SpringGlade

Spring Glade started as a homeschool project. Highly creative and industrious children needed money to purchase shed, garden and farm equipment. Through trial and error we came up with some products that customers loved.

“It is fun having a business because I am only 13 and most kids my age don’t have a business. It is fun making and earning money for doing something enjoyable. I am not actually earning money yet, because we are investing the profits back into the business by buying tools. We started off with hand-tools, and our first sander was a tiny one clamped upside-down in a vice. I feel very lucky to now have power tools to use for the business and also for my own projects. We have so far got a chainsaw, belt sander, table saw, rock saw, power drill, and rock tumbler. I still like to use hand tools and often use hammer and chisels, hacksaws and hand drills. My other interests include: woodwork, metalwork, geology, topiary, fencing and many other things.” 😊

“What I love about Spring Glade is that it is my family’s business. Together we decide what products to make – not only because of demand, but because of what is around us. If we find an abundance of beautiful second-hand lace, we make something out of it. Once when we pruned our plum tree, I dried out mountains of the smaller branches and made miniature furniture to sell at the local market. By using what we find, we are not simply creating more stuff in the world; we are taking what is already here and finding new homes for it.
Whilst we all work together as a family, we each have individual projects as well. My passions are mainly sustainability, sewing, plants and gardening. Over the years I grew and grew my Sweet Pea garden until I had enough seeds to sell, so that now my plants are spread in gardens all over Australia. They can be a weed here so we don’t promote them and we have a warning on the packet and tips to stop them spreading – people will buy them anyway so they may as well buy our seeds and grow them safer and learn something. One of the best things about owning your own business is that you can think outside of the box.
Our most popular product is the geology dig kits. When we first started making these, we were faced with the dilemma of how to tumble the rocks (make them smooth) without an electric tumbler. After lots of planning, we designed and implemented a water-powered rock tumbler out of an old bicycle wheel, and we can now tumbler our rocks electricity-free in our creek! Whilst our small, water powered tumbler may not make a great difference in the scheme of things, it is one small step on our road towards becoming a more sustainable world. If everyone were to think outside the box – imagine what the world would be like! But for now, we will do our small bit, and spread the word so that other people can do their small bit, and we will be that one step closer to sustainability.”😊🌷