After more than 10 years of tending to the garden, creating an idyllic place for our littlest residents to explore and play, 85-year-old Ralph Vickers is finally hanging up the clippers.

Ōtūmoetai Plunket has been delighted to have their gardens tended to by Ralph for the past 13 years, whether it be weeding, planting or anything in between – free of charge and from the goodness of Ralph’s heart.

So how did Ralph end up getting stuck in at Ōtūmoetai Plunket? It was back in 2010 when Ralph’s daughter Anna Martyn, and president of the Ōtūmoetai Plunket committee at the time, put the call out for someone to tidy up the gardens.

Ralph took up the opportunity and his trusty trowel, and became the man on the job. “[The garden] was quite overgrown in some parts, and Anna said to me: ‘Dad you’ve got a lot of knowledge about gardens. Could you give us a hand this week to clean this up?’”

What started as a one-off tidy up has become more than a decade’s worth of love and labour every Thursday – rain or shine! Ralph says he’s always been into gardening, and it seems to run in the blood.

“Both my parents were gardeners and some of my more distant relatives have nurseries…it’s a horticultural family.”

Plants for people

“Ralph has planted many of the plants that grow in the garden,” says community karitane WBOP, Raewyn Davies.

Driving past Plunket on Ōtūmoetai Rd you may notice a lovely row of hydrangeas along the centre’s front fence. That’s thanks to Ralph.

“I got one growing and then I cut it and grew another one – I think there’s about 12 plants right across the front.”

His growing is about giving, with Ralph saying plants like the Hydrangeas are for parents to take and enjoy too. “[Ralph’s] dedication is appreciated not just by the staff that work in the clinic but also by the families that use the facility,” says Raewyn.

And his favourite part about his time helping in the Plunket garden? It has to be the kids, says Ralph.

“They come in here running. They are so pleased with this place…I’m only one of the people that help to make it a good place for them to come too,” says Ralph.

“I’ve enjoyed the questions from the children. If I have something like a trowel, often they will come and say: ‘What’s that? Or: ‘What do you use that for?’ Or: ‘Is it sharp?’”

Ex-Ōtūmoetai Plunket committee president Anna Martyn and her dad Ralph Vickers.

He also loves to see the kids grow into themselves.

“Perhaps when they first came in [to Plunket] they can’t speak much and by the end of the year they’re quite talkative.”

Now 85, Ralph says it’s time to slow down but he’ll keep pottering in his own garden. And his legacy will remain at Ōtūmoetai Plunket with a special tree being planted in his honour earlier this week.

“Ralph is a humble man, and he’s confident that there is someone out there who can take over from him. I’m not so sure that we’ll ever be able to replace him,” says Raewyn.