Tucked in behind Braemar Hospital, a well-tended garden bears the fruits (and vegetables) of Brendon Rose’s labour of love.
“This is my happy place,” says Brendon who has been working at Braemar Hospital for two years now, developing the kitchen garden.
The raised gardens and shade houses where Brendon tends his plants, quietly buffer the sound of cars whizzing by just over the fence on Hamilton’s busy Ohaupo Road. Beds framed by flowering citrus trees including a lush makrut lime, are meticulously weeded and watered by hand. He says his biggest challenge is “keeping on top of the slugs and looking after my old knees.”
It is late spring and Brendon is growing tomatoes, celery, rainbow chard, peas and spring onions alongside neatly clipped herbs – rosemary, thyme, basil and sage.
Getting a job has not been easy for Brendon. He spent 27 years at the former Avalon Training Centre, in Tauranga earning a Certificate in Horticulture and tending the gardens there. That experience and assistance from independent disability supporter, Selwyn Cook and Megan Owen, a community facilitator with Enrich+, helped Brendon secure a gardening job at Braemar Hospital.
Megan says the job at Braemar Hospital “has been life changing”.
“It’s wonderful for Brendon to have a paid job doing what he loves,” says Megan. “Getting paid employment is difficult but at Braemar, Brendon is given trust and responsibility.”
When there is a space in the garden, Leigh Singers, Braemar Hospital’s General Manager Commercial Services takes Brendon and Megan shopping for new plants at Mitre10 or Bunnings.
“I have creative freedom to choose what I want to grow, but I also take direction from the kitchen,” says Brendon.
Megan works alongside Brendon at Braemar Hospital on Wednesday afternoons.
“I am always asking him questions, learning alongside him as well as helping with things like time management.
“Working here, Brendon is achieving something, and he has a lot of hard work to give.”
“And tomatoes,” says Brendon who has a deep love for all his plants, but he is quite happy to pick them when they are ready to share.
A highlight for Brendon is to pick herbs and vegetables and take them up to the kitchen.
Braemar Hospital Executive Chef, PJ Smit says Brendon’s contribution to the cuisine at the Hospital is beyond valuable.
“When Brendon brings us fresh, organic vegetables and herbs, they are a gift from him. He lifts our spirits in the kitchen. He also enables us to have access to items that are not always readily available. Our dishes get a superior finish from curry leaves in our dahl or a regular supply of limes, sage and gorgeous tomatoes. We will often plan dishes around what Brendon is growing, like the tarragon chicken or prawn laksa on our new menu,” says PJ.
“I am proud of the work that Brendon does and the positive influence he has on our kitchen team.”
Braemar Hospital is widely recognised as one of New Zealand’s leading private surgical hospitals and the only private hospital in Aotearoa New Zealand that is a Living Wage Employer. The hospital is 100% owned by Braemar Charitable Trust which works to improve healthcare outcomes by supporting medical research, building health sector capability and delivering a community surgery programme.