"I spend eight hours tending my fairytale garden every day - it's a multi-coloured haven with 60 different types of flower"
- 3 months ago
A woman spends up to eight hours a day working on her "fairytale" garden - a stunning multi-coloured haven with around 60 different types of flowers.
Petrina Burrill, 49, started gardening aged six after inheriting her green-fingered nature from her mother, Julie Burrill, 74.
The florist spends every day tending to her garden, in Ivanhoe, Melbourne, Australia, alongside her "head gardeners" - her cats Buttons and Lavender.
The garden has up to 10,000 bulbs in springtime and 60 different varieties of plants at any given time and takes lots of daily maintenance - but Petrina calls it her "passion" so she doesn't mind.
She talks to the plants and sees each one as "a beautiful little soul" - even naming her daughter, Adelaide Rose, 11, after her favourite flower in the garden.
Petrina, who posts on Instagram under the username @petrinablooms, has turned her passion into a career and she sells custom bouquets from her own garden.
She said she does it to "bring joy" to others like her garden does to her.
Mum-of-two Petrina said: "My garden, she is beautiful, and she is always giving.
"I garden for at least a few hours every day - going up to eight hours a day in April when I have to get all my bulbs planted.
"I love our beautiful mother Earth that allows us to grow flowers.
"My garden is absolutely my passion - it's my heart, and my joy, and my everything.
"I've travelled all over the world but I've learnt it's the small things in life where the real happiness is found."
Petrina spends every day in her garden - rain or shine.
Depending on the season, and what needs doing that day, she can spend the whole day in it to keep on top of everything.
Ahead of spring she spends all day out there, planting around 10,000 bulbs ready for the warmer season.
But she replants everything several times a year to ensure there are always flowers in bloom, no matter the time of year.
Her favourite flowers are roses - and her garden features more than 80 rose bushes.
She even named her daughter as a tribute to the blooms.
She has a 43-year-old wisteria which looks like "a beautiful purple jungle".
Her garden often features poppies, anenome, a selection of different types of tulips and daffodils, peonies, foxgloves, cosmos and freesia.
She regularly pulls and replants everything to make sure the garden is always in stunning condition - and makes her own compost to give her flowers the best possible treatment.
Petrina said: "I do plant a lot of flowers and let them fall where they fall.
"It's crowded, but they all find their way through.
"I even tell them how beautiful they are. If I bump into a flower I say I'm sorry to it."
Petrina was taught how to tend to the garden by her mother, who learned it from Petrina's grandfather before that, and his parents had passed the knowledge down to him.
Now she is teaching her green-fingered ways to Adelaide Rose, who has her own flower patch in the garden that she is responsible for.
Petrina said: "She has planted 800 bulbs by herself and takes them to school to give to her friends and teachers."
Despite her garden also being her career, Petrina's main reason for spending the time on it that she does is to make herself and others happy.
She said: "My garden is like a fairytale, that's the best way to describe it. It's uplifting.
"The more the world gets big and terrifying, the more I just want to plant flowers and create more beauty.
"If I found out I only have a year left to live, all I'd want to do is plant flowers.
"There is so much meaning in growing flowers and seeing them bringing people joy."
Petrina Burrill, 49, started gardening aged six after inheriting her green-fingered nature from her mother, Julie Burrill, 74.
The florist spends every day tending to her garden, in Ivanhoe, Melbourne, Australia, alongside her "head gardeners" - her cats Buttons and Lavender.
The garden has up to 10,000 bulbs in springtime and 60 different varieties of plants at any given time and takes lots of daily maintenance - but Petrina calls it her "passion" so she doesn't mind.
She talks to the plants and sees each one as "a beautiful little soul" - even naming her daughter, Adelaide Rose, 11, after her favourite flower in the garden.
Petrina, who posts on Instagram under the username @petrinablooms, has turned her passion into a career and she sells custom bouquets from her own garden.
She said she does it to "bring joy" to others like her garden does to her.
Mum-of-two Petrina said: "My garden, she is beautiful, and she is always giving.
"I garden for at least a few hours every day - going up to eight hours a day in April when I have to get all my bulbs planted.
"I love our beautiful mother Earth that allows us to grow flowers.
"My garden is absolutely my passion - it's my heart, and my joy, and my everything.
"I've travelled all over the world but I've learnt it's the small things in life where the real happiness is found."
Petrina spends every day in her garden - rain or shine.
Depending on the season, and what needs doing that day, she can spend the whole day in it to keep on top of everything.
Ahead of spring she spends all day out there, planting around 10,000 bulbs ready for the warmer season.
But she replants everything several times a year to ensure there are always flowers in bloom, no matter the time of year.
Her favourite flowers are roses - and her garden features more than 80 rose bushes.
She even named her daughter as a tribute to the blooms.
She has a 43-year-old wisteria which looks like "a beautiful purple jungle".
Her garden often features poppies, anenome, a selection of different types of tulips and daffodils, peonies, foxgloves, cosmos and freesia.
She regularly pulls and replants everything to make sure the garden is always in stunning condition - and makes her own compost to give her flowers the best possible treatment.
Petrina said: "I do plant a lot of flowers and let them fall where they fall.
"It's crowded, but they all find their way through.
"I even tell them how beautiful they are. If I bump into a flower I say I'm sorry to it."
Petrina was taught how to tend to the garden by her mother, who learned it from Petrina's grandfather before that, and his parents had passed the knowledge down to him.
Now she is teaching her green-fingered ways to Adelaide Rose, who has her own flower patch in the garden that she is responsible for.
Petrina said: "She has planted 800 bulbs by herself and takes them to school to give to her friends and teachers."
Despite her garden also being her career, Petrina's main reason for spending the time on it that she does is to make herself and others happy.
She said: "My garden is like a fairytale, that's the best way to describe it. It's uplifting.
"The more the world gets big and terrifying, the more I just want to plant flowers and create more beauty.
"If I found out I only have a year left to live, all I'd want to do is plant flowers.
"There is so much meaning in growing flowers and seeing them bringing people joy."