Tony’s green thumb brightens new home

Tony Rainsforth has just moved into Tall Trees Caboolture after retiring from his 30 year stint living onsite at the botanical gardens in Mt Coo-tha as the caretaker.

While he wasn’t the gardener at the botanical gardens, his time spent amidst an incredible arrangement of plants and flowers inspired him to brighten up his new home.

“When you live around that kind of environment for so many years you become accustomed to that lush kind of scenery.

“Now I always keep busy in the gardens and look for more plants to make Tall Trees Caboolture resemble that beauty that surrounded me for three decades.”

Mr Rainsforth says since moving in he has done numerous gardening jobs to stay active.

“I’m still very mobile so I wanted to keep active, and get amongst it now that I’m living in a community of people after being on my own for so long,” he says.

“I’ve done a few gardening projects and everyone has been really pleased with them.

“I’m quite happy because I wanted to do something; I’ve always been active and working and this allows me to get involved with the community in a way that I really enjoy.”

Mr Rainsforth has worked on areas that were originally very bland and gave them a complete facelift with flowers and plants.

“One of my first garden jobs was next to the leisure centre. There was a big grass square spot, so I planted in flowers to bring more colour to the area. Residents use the leisure centre a lot, and have all noticed the difference.

“I also did another project at the end of my corridor, which was full of weeds and everything, and I used to pass that area every day to get to my villa and I couldn’t stand it.

“I ripped all of that out and put bromeliads in, completely transforming it so neighbouring residents and myself have something nice to walk by each day.”

Mr Rainsforth has also been working on a lot of small projects around the edges of the community to break up the dullness of the fences.

Tall Trees lifestyle coordinator, Kerri Stockham, says their care community is home of many other green thumbs.

“We have a growing number of residents who thoroughly enjoy working in their personal gardens or in the communal garden beds,” Ms Stockham says.