Nurse duo transform Mater garden

Bundaberg nurses Kim Job and Arlyn Klintstrom have spent over a year adding colourful florals to the Mater Hospital garden with the hope of brightening someone’s day.

Starting with just a well-kept hedge, hard soil and an abundance of weeds, today the garden thrives with a mixture of both flowering and foliage plants.

“One weekend we got busy and did the garden,” Arlyn said.

“It was exciting to choose which plants to get and sharing ideas.”

With no plan in place the pair let the garden evolve throughout the seasons, creating an ever-changing space for everyone to enjoy.

“We wanted to have it so that it had some permanence and then the things in the front would just chop and change as the season goes, it's a mishmash,” Kim said.

“And Mother's Day is coming, so I'm putting some chrysanthemums in which are going to be nice and bright,” Arlyn said.

Both green thumbs said they had been gardening from a young age and, with similar gardening styles, created the perfect team.

“I grew up in a family that gardened,” Kim said.

”We had lots of veggies, fruit trees, chickens and flower gardens, so it has been part of my life forever.”

“I grew up in the Philippines and everyone back home in the province, all the households had flowers and had to have plants,” Arlyn added.

“Otherwise, if you don't have any brightness and colour in your garden, they will say that you are a lazy person.”

The thought of bringing joy to those who walk through the Mater doors is what planted the seed for Kim and Arlyn.

“It's what we like to do because we are nurses, so we tend to everybody,” Kim said.

“We like to show kindness and compassion and that represents everybody, no matter who you are or where you come from.”