8. Daniel (Ollie) Althaus - Althaus Landscape Designs

In this episode, I have a fantastic chat with Daniel, AKA Ollie from Althaus Landscape Designs, which is based in Ballarat. Now this one was actually recorded way back in September and I was devastated when I thought I lost the audio file. And after a few YouTube videos and a fair bit of sort of researching, I managed to find a way to back on the backup and it took a bit of work to restore the file, but I'm so happy I was able to salvage it because it's just a really inspiring story.

We're talking about a journey from military service to becoming a horticultural powerhouse, family influences that changed everything, his experience at the Melbourne Flower Show (he has built 2 display garden there), some health scares that really put his life into perspective. And yeah, it was just some life changing moments there.

But yeah, trust me, I think you'll, you'll enjoy this incredible story. Ollie was really kind to be, you know, a bit vulnerable and, and really share some, some truth. 

Connect with Daniel here:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/althaus_landscape_designs

Website: https://althauslandscapedesigns.com.au/

Click here to check out photos of Daniel's 'Mother Ocean' garden from MIFGS 2024: https://shorturl.at/jyqkO

Koda Moss: https://www.instagram.com/koda.moss/

Klaycon Landscape Construction: https://www.instagram.com/klaycon_lc/

Dan the Plant Man is produced by Dan Cusack.

The theme song is thanks to the incredibly talented Jack Biilmann, who you can find all over Spotify, the internet, Touring Australia, and in our show notes. And if you want to say hi, the best way to do that is to head to our Instagram, which is https://www.instagram.com/theplantmanisdan or you can email me at hello@dantheplantman.com.au

But most of all, I just want to say thank you so much for listening

Transcript

Hold up a sec, Jack. I just gotta have a quick chat mate, and then we'll get back to you.

Hey friends and the plant man here, and well, I'm back. And look, I owe you a bit of an explanation and, I just wanna have a chat with you about where I've been and where we're heading with this podcast. So I. First of all, let me catch you up on, I guess where I've been since the last episode.

My partner, elk and I had an amazing holiday overseas, had six weeks in Italy, a couple of weeks in Queensland as well with family. And it was absolutely incredible. But more than that, it was actually a really necessary circuit breaker. I think I was just, spinning too many plates heading out for that trip.

And yeah, heading straight for burnout. So yeah, really appreciated that trip. Particularly now looking back. And yeah, here's something I wanna share with you because it might be helpful, but my only regret from that trip really was that I just didn't fully switch off. I was still checking emails, doing quotes, even handling some plant orders.

I was committed to a virtual assistant 20 hours a week, and I felt like I couldn't let anyone down, especially with get plans delivered in its early stages. But on reflection, I wish I just sent an out of office email, gave myself permission to truly disconnect. I think as business owners we're guilty of letting work flow into our personal time, and I've been getting better at this over the nearly sort of 15 years.

I've been in business now, but still got room to improve. I. So I guess here's my advice For anyone that has a trip coming up, whether it's your own business or not, just tell your work or tell your clients in advance. Set that auto reply and just catch up when you get home, like life goes on. And yeah, sure you might miss a few sales or leads, but giving yourself permission to truly switch off is critical and I will also do my best to take that own advice moving forward.

Another reflection from the past few months growing the plant brokerage business while trying to keep up with weekly podcast episodes, regular social media posts, and doing it all pretty much. Solo is just a lot, and I mean like a lot and I enjoy a lot of it, and I think I just was pushing myself to get an episode out every week because I thought that that's what I had to do, but honestly, it was just stressing me out more than it was inspiring me and just really took the fun away.

. So the podcast started because I love plants. I love the landscape industry. I love connecting with the incredible people in the industry and giving them a platform to sort of share their stories. So it's not supposed to feel like another job on the pile.

And I can honestly say I'm, I'm feeling really inspired again, so. Here's what's changing. I guess I'm, again, giving myself permission to be kind to myself and make sure I'm having fun again, chatting to people I'm genuinely keen to connect with, and I'm going to release the episodes when I can and when I'm genuinely excited about the content and when I've got something valuable, share, I'm someone that.

I know how much noise there can be in the world. So anything I sort of produce, I wanna make sure it's of quality and and value. So, if you see a new episode coming out, I hope you find it interesting and of value and just know that it's something that I have enjoyed doing. But yeah, so that might be, you know, weekly releases.

Sometimes it might be every couple of weeks. It might just be with inspiration strikes or when I sort of get an opportunity to, edit them. But what I can promise you is that when an episode drops, it's because I'm genuinely pumped about it on the plant brokerage. It's going strong. I get plans delivered is, yeah, stronger than ever.

But I'm learning that just try and do everything at once. It just burns you out and. It takes away, like you, you can't just spread yourself thinner and expect, you know, the quality's gonna drop somewhere. So if the podcast. Where I focus my energy on, then that's obviously means that that's getting taken away from my business, which is, you know, not what I want.

And if you're trying to spin all those plates, then it just leads to burnout. And yeah, a burnout dent is no good for anyone, especially the amazing guests to have , stories to share. So I guess what's coming up, I've got some incredible conversations lined up. There's a chat here with Ollie Outhouse a conversation with my first apprentice, Josh Hooper, who talks about his journey from someone who couldn't sit still at the school to going on to manage $4 million commercial landscaping projects.

I got Dom Galloway, who's a fantastic landscape architect here in Canberra, who I've worked with on many, many projects. Shares some really great insights, and I'm working on a couple other projects that I hope to share soon, including an ebook on the best plants to use in Canberra. Really want to turn the plant man is Dan Instagram page into a place where people can come and get educated and inspired about plants and landscaping and just sort of build their confidence to get them in the garden.

So feel free to follow along there. And also just mention, obviously with, you know, the irregular kind of post for , this podcast. It's probably best if you hit that sort of subscribe button or follow me on the plant manager, Dan, just so you can be informed when new episodes are coming out. Yeah. But thank you, thanks for, for letting me have that little update and if you're still with me, which I hope you are, thanks for being patient.

Thanks for understanding that sometimes we just need to step back, recalibrate and come back stronger and. The pod's back. I'm feeling refreshed. I'm excited to have some amazing stories, some amazing guests, and yeah, I'll just be, as I say, giving myself permission to kind of release it when it comes out and making sure that it's of a high standard and just have fun with it again.

So now I. Let's jump into a really special chat I had a few months ago with Daniel, AKA Ollie from Old House Designs in Ballarat. Now this one was actually recorded way back in September and I was devastated when I thought I lost the audio file. And after a few YouTube videos and a fair bit of sort of researching, I managed to find a way to back on the backup and it took a bit of work to restore the file, but I'm so happy I was able to salvage it because it's just a really inspiring story.

