Green thumb Steve loves to get his hands dirty
GARDENER Steve Hay loves getting his hands dirty.
“I just love being able to create something from nothing,” he said.
“To propagate something that’s a little tiny stem to turn it into a shrub that’s a metre by a metre, it’s just unreal, I love it.”
Mr Hay, 31, works at the Garden of Remembrance.
It wasn’t a job that he saw himself doing when he was younger – in another life he was a baker – but now that he’s found it, it’s all he can see himself doing for the rest of his life.
He said he had been gardening for the past five years and had spent two of them at the Garden of Remembrance.
“I just try to put a bit more colour in the garden,” he said.
“Especially in a place like this, I like to try and make it as much of an experience as possible and a better experience than what’s generally perceived.”
But it’s not just Mr Hay’s colleagues that are in awe of his job in the garden, so too were members of The Garden Clubs of Australia.
Last year Mr Hay was nominated for and won the Young Gardener of the Year Award for outstanding contribution to gardening/horticulture.
“They were really impressed with my love and enthusiasm for plants and constantly propagating new plants around the park,” he said.
“It was unreal, definitely unexpected.
“I’m just here to do a job and that’s to make the park look as nice as possible.
“It just threw me right out, it was really good.”
Mr Hay is currently getting the garden ready for The Chronicle’s Garden Competition.
The Chronicle’s marketing manager, Stacey Hixon, said entries for this year’s competition had now closed.
“I’m really excited to see the calibre of our entrants, both young and old, and I’m looking forward to the judging of the gardens,” she said.
Judging will be from September 1 to 8 and the winners of the competition will be announced on September 13.
The Chronicle Garden Competition Visitors Guide will be released on September 15.
Ms Hixon thanked Toowoomba Regional Council and Heritage for their support.