She’s a 56-year-old Elizabeth “Thumper” Clark from Ilfracombe, Queensland, and she’s on the most incredible odyssey. She’s turning her residential backyard into an exciting micro flower farm! Clark is growing blooms more than 1,000 kilometers from Brisbane. Simultaneously, she is breeding this community’s hope and perseverance to weather the storm. After running sheep and cattle station for decades and having weathered a gazillion droughts, she finally gave up her job in the aged care sector. Beyond that, she has gone all in on her floral venture these days.
Clark’s flower farm, located just behind her home, makes for a beautiful backdrop to guests’ experience. Here, guests can happily harvest their own bouquets in return for an appreciated donation. Through this new project, she’s able to share the produce bounty of her flowers with everyone, but she’s nourishing relationships and opening dialogue. Her exemplary work is shown by her extreme dedication, working day-in and day-out on her farm. Her childhood on a remote sheep station outside Longreach, Australia, gives her motivation, teaching her lessons in grit and innovation.
A Legacy of Gardening
This was how Clark first came to love gardening from a young age. She was most inspired by her grandmother, who planted annuals, like petunias and marigolds, rain or shine. This legacy has informed Clark’s approach to growing food in the outback. She believes that nature can bounce back from challenges, stating, “Everything’s just got a new lease on life, just fresh moisture.” What you realize is that her experiences with drought have made her strong, surviving, and extremely adaptive.
In the process, gardening has provided Clark a healing creative outlet. She writes about how it enabled her to escape the pressures of a high-pressure lifestyle on a remote sheep and cattle station. It started for my mental health, she says, highlighting the emotional rewards of caring for her flower farm. Clark often jokes about the cathartic release gardening provides, quipping that on especially tough days, one could “dig a hole and bury a politician or someone you don’t like in it.”
Her book “Only Grow What Grows” distills her hands-on wisdom into a how-to guide for novice gardeners in extreme climates. She’s an advocate for gardeners being in tune with where they live and inspires people to make their gardening efforts fit their geographical reality. “If you’re on black soil, it does get very hard but it can work if you add a lot of gypsum, a bit of sweat, and a lot of mulch,” she advises.
Building Community Through Flowers
Clark’s flower farm isn’t just about cultivating plants — it’s a place where people can come together. She welcomes both locals and tourists to come see the breathtaking beauty of her flowers. While doing this, they can contribute to a meaningful cause by providing donations. “It’s a good little community — if we can add to it, that would be great,” she noted.
The farm is an oasis of green amid the vast, dry, rugged landscape of western Queensland. Her oasis is a refuge not just for nature, but for neighbors too. Her warm oasis is a world apart from the harsh dystopia that has engulfed them. “You go to most properties and there’s a garden like a little oasis in the middle of it all,” a local resident observed.
As Clark’s farm continues to grow, she is just as interested in continuing to develop this sense of community. She wishes to prove it can flourish despite such harsh climates. She herself being a testament that nature is beautiful even in the most challenging circumstances. Her goal is straightforward yet profound: “Keep the roots cool through summer and grow the right thing in the right place.”
Overcoming Adversity
Living in the outback comes with distinct challenges of their own, especially focused on climate extremes. Clark recognizes the precarious nature of farming in such conditions but remains hopeful about the resilience of both her plants and herself. “We’ll see what happens when we get to those 45 to 48 horrible degree days,” she remarked with a blend of humor and determination.
However challenging conditions may get in the farming climate of western Queensland, the joy that gardening brings to Clark’s life inspires her to keep moving forward. “Life on the land is wonderful on one hand but incredibly hard on the other,” she reflected. Her story is an example of personal redemption, but it’s a tale of resiliency and optimism that rings true for many.
Clark’s devotion to her flower farm represents more than just an entrepreneurial venture. It embodies a deeper connection to nature and community. As she sows flowers through the muck, she sows hope for herself and all those who share the struggle.
