Garden competition gives new meaning to boots on the ground

Local Templestowe aged care residents have been given the green thumbs up in Bolton Clarke’s recent ‘Best in Grow’ competition.

Charlesbrook residential aged care took out first place in the Most Creative Garden category with their Boot Garden – inspiration for which came from the other side of the world.

Lifestyle Assistant Louise Patane says the idea for the creative cultivation was thanks to one of her fellow staff members who had recently returned from travel.

“One of our local team members recently got back from a trip to her home country of Romania where she came across a 'boot garden ',” she said.

“The photo she took was all the inspiration we needed to throw ourselves into the competition. We put up posters asking staff if they had any old boots or shoes.

“We thoroughly enjoyed taking part in this project and the outcome was terrific."

Residents who worked on the project had a great time putting their skills to use, saying it was fun to get out and help create the vertical garden.

“I love gardening anyway so I really enjoyed taking part in the gardening project, it was a good thing to do,” resident Ray said.

Fellow resident Roy agreed saying “I liked painting the planter boxes, but cutting the boots out was a bit tough. Seeing the plants in all of the boots at the end was fantastic.”