Life, Family and Gardening on the Monaro

This month’s A Day in the Garden feels especially close to home, as we are stepping into the garden and daily life of our very own Le Sac Co-Founder, Sahra Tohow-Dixon.

Sahra is a self-described city girl now living out her bucolic dreams on a historic property in the Monaro region of Southern New South Wales. Her days are woven together with family life, farming, gardening, food and the beautiful, often busy work of growing Le Sac.

Alongside her mother and fellow Le Sac Co-Founder, Trisha Dixon Burkitt, Sahra has helped create a brand deeply inspired by the garden and the women who tend them. For Sahra, gardening is not simply something she fits around work and motherhood. It is part of her livelihood, her creativity and her way of returning to herself.

There is something personal and meaningful about sharing Sahra’s day. Le Sac was shaped by real days like this one: cold mornings, soil-covered hands, family rituals, business decisions made around the kitchen table and an enduring belief that practical garden tools can also bring beauty and joy to everyday life.

Come with us as we spend a winter’s day in the garden with Sahra.

A Winter Day in the Garden on the Monaro

6:00 - 7:00am

It is still dark on the Monaro when Sahra’s children wake her. Winter mornings here have a particular kind of cold, the sort that makes staying tucked beneath the covers feel entirely reasonable. So, for a little while, they all pile in together, talking about nothing much as the first light catches the frost across the paddocks.

7:00 – 8:00am

By seven, everyone has made their way downstairs and gathered in the kitchen, the warmest room in the house and, naturally, the heart of the morning.

Coffee is made, school lunches are assembled with varying degrees of order, and the children are sent off on the school bus by eight. Once they have gone, Sahra pauses at the door for a moment, watching the fog settle low over the hills and taking in the stillness before the day begins properly.

SHOP THE WINTER PRUNING BUNDLE

8:00 – 12:00pm

With the children on their way to school, Sahra takes a little time for herself. Breakfast is made slowly and eaten without interruption, a rare and welcome luxury.

Then it is time to turn her attention to Le Sac. The morning is spent behind the computer working through correspondence, customer orders, planning and all the quieter parts of running a business that rarely make it into photographs, but keep everything moving.

By noon, she is ready to close the computer and head outside.

12:00 – 3:00pm

Today, Sahra is planting peonies, something that still feels a little miraculous after years of living in climates where they would not grow.

Here on the Monaro, the peonies have exactly what they need: deep cold, honest winters and soil shaped by the seasons.

The garden surrounding Sahra’s home has a history stretching back to the 1830s. It was lovingly developed over decades by her mother-in-law and fellow Le Sac Co-Founder, Trisha, and Sahra is still discovering its bones, learning what was planted, where it belongs and why each part of the garden was created.

Winter is perhaps the best season for understanding an established garden. With everything stripped back, its structure becomes clear. Sahra walks slowly, observing what is already there and considering what the garden may need next.

SHOP THE WINTER PRUNING BUNDLE

3:00 - 4:00pm

Sahra heads inside a little earlier today, with Book Club plans awaiting her.

She has promised to make a strawberry pie to accompany Yesteryear by Caro Bourke, something thoughtful and homemade to suit the book and the occasion. There is also an iced tea cocktail on the menu because, as Sahra would say, standards must be maintained.

4:00 - 7:00pm

The day ends with Book Club: good women gathered around a long table, sharing beautiful food, a good book and the kind of thoughtful conversation that makes space for friendship, laughter and connection.

It is a fitting end to a full winter’s day, one shaped by family, business, gardening and the small rituals that bring so much joy to country life.

"Book Club. Good women. A long table and a good book and the kind of conversation that reminds you why you bother with all the rest of it.”

From city life to the wide-open beauty of the Monaro, Sahra’s days are now shaped by family, farming, business and the garden she continues to make her own.

We love sharing stories like hers because they remind us that a life in the garden is rarely just about gardening, it is about the people, rituals, seasons and quiet joys woven through it all.

SHOP THE WINTER PRUNING BUNDLE

 

Follow Sahra on Instagram and visit her website for more glimpses of country life, food, family and the beautiful reality behind Le Sac.

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