And we're sort of talking about a journey from military service to becoming a horticultural, powerhouse family influences that changed everything, his experience at the Melbourne Flower Show, some health scares that really put his life into perspective. And yeah, it was just some life changing moments there.

But yeah, trust me, I think you'll, you'll enjoy this incredible story. And, and Ollie was really kind to be, you know, a bit vulnerable and, and really share some, some truth. So. Let's kick back to  📍 Jackman's fun little jingle, and I hope you enjoy this chat as much as I did.

​

   📍 Daniel Outhouse, welcome to the show. I do always like to start with how I met, the guest and you and I met at cus was that last year? My, my brain's like a, a mush I think it 



  📍 was last year. Year briefly.

When you did 

the wave, was that this year or last year? 

That was this year. That was this year. So 2024 we did the wave. Yeah. And then 23, I did the I did the achievable, five by four. Yeah, it was more of a like a modernistic Australian native garden, which is sort of more down my style, but Yeah.

Yeah, I think are. I don't think we've met in 23. No, I think I 

met, I think I met you at the wave and I took a few photos of, of that garden and

you are definitely, lovely fella and we've, we've kept in touch and so it's good to chat to you today and learn a bit more about your story. I definitely, listened to you talk with Joel from the Landscaping podcast. Mm-hmm. And I'll, I'll be putting the link to that one below to hear a bit more of your story.

But of course there's gonna be different people who, who may not have heard about you, so it would be good to hear. It's always interesting here in the background of how people landed where they are. So, do you wanna gimme some dot points about how, you know, you landed into the career you in now and I think there's some interesting things you did before this that I'd love.

Yeah, look, I think, yeah, it's definitely, a career that I've, I won't say fell into, but, I've, I've definitely had some interesting careers prior to this. Like, yeah, like when I mentioned, off air, I I was DJing for sort of nine years, in Brisbane. And so that was a good little start.

And then, clearly I like a little bit of a contrast because I went from that to joining the defense force. So I was in there for, I think it was like three and a half years, as a, as a driver, so, driver specialist. So that was a lot of fun. And then yeah ended up transitioning and, and being a, teacher aide.

So I was a teacher aide working in schools for a little bit after, after I got outta the army. And then, yeah, I guess, my, my fiance, and I, we, we met and, her mother was a, or is I should say a, landscaper does a lot of maintenance and yeah, my fiance kind of just said to me, maybe you should give this a bit of a crack.

And I've always been, despite my jobs, being quite creative and, yeah, had like art galleries and stuff when I was, I was younger and, always drawing and, and all that kind of, all that kind of stuff. So, 

Mate, that's, yeah. Very, very diverse. I've already got so many questions. First of all, first of all, DJ name.

What was your DJ name? 

It was actually, just my nickname, which is Ollie. So it was just DJ Ollie. And yeah, obviously 'cause of my last name, I, I get asked about this all the time 'cause a lot of my friends only know me as Ollie. There's been friends that I've known for a long, long time and that they actually don't know that my first name is Daniel.

So where'd that come from? Ollie? Ollie Althouse. So it was a nickname that I got given. Bit of a tangent here. Yeah. A nickname I got given when I was in high school and the teacher was reading out the, the role and obviously having a last name like Althouse, which is at the top of the list.

He just spat out the the nickname Ollie Althouse and everyone just assumed that my name was actually Ollie, so it kind of stuck even though I correct people. So, and then, yeah, into my, well still now, yeah. Most people in my wife call me Ollie. So yeah. Is it weird getting called Daniel then, or is it Dan or what?

It's kind of weird mate. It's it's almost like I've got a professional alias and then a personal alias. So yeah, kind of the worlds tend to collide sometimes. And people just like, what? Why are you Ollie or why are you, damn? So,

so, so what was mate, we are gonna go on tangents and ju all over the place and that's, yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's a DJ life for nine years. Like, I, okay, so quickly I'll say that I studied music business and I used to work before landscaping. I worked at the University of Canberra helping organize, their live music and some of the festivals and stuff.

And I've always thought that that was gonna be my. Career. Yeah. I wanted to work in, in music and I didn't have that music talent, so it was gonna be a band manager organizing a venue or something. Mm-hmm. But there's something about the energy of live music that, like, I went to so many gigs through college.

I was wearing a different band shirt every other day. Like that was, I lived and breathed music. I was the kid that brought like burnt CDs and handed 'em out to their friends. Yeah. It's so good. So is that sort of, was it just a passion of music that evolved to like a DJ job? 

Yeah, for sure. I think, like I kind of, not grew up, but in my, my sort of early twenties, I kind of grew up on, on vinyl and, loved, yeah, playing with wax and, and yeah, it was.

I remember there was a lot of sort of parties and, and things like that where I would be, sort of playing vinyl on an iron board, do you know what I mean? And then, and that's where it kind of started. And yeah, I just kind of had that love for, taking something that is existing and really putting my skin on things.

And I guess you can kind of, yeah. Yeah. Go on. 

No, you go. Sorry. I was gonna say I'd love to learn the skill of DJing, but 

yeah, another time. I, I, I, I really love it and, and to this day I still really love it. Like, I don't get many honor opportunities, obviously. Running bit busy business takes up. Yeah.

It takes up a bit of time. So, but it is genuinely still one of the, such a passion of mine is, is, is obviously music and getting to, yeah, mixing some tunes that, like I said, people have created this, this beautiful piece of music and you kind of just, either melding one or two or sometimes three tracks together.

And yeah, I think another thing with DJing is, is reading a crowd. And that's something that I guess we can talk about a little bit later is, is definitely having that skill, skill to kind of, understand people's. Movements and, facial expressions and, understand what someone might want. And to be honest, it's, it's kind of those transferable skills.

As weird as that sounds I, I use on a day-to-day basis talking to clients and understanding like how their brain might work. And you are, you're reading people. Do you know what I mean? So a hundred percent, 

yeah. I mean, like I said, I think you and I got along quickly, you know, on first meeting. I think that's because I, I like to think I'm pretty personable and I think you obviously are too for sure.

So it's just easy to get along with people like that, that are, I think, genuinely curious about people as well, which absolutely, clearly are. Yeah. And, have a shared interest in something. And that's sort of all you need sometimes. And this is the other reason I love chatting about sort of the, the career path, because.

It's interesting, there's different skills you acquire from different things that may on a resume be like what? He was a dj. That's weird. Like for me, one of my first jobs was in a retail golf shop, but I was very shy. I was a shy kid and that started to get me outta my shell a bit. 'cause you had to answer the phone, you had to serve strangers.

Yeah. And so yeah, I think life can go many different ways. It doesn't have to be a straight path 

for sure. Yeah. Look, I, when I tell people, my sort of job progression, you get some raised eyebrows, let's just say that. So yeah, it's, it's not always conventional way to get into a a, to running your own business as a landscape designer.

