Helping people successfully grow vegetables at home is a welcome new career for an experienced entrepreneur and event manager.

Words Kate Coughlan  Photos Jodie James

 

In the early days of the pandemic when the world came to an abrupt halt and many industries stood still, people took a startled breath and reviewed their ‘what next?’ options. Wānaka-based Anna Hiatt was at the forefront of one of the worst-hit sectors – hospitality and events. She was the commercial manager for the highly successful International Winter Games, the largest southern hemisphere event for winter sports athletes competing in individual and team events. She is a seasoned event manager whose portfolio includes the impressive accolade of being event director for the inaugural Queenstown Marathon. That event was so successful that targets set by the foundation partners as five-year goals were exceeded even before the first marathon was run. Now, celebrating its 10th anniversary, the Queenstown Marathon remains one of the country’s most attended and best-loved sporting events. 

Anna wasn’t panicked by the lockdown. She appreciated the time to think about life’s options. Until then, her career had been a whirlwind. She initially studied horticulture and commerce at Lincoln University before changing disciplines to graduate with a Diploma in Sports Studies from the University of Otago and a Diploma in Therapeutic Massage specialising in sports and chronic pain massage. She loved working with the country’s top athletes. When an OE called, she headed to a village in the Cotswolds where, deliberately distant from her gang of Kiwi mates all living together in London, she called upon that unique set of skills rural women in New Zealand possess to run the weekend home of a London-based family. She did all the cooking and housekeeping including managing their staff, arranging the flowers, organising maintenance, booking travel and transport, and looking after their houseguests.

She loved it. However, following the tragic death of her partner in a hit-and-run accident, she returned to Christchurch. Anna, who had already experienced the loss of her father to cancer when she was six and her brother was four, grappled with grief and the fragility of life. It was tough and time for recalibration. She turned her hand to another lifelong passion, floral design. Her company, Pure Chaos, began as a studio where she created flowers for homes and weddings and later diversified into event management. Although called Pure Chaos, the goal was to ensure her clients felt everything but chaos.

‘I worked throughout many a Friday night getting bridal flowers finished. I did a lot of weddings and big events. I could not bear the thought of anything going wrong, such as me ruining a bride’s special day by failing to deliver the flowers. My rule was to never go to bed until I had completed the bridal bouquets. There were more than a few all-nighters.’

Alongside her flower business, Anna’s skill in running sporting events increasingly led to management roles in large international ones including the Winter Games, the World Triathlon Series based in Auckland and Challenge Wānaka, a multi-sport event and that landmark first Queenstown Marathon. This was her life when Covid stalled everything.

Whilst sitting in the sun, pandemic-bound in her peaceful Wānaka pad with jet-black Labs Dudley and Stanley, she considered fresh options. Observing the reaction to the pandemic, she was struck by something. ‘What intrigued me most was how all the garden centres so quickly sold out of vegetable seeds and seedlings. Anxiety about food security led to panic-buying of plants that people had no idea what to do with. Growing up on the family farm near Waipara in North Canterbury, we had a productive kitchen garden as a normal part of life. I thought everyone knew how to grow vegetables. I was astonished to hear people say they couldn’t grow food because they didn’t have a green thumb.’

She knows growing vegetables isn’t complicated; it merely takes seeds, soil, moisture and a bit of know-how. Delving deeper, she saw a need to help people get started. ‘Many were busy with families and careers and did not have enough time in the day to do research themselves. Being too time-poor to find out what veggie crops were easiest, fastest and most productive was a stumbling block.

‘This was the origin of Hiatt & Co. I am not a gardening expert; my experience and knowledge come from my love of gardening and my years of doing it. I wanted to make it simple, to set them up for success. Even if people didn’t have much space, they could grow a little. My challenge is to show people that they always have room for something, whether it is a windowsill of microgreens or lettuces and herbs in patio pots. Everyone has enough space.

‘I found I loved helping people get started and seeing the joy that comes when my clients pick something home-grown for their family dinner table or to take as a gift to share with friends. It is fulfilling when others achieve it.’

Anna’s Favourites

Anna’s favourite non-edible is the sweet pea. We get her top tips for growing perfect sweet peas.
– Feed, feed, feed – they are the hungriest of plants.
– Plant them in a fresh area each year.
– Plant in late autumn or early winter as they do better and flower more prolifically when they’ve been in the ground over winter.

When it comes to edibles, her top pick is any type of salad green or parsley. ‘You can never have too much. Keep planting regularly even through winter for a continuous supply. I pop seedlings into any gaps I find among my shrubs and flowers, I’ve currently got some underplanted beneath a new row of Michelia ‘Lemon Fragrant’.

Anna has been growing plants since early childhood, helping in the gardens of her family farm, Limestone Hills. She says her proudest moment in primary school was when her home-grown sweet pea project won a prize. The memory still brings a smile. ‘Grannie, who lived in Amberley, grew magnificent perennial sweet peas and gave me seeds. I was besotted with them and when my plot not only passed inspection but earned me first prize, it was next-level excitement. I recall it vividly. ‘I thought my sweet peas were the most beautiful things ever. I love them to this day for their form and perfume.’

Today, Anna’s life is a happy mix of gardening, vegetable growing, helping others to grow food with the Hiatt & Co starter kits and consultations, and consulting with her events company Pure Chaos. She wouldn’t have wished for a worldwide pandemic in a million years, but she is grateful that it propelled her to add another layer to her already-full CV.

‘All aspects of what I love have come together in Hiatt & Co; the creativity of working with flowers, the gardening and growing food and, with my event career focused on relationship management, everything now revolves around a love of people, making growing food fun and using floral design skills (of texture, form and colour) to show edible gardens can be beautiful.’

She’s finding this business of leading people up the gardening path towards food production to be very rewarding. ‘I was in my garden yesterday, it was sunny and in a tree four tūī and one bellbird were singing,
and I thought it doesn’t get much better than this.’

What is Hiatt & Co?

Hiatt & Co takes a two-pronged approach to help people grow food successfully and easily with a range of starter kits and consultancy options. The packs are created for beginners, containing everything to get a gardener started. As Anna explains, the boxes come in three sizes:

Mighty Minis: Microgreens don’t take much space, they are nutrient-dense, and the speedy results are especially great for kids. Rocket is called that for a good reason.
Eat Your Greens: This is the right size for someone with space for a few pots, and an efficient method for beginners as they do not require too much time.
Grow Big, Grow Home: For someone with at least 1 m x 1 m who wants to harvest reasonable-sized crops.
Consulting: Anna consults with individuals and groups in person around the Otago region or, if further afield, by video. These are bespoke, to meet the needs of climate, size and the ability of the gardener. Anna’s kits are ordered worldwide with a large order recently from a corporate client in Australia. She says the steep increase in the number of businesses wanting to do ‘green’ Christmas gifting including Secret Santas is noticeable.

Another trend she sees is parents and grandparents gifting packs to younger generations in their families hoping to inspire growing. ‘I guess the older generation is concerned that the skill might be lost, and they wish to help their families into a pursuit they found valuable and enjoyable.’

Want to see more of Anna? Get your tickets to Garden Marlborough, the country’s largest garden festival held 7–10 November 2024 and head along to one of her workshops. For tickets and more information visit gardenmarlborough.co.nz