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Blooming lovely

Blooming lovely
Photo Claire Inkson

In 2022, Zoe Topp was standing at a crossroads.

Recently separated, with a toddler in tow and no income to speak of, the market gardener found herself back at the very place where it all began—the property she’d bought as a teenager on the outskirts of Amberley.

But instead of feeling defeated, Zoe embraced the challenge, drawing on the same grit and resilience that had shaped her life.

"I returned to what had always grounded me and focused my energy on re-establishing a backyard vege garden for my daughter and I to eat from, involving her in the gardening process just as my mother had done with me."

Topp focused on returning to the basics and steadily growing her garden, motivating herself with the motto "metre by metre” mindset.

To make ends meet, Topp, a former chef, worked nights utilising her cooking skills at the Brew Moon Brewery in Amberley.

By day, she gardened.

"Over that first year after leaving my husband, I re-established on my own another quarter-acre market garden that now consists of six medicinal and culinary herb beds, a berry cage with nine different types of berries, two edible flower beds, several production beds for salad greens, root veggies, and brassicas, and two greenhouses for my cucurbits, tomatoes, peppers, and seed raising.

"It has been a hard slog, and it is an ongoing project developing the gardens to where I want them to be, but I continue, 'metre-by-metre'."

The garden is lush and abundant, and with companion planting, no-till permaculture principles, and an organic ethos, Topp is able to keep pests to a minimum without the need for chemical sprays.

"I have found if you are in doubt about something going on in your garden, the best thing you can do is ask yourself what nature would do.

"Nature has a way of balancing itself so it can thrive."

Photo Claire Inkson

Topp quickly learned that to juggle work and motherhood, the garden would have to be capped at a quarter acre.

However, she was also conscious that she needed another income stream and knew there was a market for her produce.

She also knew from experience that a market garden would not make enough to support her and her daughter unless it was double the size.

So, in August 2023, Topp drew up a business plan, drawing on her skills as a gardener, chef and entrepreneur, and came up with a new business venture, Bloom Enterprises.

"This new business would allow me to maintain a quarter acre market garden with about ten hours labour a week input, work part time two days a week as a base income chefing and attend two markets or events weekly for sales outlets."

Photo Claire Inkson

Topps's current homestead and market garden are no longer laid out according to the standard commercial method she had previously used, which involved rows of 20-meter-long beds in full sun for as long as possible.

Instead, she created a food forest, combining her commercial knowledge and understanding of permaculture natural design to optimise the health of my garden environment.

"Although there is less structure to the organisation of my gardens these days – the gardens are thriving with a future canopy of natives and fruit trees steadily growing, native shrubs and tagasaste (tree lucerne) planted as windbreaks, ground covers flourishing to shade the soil, beneficial marigolds, calendulas and nasturtiums self-seeding everywhere and flowers interplanted throughout to attract beneficial insects."

Although small, the garden is prolific, and Topp sells produce in a roadside stall and by pre-order under the label Bloom Homestead.

Bloom Catering focuses on whole foods utilising produce from Topps garden.

She recently catered for the president's tent at the Amberley A&P show, provides the menu for wedding guests at the nearby Starlings Homestead function venue, and supplies Real NZ Farm tours with boxed picnic style lunches for tour groups.

"My cooking skills are so vast there isn't much I can't tackle.

"This shift from purely being a producer to taking the produce and minimally processing it into a ready-to-eat food product has enabled me to create a profitable business that works for my lifestyle and allows me to still market garden."

Topp plans to be a 100 % paddock-to-plate business using produce and meat grown on her own soil.

"I am producing as much of the vegetables, herbs and edible flowers as I can myself.

"I am sourcing Harris Meats meat and produce I don't have ready from other local producers. But metre by metre, I am sure I can achieve this goal."

With a degree in education and psychology, Topp recently became a certified coach, adding another income stream to Bloom Enterprises.

"I have been providing entrepreneur coaching for new business start-ups, mostly sole traders, although I also have some companies on my books.

"I also have a couple of youth clients."

Although life is busy, Topp has succeeded in diversifying her income stream, allowing her to work from home and spend time with her daughter, Daisy.

"Bloom is more than a name. It's a concept I have come to live by that encompasses my journey the last few years."

By Claire Inkson