Do you know what I mean? So. 

Well there's lots I still wanna keep chatting about. So we're gonna keep jumping. So Yeah. Congratulations. You'll have to invite me to one of your gigs sometime I'll come down, but your next, your next step was the army, which is, like you said, a massive, jarring turn. I think I did hear that your, there was sort of a family tradition that you, you felt you had to sort of try.

So you wanna talk a bit about that? 

Yeah, I think, it was, it's definitely in my family and, it was, I guess in my head it was always potentially a, a backup plan, we'll call it that. But to be honest, I love sort of being outdoors and I love, I. Doing things that are new and exciting, and I feel like I really kind of flourished in that, in that space.

Yeah, got to every day was different. Do you know what I mean? And to me that's really exciting. And 

what, what is it like, because honestly I got no idea apart from like the movies. Like I, I actually haven't had, I'm just thinking most of my mates are tradies, so I haven't really had any close friends that, sorry, I haven't had any friends that have been in the army.

So, you know, my assumption is that it's quite structured days, a lot of, physical tasks, a lot of upskilling, a lot of preparation type stuff. But there's also, I know you can like, get trades through it and stuff. So like is it something that you'd advise people to consider or, I mean, it depends 

on your personality type.

I really, really enjoyed it. But yeah, you, you're right there, there is a lot of structure to it. There's a, there's a hierarchy that needs to be, kind of acknowledged. There's a a, yeah, quite a big portion of it is, is training. Yeah. So you, you go away to Kapuka for, oh geez, what is it, six months or something like that?

Yeah. Geez. I've forgotten now. But but yeah. So, and that's, that's a recalibration, that's a, you're, you're away from everything that you love and know and their, their whole goal is to sort of break you down and build you up. 

How'd you go with that hierarchy? 'cause that's something that, I don't know, the vibe I get from you being a creative type don't necessarily sit well with that, but did you just roll into it?

Lean into it? 

Look, I think I was a little bit, older when I went in. So, I understand that the people that are in those higher hierarchy positions, it's their job. It's their job to kind of break you down and, and build you back up again. So as long as you are acknowledged. What it was and it wasn't personal and it's just, it is what it is.

You can kind of compartmentalize what it is, and you, and you move forward and, and then you thrive. Do you know what I mean? Like, it's all about an understanding of what people's roles are. Yeah. So yeah. And then you kind of, yeah, once you finish your training and, and you go into your sort of, they call it i's initial employment training.

And then yeah, you kind of get specialized and and then you, I guess you start, that's the first day of, of the rest of your job. Do you know what I mean? Like where you, you go to different units and, you usually have three year postings and and all that kind of stuff. And there is a little bit more of a, day-to-day kind of routine situation that that kind of happens.

Yeah. 

And what were you doing? You were driving, you, you mentioned, and I'm sure that's, so I was a, I was a 

driver specialist, so, yeah, and I should probably give it a bit of context. I, I actually got, diagnosed with a stage four malignant melanoma while, yeah. I was in the Army, so I was as weird as this is to say I, I was lucky that I was in the defense force, because they definitely helped.

Yeah, I, I was covered. I was looked after extremely well. And but yeah, it was definitely a, a fairly traumatic time, during that space. Yeah, I ended up having my, my right lung removed and, a multitude of other, pretty serious, surgeries and, and things like that. So I, I subsequently was How old were you when you got that?

I think I was about 26. 

Mate, that is scary. 

Mm. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, that, that was a bit of a ride to be, to be fair. And, and I guess, that's kind of why I'm not in the, in the army anymore, is because I got medically discharged because I wasn't, deployable. You need to be deployable, no matter what job you have, you need to be, kind of deployable.

So, my, yeah, my, I, I needed to have, scan sort of every, every three months or, or whatever it was. And, so 

if you, if you know, I would be curious to, like, it's another unique thing of part of your story. Mm. So was this just a, a rare, a rare thing that happens to people or like, is this a genetic thing or, 

I think it partly was I.

Genetic. But it was a, it's, it's melanoma, so it was a, a, a skin spot essentially. It's unlucky 

that it became cancerous and Yeah. Yeah. 

So damaged. Yeah. And I think, I, they never found the primary, so we never know where it actually came from, 

but I should probably say you look happy and healthy now.

So I assume you are, are you a hundred, I mean, apart from being half a long Yeah. Or a long, a long short. Are you, you've basically fully recovered? 

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, when am I now? I think it's close to seven years, cancer free. Awesome. But, but yeah, I, I guess I will preface, the, the army were.

Yeah, like I said, it's, it is saving grace that I was in the army and yeah, I was, because I was so young, they put me forward for a, trial drug. And although, for 12 months, that was, probably one of the hardest times of my life. Right. It, it was, yeah, we got, we got through. So, yeah, so missing a, the whole right lung and, and, had a bowel resection as well, so that then there was a few little bits and pieces.

So, 

so how does that affect you day, day to day? Like, does that just mean you've gotta be careful with not overdoing it physically on certain things or like what does it, well, what does it mean? Well, I guess 

the, the, the joy of, the joy of being in the army is, I mean, I, I was fit, I was a, I was fighting fit.

Yeah. So the, the moment that, I had the lung out, I, I was kind of started that regime of, of kind of building back up because I wanted to stay in the army and, and you needed to pass certain, physical tests, to kind of still be quite rigorous 

tests, I imagine. Yeah, 

yeah, absolutely. So, yeah, I got to a point, yeah, I was running sort of, 2.4 Ks in yeah.

Sort of nine, 10 minutes. Do you know what I mean? So it was yeah. It was, it was in me. Do you know what I mean? So I, I think even to this day I'm still quite, quite fit. Love being in a gym and, and kind of, yeah. So I, to be honest, my lung has sort of moved over and my heart's moved. It's all kind of worked itself out and, and now, yeah, pretty healthy.

What I'm hearing is we don't 

even, we don't even need two longs. That's what I'm hearing. 

Yeah. Yeah. So, you, you, you should be able to sell the, the other one and you should be fine. Do you want it? I'm happy with my super long. I'm happy with my super long. Thanks mate. 

So I knew there was something special about you.

No, thanks. Thanks for sharing that. I mate, I can't even imagine how scary that would be in your twenties. You know, I was, I had no idea what I was doing. I was just winging life. Taking it probably day at a time to have that kind of scare that has to change the rest of your life. 

It, it did, it did. If I'm being, being completely honest, yeah, it certainly puts a perspective and it needs a, a recalibration and, it's, it's interesting.

I, I still talk about it frequently, especially with my partner, about the effects of it all. And, and I often, there's a lot of cancer going around at the moment. I, I don't know. What about you, Dan? And I've been pretty 

lucky. I mean, I lost an auntie I was really close to, and you know, there's others obviously.

