Bill’s memory planting future seeds

The final completed project by a life member of Picton’s Community Men’s Shed plans to keep the thriving group’s bank account ticking over.

The late Bill Rogers and friend Chris Davies took it upon themselves, while leaning on some community knowledge, to correct the Shed nursery and continue the source of a third of the Shed’s income in a more professional manner.

While the Picton Community Men’s Shed has had plant sales as part of their income since their time on Waikawa Road, the plant nursery now comes with timed irrigation and organised plant shelving, which Chris says will only help the club continue to bloom.

“It’s always been here since we moved in as a carry-over project, but it needed to be reorganized, and it used to annoy Bill and I because some flowers weren’t surviving as we had them in the wrong places.

“I always said to Bill “we ever do this, we need to put names, because we’re not experts on plants” so we’ve been inviting the ladies walking group in to help us name and organise them, relying on their community knowledge too.”

By all accounts, the nursery was the final thing Bill was thinking about.

“He had influenza for three weeks, and he finally said, “I want to really try to make it to the Shed today”, walks out of his front door and had a massive heart attack, unfortunately”, says Chris.

“That’s the irony of it. He just finished it. He just handed in his secretary office and retired and we had just given him honorary life membership, but he insisted on paying his last year’s dues”.

“Each Shed tries to get something where you’ve got regular income coming in, apart from people who come in and want little odd jobs doing. We recently got an order from Picton School to do wooden outdoor bag hangers.

“We get a third of our income coming from here - a lot of the community in Picton, they come in for cheap plants, half the price you pay Bunnings or Mitre 10, it’s all going straight back into either our clubrooms or into community projects,” added Chris.