Bill McKinlay – growing for the future

On a small block of land in Dovedale lives a remarkable man who looks after a thriving, innovative native plant nursery.

Bill McKinlay isn’t from around these parts. He grew up in Trentham and spent much of his life in Otago, but came to Tasman 10 or 11 years ago to be closer to his son and daughter in law.

Bill used to grow vegetables but then a few things happened to change his course. Hortons Nursery hosted an event several years ago that Bill attended. He needed a new hedge. And then along came covid.

 “Being in isolation gave me alot of time to potter around and come up with new ideas.”

Now 4 years on, Bill has a shade house and nursery containing 7,500 plants of over 20 species, and supplied 4,000 plants last year to local landowners wishing to plant natives on their land. Bill’s nursery is mainly set up to grow coloniser species – those species that grow reasonably quickly in a new restoration area and create a habitat for other trees. He’s hosted many events at his nursery with the community, including children from the local Dovedale School, with the help of his friend Debbie Win, Chair of the MCC Steering Group.

Bill is an experimenter. He’s not just happy to do the same old things. He’s always testing new ideas in the hope of getting stronger, faster plant growth and efficiency of restoration. He grows plants in different sorts of containers to test growing speed and plant health. He also grows a few plants to attract butterflies including a native tree nettle which is host to the red admiral butterfly.

He makes seed bombs using an old concrete mixer. He also builds wire cages for the root trainers so they don’t have to be replaced so quickly.

Some things don’t work out. Some things do!

Bill collects seed from a number of areas around the catchment, but mostly from nearby areas of bush including QEII covenants. This he does mostly in autumn when the seeds drop. Last year he said he collected and sowed 10 – 20,000 beech seeds but most were infertile so only a dozen or so germinated – all part of the growing process. 

Bill is part of the Biodiversity and Restoration Thematic Group of the Motueka Catchment Collective. This is made up of a core group of eight highly experienced, knowledgeable people in the area of restoration, biodiversity and botany.

The Dovedale nursery is one of four community nurseries in the catchment.

Bill very modestly says “I’m no expert. But after working in the mining industry for many years, I thought it was about time I did my bit to help the environment”