Yeah. But I've been, for how big my family is, I've been extremely lucky. And I must say I'm, I'm quite naive about it, about cancer and, and how it works. I just know it's obviously, yeah. It affects a huge proportion of the population. Yeah. It's something that I'm probably gonna have to learn about when it, when it hits home, I guess.

Mm-hmm. When it, when it does hit. Sure. You know, someone I'm close to, unfortunately. 

Yeah. But yeah, I mean, I have the, as weird as it sounds, the experience in the skillset to. I kind of coach and talk through things with people that, have gone through this. I know my sister recently, she just had a surgery, to kind of remove some cancer and, being able to kind of fly down to Brisbane and, and have a chat with her and, and that's morbid as it is.

And, I oddly kind of somewhat joke about it sometimes, but it's, but understanding your own mortality and knowing that, that it is. This is temporary, man. So, it's, have you saw the PO Yeah. It's a weird, weird thing to be talking about. A landscape design podcast, right? Yeah, yeah. Your own mortality.

So 

it's, look, if you, if you saw the podcast, I listened to you. No, it's, it's a pretty normal conversation, I think. Yeah. We don't, I don't wanna be specific with this podcast. That's, yeah. It's called Dan the Plant Man. So you would assume that I'm gonna talk to people in the landscape industry, but like everyone has a story to share for sure.

And I think this is a massive part of your story, and I think it is worth sharing and it, it makes up who you are today. So like, thanks for sharing that. No pleasure. But we did obviously jump along. So the, you've had a few years in the Army discharge through that, pretty scary but life changing scenario.

. You must have come out of that. 'cause I know that you, I mean, you just said that you wanted to stay in the Army, so you were kind of, your hand was forced in a very strong way, I guess. Yeah. So were you a bit, a bit sort of lost as to what to do next? Or was this an obvious step? I mean, I know that a bit about your story, but Yeah.

You feel free to, 

yeah. Yeah. I think, the, again, the good thing about the army was they kind of, they to, to a certain level, they, they retrain you. So they gave me the opportunity and I always remembered, being a bit younger and just being good with kids and, yeah, I really enjoyed kind of educating, I guess.

And, and so I kind of went down that path, briefly and, got qualified to be a, I think what was the course? Education support. So basically I worked with with kids with autism and, and yeah, kids with really difficult home lives and, and yeah, was able to kind of tap into that and, yeah, that was that was really rewarding, but it's, it's also, it drains your battery pretty hard. 

Yeah, it sounds like it's the same job as a friend of mine in Canberra. Jack has, and yeah, he's made for it. Very good personality for it. Yeah. And he, I think he, he was actually just telling me just the other day how rewarding it can be, but I know that it can also be quite draining, so.

Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Kudo, kudos to you for doing that. Yeah. So how long did you sort of kick around doing that for? 

Well I started, I was in Sydney for a little bit and, I sort of did it there, for probably 12 months. And then, I moved to Melbourne and I did it for another sort of year or two.

And that's, that's where went, met my current partner. Mm-hmm. She was a teacher or is a teacher. And so yeah. And then I guess, yeah, like I said, that's kind of where the, the journey for this industry kind of, I guess, started. 

Yeah. 'cause it was your partner's mom that was in the industry and sort of encouraged you, right?

Yeah. Yeah. That's correct. Yeah. So,

so did, did you go and study first or you just got hands on and learned as you went or? 

No, I just kind of, I'm a pretty hands on kind of guy. That's how I learned. And, I've always been good at building things and, and doing stuff like that. And, yeah, it was an interesting conversation.

We kind of just sat down, we were just having a few beers one afternoon and, yeah, I kind of just put it to her and, and she said, yeah, look, that's, that's awesome. Let's, let's trial you basically. And and I think the first day, I don't know where, I think it was like a. Pond, relining a pond or something along those lines.

Something that would kind of like threw me off. I was like, okay, like we, we can dance. Like let's do this. So that was kind of fun. And from there it just kind of blossomed. I just fell in love with plants. It was something that, as cliche as it sounds, my grandma, she was obsessed with dogs and, plants and how that little ecosystem worked.

And I think, having that presented to me again at this stage in my life, was actually really such a blessing. And, yeah, so I just then got obsessed. I was, I was done. I got, I got the bug and it was awesome because, I mean, my mother-in-law, she's so knowledgeable. So she studied at, at Burnley and and, and she went through with some of the greats.

Do you know what I mean? And so. We'd be on site and then we're just doing maintenance on a normal residential good garden. Do you know what I mean? It's not even designed or anything like that. And I'd just be picking a brain constantly about, yeah, what is that plant? What does it do? What are its cataract characteristics?

How do you define this plant versus that plant of the same family? Do you know what I mean? Like, so I just became obsessed about that kind of, element of things. And then I quickly, found the love kind of changing. And I, I kind of saw gardens as a bit of a canvas from that point on. Like this living canvas and Lena, my mother-in-law, she had some need for for us to do some designs and I really jumped at that.

I thought that was just, so unreal. So I did a few designs, with her and, yeah, again, just, just fell in love. So I went and, did my cert four for landscape design. And, yeah, just kind of grew from there. And, yeah, it's, it's been a pretty epic, and fast paced progression since that moment to kind of, even, even now.

Yeah, it seems, I mean, you've, I, so I know obviously, yeah. I can jump ahead a little bit to know that you've done two gardens at the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show. So was that a deliberate kind of effort to sort of catapult your career a little bit? Like were you happy to sort of take that risk, take that challenge on?

I know, I mean, you must have been down in Victoria, so it's probably more commonly known that that's kind of the show that, you know, the leading people do, I guess. Is that kind of how it came about or, yeah, 

yeah, for sure. So, like I said, yeah, obviously I was working with with Leonard from being Inspired Gardens and, and yeah, I guess we were building a lot of gardens and doing all that kind of stuff, and, and I, the moment I found out about, the what a Show Garden was and how, how that all works, it just, it was.

I already thought gardens were, were like canvases, but this is on steroids. Do you know what I mean? Like, this is, this is wild. You can, you can push the boundaries here. Which really kind of suited, I guess, my brain, and how I, how I wanted to paint, with plants. And, so I had a, such a amazing opportunity, while I was studying, at, Melbourne Polytechnic at Fairfield.

And, they do a student section, where it's called the Achievable Gardens and it's a five by four. You get sort of three walls and you get to just go nuts. You have to submit your design to the teachers and then they submit their design to, to the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show.

So the first one I did, I kind of had the brief from, and there's obviously all these other students, that wanted to kind of do the first one. And I yeah, I wasn't gonna let this opportunity go. Because from that point I wanted to, I guess start my own business. Um hmm. And although I'd kind of been doing bits and pieces for, for both Lena and, and myself, this was gonna be what I wanted to be the, the catapult and kind of just put on a a, a essentially a world stage 'cause it's the international, flower and Garden show.

