‘Father of gardening' puts away his trowel
Dunedin's "father of gardening" is hanging up his gloves after almost 50 years.
Nichol's Garden Centre Dunedin senior shop assistant Davie Dijker, 65, is retiring after working as a shop assistant in gardening shops for 48 years.
Mr Dijker said it felt "a bit weird" to be retiring.
"I think I'm going to miss the people after seeing all the things on Facebook."
A post on Facebook about Mr Dijker's retirement had attracted more than 100 tributes in the comment section appreciating his work.
He said he knew a lot of people and it made a difference in his role.
He had served some customers for more than 40 years.
"A lot of them are my friends.
"People remember me from back when I was at Arthur Barnett and that was over 30 years ago.
"That gives me a bit of a buzz."
He loved solving people's gardening problems and was referred to as "Dunedin's favourite father of gardening".
People often showed him photos of their successes gardening using his tips.
Every now and then there were photos of their disasters as well.
Mr Dijker said not much had changed with gardening in all the years he had worked in the industry except there was a lot more variety in plants these days.
He said gardening was in his genes because his father was Dutch.
He got his first taste of it doing horticulture at school at Taieri College and started a job at Arthur Barnett's garden shop in George St when he was just 17 years old.
Mr Dijker said he had never wanted to do anything else.
"I find gardening quite relaxing."
Mr Dijker said he loved planting vegetables, especially potatoes.
He was looking forward to helping people in their gardens, fishing and offering his services to the Dunedin City Council to maintain its walking tracks after retirement.
"I want to put something back in the community."
His last day at Nichol's will be on Wednesday.
mark.john@odt.co.nz
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