The former Woolworths Batemans Bay manager had at school wanted to be either a surveyor or a pharmacist, but a job offer swayed him.

His school job carrying groceries in brown paper bags to customers’ cars morphed into a trainee manager role – and he stayed 36 years with the company.

He enjoyed his job, but the desire to work outdoors never quite left him.

Last year, at the age of 55, and after a decade at the helm in Batemans Bay, Mr Marsden took long-service leave to try a part-time job gardening job.

“I was ready to retire, but not fully retire,” he said.

He also wanted to do his new job “the right way”, so enrolled in a TAFE horticulture course.

This week, Mr Marsden could be found with other students outside the Eurobodalla Shire Council chambers in high visibility clothing, with a shovel in hand and a few tonnes of pebbles and soil to be moved – and he could not be happier.

He is part of the team preparing wicking garden beds on the lawn, which will grow vegetables for the November South East Harvest Festival in Moruya.

“I thought I needed to know the correct way of doing things and TAFE, to me, was the answer,” Mr Marsden said.

“I enjoy the challenge and the work.”

After years of overseeing the sale of fruit and vegetables grown all around Australia and from overseas, Mr Marsden relishes the chance to show Eurobodalla children where their veggies come from.

“Children may see this growing in a public space and hopefully, someone will say, ‘that is the lettuce that ends up on your table’,” he said.

“That is excellent for kids, otherwise they think everything comes out of a packet or the fridge.

“How many people really know where their fruit and veg come from?”

Mr Marsden is also a fan of wicking beds, which consist of a plastic-lined bed, filled first with gravel and then soil, then watered through a vertical pipe.

“It is a great concept,” he said.

“When we first looked at the site, we thought, ‘how will we get water to it’?

“The wicking bed will use less water and it will be easier to keep the water up to it.”

Mr Marsden said his new role married his original interest in surveying and pharmacy.

He spends a lot of time thinking about the bigger picture of landscaping and enjoys studying soil chemistry.

“I did not even know horticulture existed,” he said of his school years.

He saw only one downside to his new career: “I hate weeding, but that goes with the territory.”

Mr Marsden said he had enjoyed working in a country supermarket and did not regret his career choice, but his new outdoor role had led to sounder sleep.

“I am probably more relaxed and comfortable,” he said.

His favourite plant is bottle brush, “for their bird-attracting ability in the right garden”.