Show people what I guess I could do. And, the style that I wanted to put out. So, I remember driving from, from Melbourne to Ballarat where I live, currently. And on that drive, it was like, it just hit me like like wildfire. Like I, I knew I could see the garden at that very moment, what it would look like.

I don't know how I was gonna build it, but it was gonna be this thing. And I, and I had it, and I, and I, and I can, I can probably show you that the initial sketch when I, like, I got home and I, and I said to, or l said to me, my partner said to me, how was the meeting? And I just said, just. Gimme two seconds.

I need to, I need to draw this right now. It's in my head. 

Gimme a napkin. I need a napkin. Yeah. Pretty much. It's, it's one of those moments, you 

know what I mean? So, and yeah, fast forward, what was it, 10 months or, or whatever it was. We, we brought it to life and 

mate, I would definitely send me those photos.

I think. Yeah. Not just me, but others would be super curious to see that and get an insight to that designer brain that you've obviously got. Yeah. 

Yeah. 

That'd be unreal. 

Yeah, and we did really well with that one too, 'cause it was, it's, it's what I like to call, I guess the althouse landscape design style now.

Like it's this, modernistic Australian, native garden that's, sort of focused on wildlife habitats, but also still looking pretty cool. 

So is that, is that wildlife habitat interest? Is that a nod to, was it your grandma you were saying that had the interest in the frogs? 

Yeah. Yeah. It is. It is.

But I'm also like, I love that, I love the idea of like, like waking up and hearing the sound of frogs or birds having a dip in your pond or, or whatever it is. Like, to me that's, that's unreal. Like, that's for me to create a garden, that looks super unique, and has all these elements that brings lizards, frogs, lady bugs, do you know what I mean? Like everything, there's like this, you can create an ecosystem if you know how, 

I can see you getting excited about it. I love, love it, man. I love 

it so much. Yeah. 

Even, I mean, even here where I am, I'm working on the garden, but you know, we've got some chickens and we've got some mag pies that regularly come to the deck and feed, feed 'em a cashew and there's a bunch of pigeons and, you know, roses and like, it's, it is really, really cool.

My, my partner El also loves birds and, and animals, so there's definitely something that's hard to explain that is extremely enjoyable about Yeah. About that. And I hope one day to have a bit of a property where I can hit you up to come and do a design for me. Yeah, it's it's quite, it's quite niche and it, it might not be very commonly known about.

So where do you see, I guess, that sort of niche growing? Are you finding there's much of a demand for it as you're putting yourself out there? 

It ebbs and flows. I think yeah, because it, it, it is somewhat of a level of education as well. 'cause you talk to people and they're just like, oh, I want a designed garden.

And you're like, yeah, that's awesome. But let's dig deeper to that. Like, where do you live and, and what are some indigenous plantings that we can use because that's what brings the birds, the bees, the frogs, all that kind of stuff in and, yeah, it, it's, it's crazy 'cause I mean like my catchment area right now, like, I mean although I live in, in Ballarat, we do a lot of obviously regional stuff.

But a lot of my gardens were sort of like, Warren Diet, Elham, which is sort of far east Melbourne, where it's somewhat of a, like rainforest even. Like, it's, it's a lot of tree ferns and, beautiful big blocks. And, that I, I, I just adore like, getting to play with bigger blocks. Obviously we do, quite small residential stuff and we do cool stuff like that, but, yeah, like acreage and, and just really playing with the space and just almost.

Yeah, recreating nature almost. Are you able 

to sneak, are you able to sneak it in? So say you've got a, you know, pretty standard residential design. I can imagine you would only, you know, sneak in certain plant types or Yeah. Create little habitats like without, you know, calling it a habitat garden.

You can probably just say off, just create this little space over here and yeah, you, you've still got your lawn for the kids and you've got your veggie patch and whatever else you need to sort of function in your residential garden, but I hope you're still putting your flare on it. 

Ab Absolutely. Like, it, it's, it's funny we're currently working in, Brisbane at the moment and, we're doing some, some homes yeah, some display homes actually for for a company out there.

And they came to me and kind of said, oh yeah, the guy before you, kind of put in some AstroTurf here and did this, this, this, this. And I just said, look, that's. Even if my name doesn't go to it, I'm not doing that. Here's some alternatives. 'cause there's always gonna be alternatives. Yeah. And, and, and you gotta put your flare on things.

You, you have to. It's and whether it's a ball up inger with a few grasses and things like whatever it is. Do you know what I mean? Like it's you can always, cater for the client and. Cater for the birds. Do you know what I mean? Like, there, there will always be something, there's always a compromise.

And, and, and sometimes you Yeah, you do sneak that in a little bit. 

It must be hard. I know, like, 'cause I ran landscape construction business for 12 years. Mm-hmm. You have an idea in your head of the sort of projects you wanna do, but the reality is that you gotta pay the bills. Mm. And as much as you can, advertise yourself in a certain way and try to attract and network and attract the right clients and network with the right people, yeah.

Sometimes you just have to, like you just said, compromise a little bit. But I think what you said is really important and that, that is to say no or politely decline. Yeah. And, this is something that you and I have spoken to about off air, which I think I'd like to dig a little bit deeper in. And that's the kind of, which maybe harps back to some of your early careers around communicating with people with Yeah.

You getting that information out of them around, and you're doing it with the best intention. Like I know that, but you know, bud budgets and how you want to use the garden and mm-hmm. And I know you've spoken to Joel about, you know, working with mentors and stuff like that. Yeah. So I guess the question is, what are, what are some of the kind of key things that, that stick with you that you try and sort of roll out on in your consultations or some other things that you kind of wish more either people in the public or designers knew, that that might help them when they're sort of approaching a garden?

Yeah. There's a lot. I guess there's a lot to that, that question. And I think. Yeah, communication is key and, and being being super transparent in those early stages of, of a design is so important, I think. And, and it is about asking those right questions. And it isn't just how do you use the space is having a look at their interior and just saying, ah, what colors do you like?

What are your color schemes do you like? And, and also like looking at their house and how can you tie in the house with the garden and, and kind of meld the two. Yeah. Do they have young kids? Like what are some elements with that that you can kind of really lean on? I know I did, a property in, it was Monroe or something like that, where we had like, sort of like a flyman pole, but like, yeah, just, but having like natural elements, so it's not like the, the kids are playing with plastic and steel and things like that.

It's just like we as people, we're, we're from nature. Do you know what I mean? Like, we need to kind of tap back into that. So, yeah, I, I think in those initial consultations, yeah, it's, it's all about, retrieving the right information so that when you spit out that first concept design and and for me, when I do the concept designs.

