Organic Gardening

David Howard is the head gardener at Highgrove, the private residence of the Prince and the Duchess of Cornwall in Gloucestershire.

He has been brought to Australia by the Friends of the Royal Botanic Gardens for a series of lectures on the garden at Highgrove, the philosophy behind it and a personal insight into the workings of the Duchy estate in Cornwall.

The Prince’s head gardener for eight years, Mr Howard has his employer’s imprimatur to spread the message about organic principles which, when he started espousing them more than 20 years ago, earned his boss some opprobrium.

“The man’s a crank!” it was said. And when he admitted to talking to his plants, the nation thought the future king had gone bonkers.

But in these times of global warming, climate change and drought, the crank tag has been dropped as Prince Charles’ philosophy has been widely accepted by the farming and gardening community as the practical way to help solve many environmental problems, including water conservation.

Describing himself and the Prince as a bit eccentric — “like most English people, I think” — Mr Howard said the organic principles practised at Highgrove and the Prince’s two other properties, Clarence House and Birkhall in Scotland, could be applied to large and small gardens.

The garden at Highgrove is diverse and highly personal, given that Prince Charles has worked in it for 27 years, according to Mr Howard.

It is also very English, of course.

In spring nine cultivars of tulips, more than 11,000 bulbs in total, herald the new season — while a patriotic kitchen garden, informal spaces, topiary on a grand scale, azalea and thyme walks, arbours and ornamental gardens all come into their own throughout the year.

There is also a southern hemisphere garden, an innovation of the Prince’s to include plants from other countries that include a Wollemi pine and numerous tree ferns that have to be cocooned in winter to protect them from the cold winters.

Mr Howard has a sense of ownership of the Highgrove garden (he lives on the estate) which he walks around every day for an hour to assess the state of play.

“If you talk to any head gardener in the UK, they’ll refer to it as their garden. The owners might get a bit upset but this is the person who spends more time in the garden than the owner.”

But when the owner is as proactive as Prince Charles, is there ever a clash of wills?

“The head gardener is the decision maker but it’s a question of compromise,” Mr Howard says.

“And (if there was an issue) my theory is that well, you’re paying me to be your head gardener for my horticultural knowledge and if you don’t want to take that advice, that’s fine, it’s your garden.

“The worst possible case scenario is you’d have to put it in writing saying ‘I don’t agree with what you’re doing’ and state the obvious so when it falls apart you can say, ‘well I told you so’.”

Presumably followed by “Sir”.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 12th, 2007 at 5:38 pm and is filed under Organic Gardening. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.