Four-time garden champ’s still got it

Local green thumb Brian Trost has been cultivating his gardening knowledge for over 50 years, sporting an award-winning garden with bright florals, foliage and succulents.

Moving into his Norville property presented Brian with a blank canvas, where he spent many years curating it into what you see today.

“It took a while to build up the garden because it was poor soil, it was only clay,” Brian said.

“There was no curb or channelling, nothing like that.

“We had to import soil and worked on the garden bit by bit.”

Throwback to the 1990s, Brian won the Bundy in Bloom competition four times, with his secret to a thriving garden being in the soil.

“It’s all trial and error but just make sure you’ve got good soil,” he said.

“Add compost to it and don’t throw away your lawn clippings, add them to the compost also.

“If you’ve got good soil, you’ll grow anything.”

Brian said he spends every day in the garden, although at 88 he has started to slow down a little.

“Desert roses are good now at my age,” he said. 

“They’re not too hard to look after and put on an amazing show.”

Brian said it’s a pleasure seeing everything grow and he enjoyed propagating different plants from around the garden.

“The problem is I can’t throw any cutting away, I’ve always got to put them back in the ground,” he said.

“My favourite is the plum tree as it’s my favourite fruit.

“I’ve got two now, they’re only small but they’re sweet.”

Brian said his passion for gardening had always been shared with his wife Leonie and they had spent many years in the garden together.

“We just kept it up, we met a lot of nice people off the buses coming ‘round to have a look,” he said.

“We made a lot of new friends, always swapping plants and ideas.

“People that love plants and flowers are always nice people.”

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