The Paddock Lal Lal

Having purchased our little patch of paradise in December 2020, we started with a blank canvas with the goal of building a little side hustle which would allow us to cut back in our corporate roles. Lal Lal is a hamlet located in the foothills of Mt Buninyong near Ballarat, 108 kms west of Melbourne. Lal Lal is home to the spectacular Lal Lal falls and Lal Lal Reservoir. The area surrounding Lal Lal was once a very prominent mining area. The Paddock started in 2022 with first the planting of garlic. Five varieties were planted to test the suitability to the local area, which has an average elevation of 468m, experiences persistent winter frosts and summer heat, which suits garlic well. These varieties were: Mammoth purple, Flinders Island purple, White crookneck, Spanish Roja, Valiant. Growing garlic wasn’t on the radar but with 23 acres and little animals to tender too there was plenty of space to use for another reason. Melissa being an avid gardener planted the idea with Sean in 2021 about turning one of the paddocks into a garlic paddock and to her surprise Sean was on board. We don't aspire to large scale commercial production as we want to supply garlic grown following chemical free practices incorporating crop rotation, natural fertilisers & herbicides. All original garlic seed was sourced form Australian growers. 2023 saw the expansion of our variety’s to again test the suitability to the local area. In 2023 we planted Dunganski, Purple Hardneck, Turban Master Jack, Elephant garlic. A total of 1343 gloves were planted from 9 different varieties. 2022 saw the introduction of Dahlia tubers to the farm with 12 varieties planted 2023 saw the “Dahlia Addiction” take hold and over 200 varieties planted being approx. 300 tubers.