By Mikayla van Loon
Getting outside and into the garden has been a wonderful escape from the four walls of the family home for one Lilydale family.
They’ve even been able to turn it into a successful business.
Miranda Dalton and her four children, Linny, Lexi, Lukie and Link needed a break during the major lockdown last year and decided to get planting.
Having lost her job and her kids being bored at home, Ms Dalton came up with a plan to grow and propagate succulents to sell to locals and started Foursucculent Sake.
“I was going through a bit of a plant phase and [the kids] wanted to get involved. The kids bought the pots and they started off with 20 pots, so five pots each,” Ms Dalton said.
“That’s all we were going to do. They were going to buy five pots each and then they were going to sell those pots for $10.
“We just we’re gonna do that for that one off but it was popular and lots of people liked the idea.”
Seeing how many people came past the stand and how many people responded to buying plants as gifts, Ms Dalton and her kids have been selling succulents ever since.
Throughout last year, orders were piling up and the kids were flat out propagating, planting and potting succulents.
“I had a lady, a nurse from Maroondah hospital last year, in the ward with all Covid patients and she bought a heap of pots to put on the bedside table for people in the hospital,” Ms Dalton said.
But having gone through six lockdowns, Ms Dalton has found people are not as enthused by small business ventures and the orders have reduced.
“Now, I think it just seems different. Everybody’s lost their enthusiasm. I think at the start of the lockdown a year ago, it was a new found freedom. People were happy to wander around and look at it in a positive way of all these extra things they could do.
“But I think now everybody’s just got to a point where enough is enough. So I’m finding that we’re not as busy.”
Nevertheless, Foursucculent Sake was never about making a profit, even if it has been a nice bonus, but rather about allowing Ms Dalton’s children to focus on something other than a screen and it even turned into a hands-on learning experience.
“It’s given us and it’s given the kids something to focus on. And they saved up enough money and bought a trampoline, which has been a lifesaver, that’s something that they did. So they get a lot of enjoyment out of it.
“If they want to buy something, they’ve got to pay back into it. They know that they have to in order to buy something they’ve got to invest money back in.”
Ms Dalton said by selling plants, her children have learnt to communicate about which task each of them is doing, how to divide profits between each of them and has taught them the value of money.
“It’s exciting that they can be responsible for something and they understand how the process works. You’ve got to put in some effort, you can’t just get things for free.
“So they need to make some effort and they need to nurture the stuff.”
Finding purpose during lockdown for both her children and herself was something she strived for but all the added extras of learning, community engagement, getting outside and spending time together were bonuses.
“I guess it gave us that opportunity to go outside every single day. And it gave us a bit of a purpose. I don’t think we’ve been bored the whole time, really, I mean, we’ve constantly had things to do.
“I just wanted to share some fun things with others and I wanted to be creative. And I was happy to get them outside, even if it was cold, just for some fresh air and get them out of the house.”
Foursucculent Sake do contactless pick up and delivery within 5km and orders can be customised. To place an order email mirandajdalton@gmail.com.
