Words: Luke Voogt Pictures: Joseph van der Hurk
Nobody believes Batesford bonsai enthusiast Paul Buttigieg when he tells them he’s 70.
Paul reckons his horticulture hobby has pruned years from his life, along with never having smoked a packet of cigarettes.
“There’s no question about – it’s made me feel younger,” he says.
“Everyone’s got to have a hobby that takes their mind off the pressures of life and makes them enjoy being alive – for me that’s Bonsai.”
Paul has a “glass half-full” attitude to life, despite a failed business in 1990 and the death of his second child Sarah in 1973.
“That’s how footy players play – it’s all above the shoulders. It’s the same with life.”
The only time Paul feels his age is after a full day in the garden, mowing and tending his vegie patch.
Paul grows broad beans, carrots, onions, potatoes, tomatoes, peas, broccoli, cabbage and silver beet on his rural property, along with a dozen herbs.
But his collection of bonsai is what makes his garden unique.
The IT salesman got hooked on the art of pruning in 2009 when his four children bought him a bonsai course for Father’s Day.
It was there Paul acquired his first juniper, which he has lovingly tended since.
“I can proudly say it is still alive and thriving,” he says. “Often people lose their first tree.”
Paul’s collection has since bloomed, and pruning, wiring and weeding his bonsais is a welcome meditative escape.
“When I’m with the trees I forget the hustle and bustle of life,” he says.
“Time stands still. By the time I’ve finished all the stress is gone.”
Paul is president of the Geelong Bonsai Club, which has members ranging in age from early twenties to a 90-year-old.
“We’re from all industries and walks of life – we’ve all been bitten by the bonsai bug.”
Despite his hundred or so plants, Paul is not the greenest thumb in the club, which has been going since 1986.
“About 20 of us have got serious, fantastic collections – and I’d be in the 15 to 20 mark.”
“A few eat and breathe bonsai. But they’re very secretive and protective of their collections because some of trees are very expensive and occasionally thieves pinch them.
“You can imagine the grief that’s caused.”
The idea that bonsais are difficult to maintain is a myth, Paul says.
“We’re more than happy to help people start from scratch.”
Paul features on The Pulse’s Dig It radio gardening program one Sunday a month.
“When I started eight years ago I was on every week but my wife Mary cracked the s**ts that we didn’t go out to breakfast any more.”
Now four pairs of gardeners appear on the show, covering subjects ranging from permaculture to the Geelong Botanic Gardens.
“She actually did the program a favour,” Paul says with grin.
To find out more about the club email geelong@bonsai.org.au
