10/06/2025
A little wrap-up of our .not.flown 2025 Conference road trip!
1. As always, Erin delivered the goods—thoughtful, generous words with “community over competition” front and centre.
2. We made so many new flower friends! Hands down, one of the best bits was chatting with other growers.
3. Sam may not look thrilled, but trust me—he was living his best life talking soil health and irrigation with fellow plant nerds. Our favourite speaker? The brilliant Dr Mary Cole, who deserves rockstar status for her work in soil science.
4. On the way to VIC, we got to stop in and meet Casey from irl!
5. Her pansy tunnel was chef’s kiss.
6. Outside of the actual conference, Sam planned our whole trip as a surprise at my request. I bloody love surprises. This stop was the first of many.
7. Our morning view. I mean. Come on.
8. Sam spotted Spring Hill Nursery & Garden while mapping the trip and added it in on a whim. One of the best nurseries I’ve been to. The perennials were NEXT LEVEL.
9. Thought it couldn’t be topped… but then we visited The Garden of St Erth. Glorious gardens and an incredible plant range.
10. When I say incredible, I mean I found a Corkscrew Hazel. I’d just been talking to Casey about them, then boom—there it was. No clue where I’ll plant it, but it had to come home.
11. Sam nailed the accommodation again with this tiny cottage. (Also, our top-tier road trip luggage system: laundry basket > bag.)
12. We were meant to camp our final night but after packing up our wet camp gear in the freezing cold post-conference, we cracked and booked a motel in Yackandandah.
13. And lastly—a little personal goal that I hit on this trip. I used to be a big reader in high school, then social media happened and my attention span evaporated. This year, I decided to step back from the scroll and set what felt like a wild goal: 1 book per month. I quickly realised I’d smash that, so increased it to 30 which I still thought was crazy. But here I am in June having already reached my 30 for the year. Think I’d better increase it to 52 now. (Although now I’ve fallen down a fantasy rabbit hole and those books are chonky, so we’ll see.)
