"I could instantly tell this was the home for us, culturally and every other way," said Peter Fitzpatrick, a retired civil engineer, who moved into Calvary Elanora last May with June, his partner of 42 years.

Peter's desire to be hands-on in caring for June, who has lived with dementia for more than a decade, was embraced by the clinical and care team and Peter is an active partner in her care.

To support Peter’s holistic care, the home's manager encouraged him to pursue his love of gardening.

"They have made us welcome and been marvellous. They have let me support my partner.

"She's my life, I'm only here for her. I'm her eyes and ears."

Together with June, the garden gives him purpose. In return, it is providing the therapeutic outlet he needs.

“It’s a way of saying thank you to Calvary, and I mean it.”

Peter is by June's side up to five hours each day, often taking her a coffee from the in-home café to start their day together.

For much of the rest of the day before and after his keen eye, wealth of knowledge and experience, and considerable energy are let loose in the home's meandering and once somewhat overgrown courtyards.

The gardening project has become Peter’s mission and his therapy, and he happily spends time digging and weeding, pruning and planting.

With skip bins and a green light from Calvary, trees have been lopped or, like some of the “misplaced” tropical palm trees, removed altogether. Welcome light is allowing an assortment of flowers and shrubs to bloom in their place.

“You've got to have colour for ambience, its vital to our being,” said Peter.

He tries to create colour wherever he goes, sometimes using cottage garden perennials that, grown in the right spot, have a chance of surviving the winds off the bay or the heat.

There are foxgloves, begonias and pansies, azaleas of many colours, camelias trying to survive the local possums, peony roses, and fragrant tea roses, just to name a few. Hollyhocks that he has grown from seed will soon find a protected wall to grow up against.

“You’ve got to find positions where they won't get burnt or blown,” says Peter who was born into a family of nurserymen in the Frankston area and grew up with a hose in his hand from the age of seven.

Elsewhere there is a bird of paradise, and an old weeping maple he is keeping a close eye on after a previous harsh prune. A sculptured old mulberry tree, itself a work of living art, is tucked against a fence as a path turns a corner. Scarlet runner beans form a colourful backdrop along a trellis nearby, although in hindsight Peter thinks he’s probably put them in the wrong spot.

Purple hardenbergia is happy wandering atop a rock wall. Other natives like grevillea bring their own colour and beautiful bird life.

It all makes you want to stop and smell the roses, especially the scattering of old, old roses that he has carefully pruned and fed and brought back to life.

Like any garden it comes with its challenges, but he wants his fellow residents to be able to see out their windows and enjoy the changing colour and seasons and ambience.

Peace, colour, music, nature, joy. These are the things that are important to Peter. And June, of course.

“I had missed the contact with the earth and with nature. The smell of dirt and the smell of diesel light me up.”

A regular visitor stops to thank him. “I’ve been trying to catch you but you’re always busy,” the man says.

“It’s a great job, unbelievable really,” he offers. “This man is a bit of a legend, a garden artist.

“He has brought colour to the place.”