101 BURRA GARDEN SUPPLIES – Korumburra’s gem

BURRA GARDEN

Being a plantaholic, I'm always on the lookout for a new nursery to explore and while away my time in plant heaven, dreaming and planning my new garden for the following Spring/Summer months.

I am always on the hunt for those little gems that you sometimes find tucked away at the back of the stand at the nursery or those hard-to-find perennials that you can only find in mail order catalogues.

I recently moved out to the green rolling hills of South Gippsland and during one of my Sunday explorations I came across a great nursery in Korumburra, Burra Nursery and Garden Supplies.

Talking to Kelly Hughes the owner, is a delight. Kelly and her husband Adrian started the garden supplies business 19 years ago in 2002. They’ve come a long way from those days and now employ 12 staff in both the plant nursery and garden supplies areas.

We’ve got a great team here, last year we employed a young 21-year-old who is keen to learn more about plants. A lot of our staff are older and have worked at Burra Garden Supplies for years. We pride ourselves on good old fashioned customer service. Our team have between them a wealth of knowledge and experience.

We are the biggest combined garden supplies and nursery business in Southeast Gippsland.

The Nursery is always fully stocked with a great range of general garden plants, trees, annuals, and seedlings.

Being winter, bare rooted and deciduous trees dominate the Nursery floor. A great range of fruit & nut trees are on offer as well. You’ll even find rare gems like GIngko biloba or Laburnum vossii (Golden chain tree) wonderful paired either side of an entrance, trained over an arbour or along a walkway in your garden.

If they don’t have in stock what you’re looking for, Burra Garden Supplies will source it, and order it in for you.

All your landscaping soils, rock, gravel, and garden mulches are on offer. They have a wonderful friendly team in this area and are more than happy to help with quotes or work out how much soil or garden compost you’ll need for that new garden or veggie patch. Covid had such a big impact on us last year! We were all housebound and had a lot more time to spend tending our gardens, growing veggies and spending time with our families.

During these challenging times, our home gardens are becoming our own personal sanctuaries. A place to read that best new seller under the shade of your favourite tree, have a bbq with friends and family or watch your children play in a safe environment.

We were kept on our toes last year with the increase in demand for plants and garden supplies at the nursery. A big part of what we do here is educate the public in making informed choices in choosing the right plants for their gardens. Our staff can help with soil deficiencies, pests and diseases or plant identification.

More people are growing their own veggies and fruit trees. Chemicals are a dirty word these days and people love are growing food organically. Young people are becoming a bigger part of our customer base, and we stock a diverse range of both indoor plants and pots for your home, apartment of townhouse.

Burra Garden Supplies, love to support the local community and give freely to various sporting associations and schools around the area. We are a rural local based business and enjoy providing a service to our local people.

Kelly’s the backbone of Burra Garden Supplies and works in the office these days. Adrian spends a big part of the year in Corowa NSW managing their organic manure business. She has 3 daughters, one in Nth Qld, and 2 here living in Victoria and 3 grandchildren. She likes to keep fit and spend time in her own garden. I’m able to do this because we have such a great team at the Nursery.

Kelly & Adrian are planning a long overdue holiday camping into SA, Qld and the NT and are hoping to see her family & grandkids.

They say that behind every man is a good woman. Kelly is holding the fort and the strength behind Burra Garden supplies.

She looks up at me and smiles knowingly, Adrian and I have done the hard yards with Burra Garden Supplies, its time now to kick back and enjoy our lives.

SUPPLIES Words by Gail Polson Photos by Doug Pell

Owners: Kelly and Adrian Hughes