It's all go for Fiona Parker.
The Dunedin woman has developed Gardens To Go Go, a business that provides ready-made potted small gardens containing either flowers and foliage or vegetables and herbs.
It was shortly after moving into her own property that the keen amateur gardener read about "pocket gardens'' in a library book.
She identified suitable spaces for 14 in her own garden and, once she finished creating those, she had somewhat of a "watershed moment'' as she pondered her next move.
Sitting in her garden, Ms Parker started pondering how it would be "just a beautiful thing to be able to make gardens for people''.
By making them portable, people could put the gardens wherever they wanted, move them around and even take them on holiday.
It was just like having "a beautiful piece of regular garden'', except it was in a container, she said.
Ms Parker, who is in her 50s, first started selling her potted gardens in late 2014. She said they were popular as gifts.
Often, customers were buying them for someone special, often older people who had downsized their properties and were unable to tend a large garden.
As a gardener, her own favourite pastime was "tweaking'' her patch, such as dead-heading flowers.
Ms Parker does a lot of her own propagating and does not raise any plants that are "tricky''.
Nothing was cosseted, she said.
She tried to have all the gardens looking good year-round, planting for both warm and cool seasons.
In summer, she worked on herb and salad gardens.
Two of her creations, catchily-named Kale in a Pail and Beet in a Bucket, are ideal for students to use in smoothies.
Last year, US-based start up business adviser Co.
Starters partnered with Enterprise Dunedin and Start Up Dunedin to run a nine-week course as part of the city's Gigatown win.
Ms Parker, who attended the course, said it covered "everything, from start to finish'' and she found it very useful.
While she was fine with the garden aspect, business was "a new world'' to her and those involved were very helpful and supportive.
Her background was in science and she trained as a research practitioner.
Some of those skills were transferable.
At the course, she observed the older the participant, the more likely they were to be doing "hands-on stuff'', while the younger ones were more into tech or tech applications.
For her, the "techy part'' was exploring the likes of social media.
Her venture was a source of interest to her friends, who were very supportive, along with her family.
It was part of what she calls her "portfolio career''.
She had made plans for the next 15 years and they focused on "lots of interesting experiences'', she said.
Ms Parker said that in the past she had enjoyed having close communication with people and that was continuing with her Gardens To Go Go business.