I want it to be an art piece. I wanna wow them. And I, I wanna make sure that 99 times out of a hundred we're hitting that out of the ballpark because I wanna make sure that I've got all the information that I need to spit something out that they didn't know they wanted. Do you know what I mean? 

And that Yeah, that's important too, because they're obviously engaging you for your creative ideas.

Mm-hmm. If they knew exactly what they wanted, you wouldn't necessarily be there hundred and you wouldn't want to be there. 'cause I, I know there's clients like that too, that we like this is exactly what we want. We just need it drawn up. Yeah. And I can imagine you will get that every now and then and, and you'll do it.

'cause you do have to pay the bills and you'll put your flare on it. But for sure, of course. I can only imagine for yourself with your creative brain and interest in plants and stuff, you must get pretty excited when someone says, Dan, just do your thing. Sorry, 

Holly. Yeah. Yeah, look, you are, you're right when, it's probably one of the most exciting things when, when someone says, here's a, here's a block of land.

Here's, here's a few little things that we want, but go crazy. I. That's awesome. And, and yeah, it happened actually fairly recently. We, we did a, we're working with some, some monks actually in, here in Ballarat, just sort of in Mount Helen, so a bit north. And, they came to me and, and basically kind of said that we want a botanic garden.

And we, we just want you to kind of go nuts and, can I ask 

a dumb question? What? Go ahead. What's a botanic garden? 

Well, I guess what a botanic garden is is where they've got, that's a, usually a fairly large space, where they can have, I think the actual term is where you've got lots of different species and they've kind of, they're like propagating and it's like actually more of a scientific side of things.

But I think what they, yeah, they wanted, to portray was just an oasis essentially there. It, it's a, it is a three acre block where it's basically flat. Creates something amazing for us. 

That's, that, that sounds like a perfect way to explain what you do. Sorry, it just clicked. Botanic, botanical guns.

Yeah, of course. I guess it's, I guess it's about a diverse, when I think of botanical gardens, I think of, yeah, diversity of plants, indigenous species, absolute attracting habitat, which sounds like everything in your wheelhouse. Must, that was the exciting one for you, I imagine. 

Oh, well, the best part. So they basically, they, they came to me and, and there was already, they've built four, it's the four stages of Buddha basically.

So it's the nativity, the first sermon, enlightenment, and, Nirvana, which is the death of, with the death of, of Buddha and they basically said, we want to educate 'cause it's a public space, it's that we want to educate people on the life of Buddha and, and walking through the, the space. So we took, yeah, I guess Australian native plants and oriental plants and melded the two.

And that's something that we do actually quite a lot to be honest, that Japanese and, and Australian natives go really well. I love putting it together. That's probably another conversation, but 

No, I completely agree. 

Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, like at the, the nativity, we put lots of like lush burns and yeah.

Really played on those those elements of Buddhist life. And, and there's bodies of water. There's lots of nice little winding paths. And yeah, we even got like a, a big sort of, circular mirror pond, that, demonstrated the dharma wheel where it talks about different ways to, to meditate and, and goes into into that sort of thing.

So there's lots of you kind of dive into the whole. What is Buddha and, and what is his life and what do these people want to portray, and how do I tap into that through a garden? 

And I'm not, I'm not super religious, but the Buddhist beliefs seem to be something that resonates with me. So have you enjoyed learning about all that?

Because I think you and I are similar. 

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I loved it. And it's, and it's so interesting. It's, and unique because it's not like an average client either residential or commercial or whatever it is. These people are very patient. Do you know what I mean? They understand that, we're gonna plant some trees and that's not for them.

That's for the next generation to enjoy. And, and understanding that concept is something that my, myself, I, I try and explain to clients. But yeah, you don't always have that, level of understanding. I think that maybe this. It's not always for this generation, do you know what I mean? It's a long term, situation.

So I found that really intriguing. 

The what's the right word? The, the gardening culture in Australia. I've spoken about this before, but I think it's not, obviously we're such a young country, I guess we're still figuring it out. Like I haven't been to London yet. In fact, I'm going soon, which I'm excited about.

But like the Chelsea Garden Show, I definitely want to go at some point. Yeah. And I just think like gardening over there is a whole nother level. Yeah. It's just a massive history behind it and a big part of their culture. Where in Australia, in my 12 years of building gardens, there was, you know, very low percentage of people that I worked for that.

Were gardeners or had strong opinions. Yeah. Or, which is fine, but it would be lovely, wouldn't it? If every client was very, very excited and, you know, you get, I remember there's some standouts I can think of where they were very passionate about their plant choices and they wanted to plant themselves.

They could be a part of the garden. Yeah. And like those memories stay with you. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Whereas quite often it's, you know, a knockdown rebuild that they don't want dirt left around their garden. So they're sort of reluctantly doing a design. Yeah. And, designers I've worked with will put their flare on it, and often those flares get taken out, so you're still left with a nice garden, but you know, they saved 50 grand because they can understand the kind of the architectural intent and stuff like that.

Yeah. So, yeah, it is, it is tricky. But it, it does, I do, I'm taken away from this, like I do like that you. Stand your ground a little bit. And not only that, but you've put yourself out there. So you've kind of put your money where your mouth is and you've fronted up some cash you put in the work. Like we should probably talk a little bit about the wave, because I was amazed by that.

Yeah. Thank you. So you built this incredible, I mean, I'm gonna butcher this, but Moss wave at the Melbourne Flowers Show, which I'll definitely link to some photos I took. 

Yeah, 

cool. And mate, you some amazing, it was incredible. Thank you. But it was incredible. Like it was just a defied gravity, I'll say to start with.

Yeah, yeah. But you know, we're, we're talking just, around Flor whether this gets released in time for that or not. Mm-hmm. But we're doing some little four by five gardens there with some local contractors. Yeah. Keen to see some of that stuff and yeah, it's been, it's been a lot of fun. Yeah. A bit, a bit different.

Like we're trying to keep budgets low and time low, but. That's kind of my point. Like you, I know a bit about how much work you put into this wave. Yeah. So do you, do you wanna just talk a little bit about like, that whole experience for anyone that might be considering doing a show garden and Yeah. And what you got out of it?

Yeah, for sure. I mean, and look, we, we touched on my first garden, which was quite, look, I'll call it sensible 'cause it was, everything was upright and looked like a plant and all that kind of stuff. And, it was still a lot of fun. But I think the second time round and, and I was in the boutique category, so it's, you get a little bit more space and there's no walls, so you can kind of play with that.

And I really, I really wanted to push the boundaries. And I, and again, I can kind of show you the, initial sketch of, of this this wave, which was Yeah, kind. Yeah, kind of similar to what it was, but but yeah, it was such a crazy thought in my head and, it took so long for me to come up with, I guess, how to build it.

