Our Story
A family tradition of gardening
Framed by the majestic boundaries of the Mediterranean Sea and rugged mountains inland, lies Caserta, a province located in the region of Campania, Southern Italy.
The beautiful landscapes decorated with a passion for agriculture where the Iuliano’s family origins began. Curating the land, caring for the farm animals and harvesting local produce to place them onboard the donkey-drawn cart in preparation for the market stall were daily activities. Sandro’s mother, Livia’s fine-tuned vocals echoed throughout the market as she out-bartered neighbouring vendors.
Migrating to Australia in the 60’s, the Iuliano’s passions for rich foods, uniquely crafted methods to be self-sufficient, whilst bring together a community continued.
Sandro’s father, Salvatore, a hard-working community gardener for many South Australian families, nurtured domestic landscapes from Kingswood to Springfield, Adelaide Hills to Aldgate, all before returning home to invest time and passion growing tomatoes, grapes, and other varieties of produce. Lovingly prepared by Livia, fragrant smells of authentic family-treasured recipes drifted through the house.
A passion for gardening
As a young boy, Sandro, accompanied his father in the luxuriously robust Holden on these working adventures, as his interest in horticulture began. He was not one to sit and watch television, instead preferring outdoor sports and activities from footy, cricket and bike riding with close friends.
Mrs Fowler, an Aldgate resident, admired the passion 8-year-old Sandro held for assisting his father with gardening. She proudly rewarded him with a significant 60 cents, a gold-worthy achievement in 1972.
By the age of 10, Sandro was maintaining gardens of Kingwood’s prestigious homes.
His determination further appreciated and rewarded with generous pocket money to the value of $8 for his half day’s work which equalled that of his father’s. Salvatore, was confident of his son’s gardening skills and entrusted Sandro at 13 years of age, to maintain Springfield’s prized gardens while he returned to visit family in Italy, a 17-year long awaited journey.
Australian-made Engineering
After graduating from the University of Adelaide, Sandro delved into a career centred upon Mechanical Engineering obtaining experience across several industries including the Building, Appliance and Automotive industry.
Whilst gardening always followed as a relaxing and enjoyable activity, it became more distant as he redirected his focus into the characteristics that a busy working career entailed alongside bringing up a family with 2 young children, Silvio and Olivia.
Rewarded with the homegrown produce Salvatore gifted him, Sandro cherished the finest flavours and attributes of locally grown produce desiring to establish a small veggie patch, yet neglecting it when times became busy.
Sandro fondly recalled memories of working in the garden with his father. His father admired Sandro as he knew which tool to grab, even before being asked.
Rediscovering the garden
Following the downfall of the car manufacturing industry in South Australia, Sandro took a break from the 9-to-5 and began to enjoy the simple pleasures and caring for his young family. Gardening became a daily activity full of indulging rewards. Sandro pondered and realised, gardening was hard work requiring much valuable time and resource. Moreover, shoulder injuries sustained from over-gardening, inspired him to find a better way to enjoy the garden without so much hard labour, especially if he wanted to continue doing so in the future.
Recounting back to his younger self, Sandro always had a strong interest to problem-solve his way out of broken watches and fixing bicycles. His guiding motto being, “I can’t break it any further, so I’ll try and fix it”. However, one thing his 10-year-old self never accomplished was the chore of successfully watering the 5-metre-long furrows before sunset as instructed by his mother, so he could go out and play with friends.
Steven would ride up to the fence and ask, “Hey Sandro, are you done yet?”.
Today Sandro looks back at his younger self knowing that he has overcome much of the gardening issues he confronted since childhood.
The solution he has realised would overcome laborious efforts relating to weeding, soil preparation and protecting new seedlings. His newest creation GrowWell™, is proudly manufactured in South Australia and takes the chores out of gardening.
