it's just gorgeous to see children (particularly little boys) get among the flowers," she says.

"Kids go nuts for it!

"And when people finish picking and you see all the different jars, it really shows people's personalities.

"People really express their inner creativity through flowers."

And there must be something about meandering among rows of pretty flowers that invites people to share their stories.

"In picking flowers they get to express themselves and for many people it brings back old memories while they are making new ones," Sarah says.

Tim is equally smitten with the farm; you'll find him in the garden most weekends "weeding or handing out sunflowers".

As for the city girl who now has dirt under her fingernails and a wide smile under that broad-brimmed hat, well she barely recognises herself these days.

"It's funny; I would never have pictured myself doing this," Sarah says.

"I think my family are more shocked than anyone else.

"But I've kind of found myself - and I like it!"