And Eugene, from KlayCon landscape Construction, who did a great job at, at, yeah, building it with me. Him and I had many, many sort of sleepless nights and you're essentially building a, a two meter high wave outta steel. And the internal part of it was Live Moss. It was hanging upside down.

Yeah, shout out to, Coda Moss, for coming in and installing that stuff and that, that was I. Just out of this world. It was so crazy. And then on that, like the whole outside of the, the wave was was plant tiles and I checkered the plant tiles. So it was, the native violet and, the Dichondra tiny, which is, something the plant tiles of.

I, I thought they'd ju just released it at that time. So, and then behind the wave we had these massive, like seven foot Dicksonia's They just like over hanging, hanging one of my, yeah, just wild. One of 

my favorite plants. Yeah, for sure. Love, love a fern gully. 

But yeah, it was, it was hands down. The most challenging thing I, I think I've probably done when it comes to a garden.

It was, it was wild. It was wild. And it was it was one of those things where I think. It was such a statement piece that I don't know whether people digested it like I intended. Which is always a bit of a, as a creative, you're like, ah, you kind of like, I, I wanted, I wanted to get a bit more of a message across of, of more of the design principles and, and using strong color.

Yeah. Sorry. I should probably note that there was a very striking, red path that as you go up the stairs and then just got sucked up into the, into the wave. And, so using those, really strong, vibrant, reds against the green is, is something that the, that like a lot of Japanese gardens have, it's like a, a element they use.

And, I'm super fascinated by, by Japanese gardens and, and their, design principles. And I could, I could, I reckon I could spend the whole of this podcast just talking about Japanese gardens if I'm being completely honest. But, yeah, it was more a demonstration on a, what the planting palette that can be used that is native, that doesn't look conventionally native.

And, and b, using unique design principles. And I, and I guess showcasing what I can do on a bigger stage and, and, and show people that. You know what the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show is meant to be for swinging for the fences sometimes and let's swing for the fences. So, 

well man, it definitely impressed and resonated with me, so congratulations.

And you also had a kid at the same time, 'cause you just wanted to make life a little bit more challenging, apparently. Yeah, yeah. 

Well it's so funny. So the first garden that I did, our little one was two weeks old. So, now she's, been coined the, the MCUs baby. So, every, every time around MCUs, she's having a birthday.

So, yeah, that's always fun.

But it's awesome. I just, I just have so much respect for people that, like I said, put their, their money where their mouth is, or for lack of a better phrase, but like, just put in the work. Mm-hmm. Like, you're not gonna sit back and complain about the fact that you haven't got enough work or you're not attracting enough clients when, you know, you've actually, you've put in the hours, you've put your money up and the brain and, you know, all the time and thought that would've taken.

So like yeah. Kudos to you for kind of, for doing that. And I know from working with Joel on his garden that year as well, like, it's an insane amount of work that goes into it. And not only on the, is it a week that, how long do you have to build Mkas? 

I think we get nine days. Nine days. Yeah. Yeah. 

So it's not just, but I know it's not just the nine days.

Oh, like I know you spent count countless hours beforehand. Yeah. And then after and then during, 'cause you were there every day greeting people. Yeah. So like it's a huge undertaking. Yeah. It's, it's basically 

two weeks full time, like talking like 15, 16 hour days for two weeks. And that's not, that's crazy.

And that's not the lead, that's not the actual lead up of sourcing plants and talking to, sponsors and all that kind of stuff. It's it's a time. 

Bloody oath. Well, mate, I we're, we're getting near the end, but I do wanna tap in a little bit to the business side of things. So, I mean, was it kind of your, your mother-in-law that gave you the encourag is the right word, but the kind of encouragement to, to start your own thing?

Or was that just something that you knew you always wanted to do or? I think. 

It's, it's, she definitely gave me the, the confidence to kind of push into that space and was basically like, yeah, you have the skillset. And I, I guess I had that designer brain coming into that pardon me.

Sorry. It's all good. We can cut, we can cut bits out too. I should. 

Yeah, so she, she I guess gave me the, the confidence to, to say, Hey, listen, you, you kind of know what's out there, you know, you know your plants to a point. 'Cause you'll never, never stop learning when it comes to plants.

And yeah, she was just like, give it, give it a crack. And, and I think. For me, if I'm, especially having a little one, having a small business, was always gonna be very difficult, but if I was gonna do it, I really wanted to stamp my name. And, and I think the best way to do that, and, and achieve that credibility is to do show gardens, to be fair.

Because you are on such a, a big stage, there's a lot of eyes on you and, even if you get no work out of it, you are then credible to your peers. And I think in the, the last two years of me doing show gardens, I think some of my closest friends now are people in the industry because it's, it's, it's such a high, high stress situation.

And you bond over that. It's trauma bonding. Oh it is. Absolutely, man. It's, it's crazy. 

It is a really good vibe though. I mean, I was there for two days, but I, they, they, they've stuck in my mind like just seeing everyone walking around and talking and helping and, yeah. Yeah. It's something I've spoken about at Floy Yard Gardens as well, but it's, it's an incredible sort of atmosphere that is hard to put a price on.

So it's, 

Yeah, it, it is full on and I, I'm gonna miss it this year. I'm not, not doing a, a show garden this year, or so next year I should say.

Yeah. 

But I'm gonna miss it and I, I'll probably be bugging a bunch of people walking in there with the shovel trying to help. So,

I'll see you there, mate.

I'll, I'll be walking around as well. Awesome. I don't know who or what with yet. I'm just gonna invite myself and we'll have the beers. We'll have the 

beers, we'll be the, the guys in Fluro with beers. That's it. 

Sounds good to me, mate. Yeah, we'll just let ourselves in. 

Absolutely. 

Yeah. Sorry. 



Matt, I'd be keen to actually ask about running a business with a family. Like it has flexibilities. I understand that from running a business, but there can be a lot of demands as well. I haven't got any kids yet. Yeah. Hopefully in our future, but I guess I'm probably selfishly asking how have you found balancing the, the two?

Yeah. Yeah. Look, it's I, I found it pretty tricky to begin with. I think when you run your own business, you kind of get into that mindset of, I need to work a crap ton of hours, and that's how I make money and support my family and all that kind of stuff. But I, I think stepping into a provider role for my new little family, understanding that providing isn't actually necessarily a monetary thing.

You're, you're providing, the, yeah, a dad, you, you're a dad now and a good partner and always kind of thinks so. They kind of, that needs to be taken into consideration and, and I really do. Like, I know there's a lot of young dads, and moms I guess out there and, yeah, it's, it's hard to navigate the work life balance, but.

I think the family needs to be a, a bigger chunk because I mean, my, my daughter's 18, 80 months, and, and she's only gonna be this age for such a short amount of time before she goes to school and, and all that kind of stuff. So being able to wake up and, and not have to rush off to Yeah, not rush off to work and have that, that time with her and, and come with my partner and, and then I'm, I'm back home by five.

