On Saturday, February 26, 2022, the staff of Brookfield Gardens finished moving the garden centre’s stock up onto tables and went home in the pouring rain to hope for the best.
Overnight, rising waters cut off Moggill Road. Checking on the feed from the store’s security cameras, Anna Shand realised that the cameras had short-circuited.
“And I’m sure that’s when we flooded,” Shand says. “It wiped us out.”
The Brookfield Gardens nursery has bounced back from being flooded in 2022.Credit: Brookfield Gardens
It’s impressive to revive your business after extensive flood damage, but it takes a special kind of resilience to do it twice in little more than a decade. After going through this same trauma back in 2011, owners the McLay family little expected to have to do it again.
Yet in 2022, despite being submerged by depths of up to two metres and covered in a slimy layer of brown silt, Brookfield Gardens was able to reopen for business just over a month later thanks to a “mud army” of volunteers.
“It was actually incredible. It took about two weeks and we felt like we had mostly cleaned up. And we couldn’t have done it without them.”
The experience of Shand – who this year, along with her sister, took over the running of Brookfield Gardens from their retiring parents Robin and Scott – demonstrates how independent nurseries in Brisbane are growing healthy shoots of community spirit.
In addition to selling plants and garden equipment, Brookfield Gardens has workshops, garden consultations, plant identification, floristry and a bustling on-premises bistro.
While the rise of Bunnings has posed a threat to the traditional nursery business, gardening enthusiasts increasingly want nurseries that offer both personalised horticultural expertise and a lifestyle experience. Conversely, cafe-goers also want a more outdoorsy experience. Here are six on-trend nurseries, eco-cafes, and flower farms offering precisely that.
Brookfield Gardens, Brookfield
Brookfield Gardens and Wild Canary Botanical Bistro operate as complementary businesses.Credit: Brookfield Gardens
Best for: Fine food and garden advice
The McLays purchased Brookfield Gardens in 2008 and set about revitalising a rundown garden centre. The desire to offer customers coffee and cake quickly evolved into a bistro concept with a botanically inspired menu. Today, Wild Canary Botanical Bistro is where chef Glen Barratt utilises the on-premises kitchen garden to craft a menu driven by seasonal produce.
Avid gardeners or relative noobs are catered for with a wide range of locally grown stock. There are gifts, bird baths, terracotta and terrazzo pots, fountains, plant food and potting mix. And it’s all set in lovingly maintained grounds.
2371 Moggill Road, Brookfield.
Mon-Fri 8.30am-5pm; Sat-Sun 8am-5pm (kitchen closes 2pm daily).
The Nurso, Chandler
The Nurso’s spare walls are given over to mural artists.Credit: Nick Dent
Best for: Kids and live music
A large outdoor café occupies the centre of this four-hectare nursery that in decades past was the famous Hawkins Garden Centre. Tables and umbrellas teem with family groups catching up for bagels, tartines, sourdough sandos and cappuccinos while their kids ride around on provided mini-trikes. On Sundays, musicians perform.
The vibe here is bohemian and unfinished – spare walls are given over to mural art, and some parts are clearly a work in progress – but there is a wide range of plants, shrubs, pots and gardening gear to browse. A small menagerie of live animals add extra appeal to little ones: goats, mini cows, sheep, guinea fowl and Nurso mascot, Dusty the border collie.
1666 Old Cleveland Road, Chandler.
Daily 8am-4pm (cafe closes 2pm).
Elderflower Farm, Kents Lagoon
Elderflower Farm customers can pick their own flowers from the fields, or buy them in arrangements.Credit: Nick Dent
Best for: Picking your own flowers
This stunning place in the Scenic Rim is perfect for a day getaway from the rat race to come and pick your own flowers. Expect lisianthus and zinnias in autumn; sweetpeas and anemones in winter; foxglove and angel delphiniums in spring; and yarrow and cosmos in summer (be sure to check on Instagram that picking is available that day before visiting).
The owner, Rachel Watkins, is a florist, and her premade bouquets are available from the shop in a corrugated iron shed that also has boutique soaps, teas, pots and seed bombs.
The lovely Scenic Rim Farm Shop and Cafe is on the premises and has produce, local coffee, housebaked cakes and restaurant-quality food.
541 Kents Lagoon Road, Kents Lagoon.
Thu-Sun 8.30am-4pm.
The Soul Pantry, Stafford
Best for: Cocktails and kokedama
This large tin shed at the end of a cul-de-sac in Stafford is a classic mixed business. On one side it’s a gift shop, florist and nursery, with everything from terrariums and ficuses, to Frida Kahlo cushions, hand soaps and baby socks.
On the other, it’s an airy cafe, kitchen and bar, serving the likes of red velvet pancakes, mushroom bruschetta and broccolini salad, with views from the terrace of the Grange Forest Park.
At night, you can order a cocktail and take part in trivia or Drag Bingo. Come and learn some new skills in the large workshop space – they do workshops in kokedama (a form of bonsai using a ball of soil and string) and more.
31 Wolverhampton Street, Stafford.
Tue-Sat 7am-2pm; Sun 7am-1pm.
Epilo, Woolloongabba
Epilo is a cafe and nursery in an industrial part of Woolloongabba.Credit: Nick Dent
Best for: Toasties and pot plants
Vines hang from the ceiling of this two-level warehouse space next to a motorcycle workshop near the Gabba. It’s a gorgeous little cafe-nursery packed with pot plants in a central display. Pick up an aglaonema, syngonium, aloe vera or monstera, or choose from a range of nice pots and gift items.
Hungry? Settle into a table out front or the comfy couch out the back, or head upstairs to what resembles a fancy living room space. Sourdough toasties here are the bomb, whether breakfast bacon and egg or a cheesy Reuben, and they have a spectacular carrot cake and housemade caramel tarts to inhale along with your latte.
64 Deshon Street, Woolloongabba.
Tue-Sun 7am-2pm.
Redlands IndigiScapes Centre
Redlands IndigiScapes Centre has boardwalks through its botanic garden.Credit: Nick Dent
Best for: Native plants and native ingredients
Run by Redlands City Council, this combined botanic garden, nursery, cafe and eco-tourism attraction had a $3 million renovation in 2020 and offers plenty to do for young and old.
The gardens are fully wheelchair accessible, and everyone can wander through to explore native plants in themed gardens such as the Wetland Garden and the Bird Garden. There’s a playground with a flying fox, and a kids’ Discovery Centre where you can press buttons to hear bird calls or look at snakeskin through a microscope.
The cafe utilises bush tucker such as lemon myrtle in a chicken wrap and Davidson plum jam on a brownie. Browse sustainable cleaning products in the gift shop and plan your own native garden with plants from the nursery.
17 Runymede Road, Capalaba.
Daily 8am-4pm.
Did we get it right? Did we forget something? Let us know at nick.dent@brisbanetimes.com.au
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