Boyup Brook artist Jennifer Goerling welcomes public to first sunflower field day on family sheep farm

A Boyup Brook sheep farming family has opened their first sunflower field to the public — with an artistic mum behind the idea of the bursting display of yellow.

Jennifer Goerling said the sunflower field was just “meant to be” with the experiment planted in the middle of October last year.

With the unexpected success, Goerling welcomed visitors to pick a bucket full of sunflowers and take photos in the field at the weekend.

Goerling, who is also an artist, opened The Joyful Little Art Space last November and is now one of the locations where the sunflowers will be sold until the end of the season.

Heading out to the paddock to pick bunches of the flowers in the mornings, Goerling also took bunches to sell at a recent Bridgetown River Market.

“I’ve taken them to the hospital. I’ve been trying to give them to businesses, because it’s nice to spread it around,” she said.

Goerling told the Times the idea came while doing a yoga event with a friend among some sunflowers.

Together with the help of her family, Goerling said a sheep paddock on the family property was turned into the trial sunflower field.

“Because it’s very wet, usually all year, and it grows bits of weeds, and it’s always greenish, we thought we’d give it a shot, because we can’t irrigate,” she said.

“We bought the seed from Bells Pasture Seeds at Capel and put them in the air seeder.”

Her son drove around the paddock spreading the seeds.

Without doing any research, Goerling said she was unsure if the experiment would work.

“I’ve always liked sunflowers. I always had them in the garden, probably since COVID, we were all home and planting all sorts of things,” she said.

“I tried flower farming for a while, and that was just a nightmare with our water, but I noticed that they (sunflowers) could handle the salt (in the soil).

“They did get that last little bit of rain that we had — well, it wasn’t a little bit, it was a lot. I think it had 70ml in November, but since then, we haven’t had any rain.

“It’s been our driest time this year. It’s amazing, it was obviously meant to be.”

The sunflower field may reopen on the weekend depending on weather conditions.

Goerling said next year she hopes to plan the visitations in advance with pathways for easier access.

There’s more information about the sunflower field days on The Joyful Little Art Space Facebook page.