Do you know what I mean? Like, sure. I might work once she's gone to bed and, and there might be some, some time late at night, but, it, it took a little bit to find that balance, if I'm being completely honest.

No. I can only imagine, but I actually, I think that, even without kids, like business can work for you in that regard too, can't it?

Like that's probably something that people could think about. Like of course, I think as a business owner, you naturally seem to work a lot of hours because you're so passionate about it. For sure. But I know for me, like unless I have to deliver plants at a certain time, I can choose to sleep in. Yeah. Or I can choose to start work at five in the morning.

Yeah. I can choose to knock off at three and go to for a sauna, or I can choose to work till six at night. Yeah. Like, so I'm to make this about me, but I have purposely changed my business career to something that will give me a bit more flexibility. Mm-hmm. Like, I don't have to be on site at 7:00 AM and, and check in with 'em at 4:00 PM Yeah.

And so I, I think starting a business gives you flexibility if you choose the right path. Yeah. But, but also I would say that. If you find something that you really enjoy Mm. Your happiness is, is really important. Absolutely. And that needs to be prioritized as well. For sure, for sure. Yeah. 

And, and look, I guess that, that, that's the, the main trade off, right?

When it comes to, that flexibility, and, and having that space to kind of be like, yeah, I'm gonna take the morning, to hang out with my, my little one, or, or whatever it is. That's important. And, and yeah, I guess the, the trade off is that you are, the running a little business is not as stable, depending on the stage of your business, but, it's not as stable as working with someone else where you don't have that flexibility.

But but yeah. It's definitely good to a, be passionate and, and, and be very happy with what you do like as you can. I dunno, you can tell. But I love my job very, very much. And I love getting to, to create 'cause that's what we do. And I, like yesterday I was at a I was in Trentham at visiting a, a job that I'd designed out there probably 12 months ago.

And doing a, a maintenance day and, walking back and seeing, seeing the clients so happy. And then I'm walking in going, wow, this is exactly how I designed it. And it's, it's very cool and everything's growing really nicely. And I live for that stuff, man. Like, that's sick. It's, it's such a small garden too, you know what I mean?

Like, it's tiny, but it's, it's unreal. And I get to do that every, every day. Every damn day. Yeah. Every damn day. So it's, I couldn't love my job anymore if I'm being completely honest, 

man. Yeah, and I love that. I know that there'd be some hard times and there's obviously your priorities, we get dragged, but I think there's nothing wrong at all with saying that you love your job and I'm stoked for you, man, because Thank you so much.

It takes, it does take work to find a career that you enjoy and I think. Yeah. I don't, how do I say this? I, I don't have a lot of time for people that kind of complain about their job, but don't do anything about it. Yeah. Yeah. Because I've worked bloody hard for the last however many years to get to a position where I'm, I'm enjoying what I do.

No. So it's not gonna fall in your lap. And No, and that's why I love your story, because you have put the work in, you've put the work in to learn the trade to, to go to the shows. Mm. And I, I know that you're still out there networking and, and, you know, doing podcasts and, and doing all the things that Yeah.

That one must do. Yeah. So I think the future's bright mate. What is, as we sort of wrap up, what is next? What do you see in the next few years? Or are you just sort of taking it day by day, year by year or? 

No, like, I think, I'm excited for the next couple of years of, of Old House landscape designs. I think, we're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna push into a next little threshold, I think.

I've just, put on a a draft or not a, not a draft I should say. She's a designer and, I've worked really well with her and, it's, it's so good having someone that you can kind of bounce ideas with and, and it's a lot of fun. And so I think that was always gonna be the first step for me is just to have someone that I can, work with to kind of elevate the business a little bit.

Mm, mm-hmm. Yeah, I'd like to maybe put on one or two extra people, and, yeah, just kind of build the portfolio. There's already some pretty, pretty crazy jobs going on at the moment and, yeah, I'm excited to kind of release those and yeah, we're kind of pushing our social media and stuff now, so I, I think we're starting to kind of.

Push onward and upward and yeah, I think for five years I think we're gonna be, yeah, taking a few more people on and, yeah, going, going well, I think so, yeah. 

Awesome, mate. Well I think you're gonna smash it. I'm definitely keen to follow along and, I'll have to, I'll be getting down there sometime soon, so we'll catch up for a beer and have to go and check out some of your gardens and, yeah, very cool.

Obviously I just,   we'll go and cause a ruckus around cus even if people don't want us to be there. 

Absolutely. That sounds like a, a amazing plan. 

Alright mate, thank you very much. I'll definitely, be sharing some of your stuff and, yeah, you have to send me through those photos for sure.

 



She's 

yeah. Well let's, let's go back. Let's just, let me shut up and you can do a clean cut and pretend that we didn't have this, this ramble. Yeah. Actually let's make it cleaner. I'll ask again 'cause that'll be even easier for me to edit. Yeah, yeah. Cool. So Ollie, who else do you recommend I have on the podcast?

Look, I think, I. We've spoken a lot about her, this, this little podcast. So I'd love, I'd love to get, Lena from the Inspired Gardens on here. She's I'm 

so, yeah, so glad you said that because yeah, hopefully she feels the guilt 'cause no, she 

be quite proud. Yeah. Yeah. Look, I think I think she's a wealth of knowledge and, I think she's been the the little dark horse kind of in her industry and, she's just kind of done what she loves and, sat in that kind of, maintenance.

She's very, very good at maintenance, and does a few little landscape jobs here and there and, but she's, she's very, very good at what she does and very knowledgeable. So I'd love to hear what she, she says. To you. So that'll be fun. 

Well, it's gonna happen now as long as she agrees it's happening, 

so awesome.

Awesome. Very cool. Thank you mate. Look, really 

enjoyed this chat. Thanks for sharing your story, man. I hope everyone else enjoyed it as much as I did and yeah, you and I are gonna keep in touch, so looking forward to that as well. 

Awesome. It's been an absolute pleasure. Thank you very much man. I'll chat to you soon.

 What an incredible story. Seriously, if you're not following old house designs, you need to check him out and uh, follow along what he's doing. 'cause he's, yeah, amazing guy. And yeah, I just love that journey from army to horticulture and you know, the family connection and just a reminder of what's important in life, I guess.

. So yeah, make sure you're following odd house designs on socials. That'll be in the, in the show notes. Um, support his amazing work and if you're down in Melbourne, Ballarat Victoria, reach out. Um, and of course he can work virtually so anywhere around Australia.

And yeah, thanks again mate, for sharing your story with us. You're definitely making a difference in the play world. And to all the listeners, thanks for tuning back in and I'll catch you on the next episode.