“Colour themed borders can be such a challenge”
Head gardener Paul Gallivan reveals his favourite parts of the job at Woolbeding
Paul Gallivan has been head gardener at Woolbeding since March 2010, after spending 15 years at RHS Garden Wisley
How did you get the job at Woolbeding? After 15 years at Wisley I decided I needed a change and saw the Head Gardener role advertised. I was fascinated by the garden because I could find very little information about it but fell in love with its layout, the high quality of work and strong features, even in December.
How big is your team? There’s five full-time gardeners including myself. We also have a small team of dedicated volunteers who help all year round; during our open season we have staff and volunteers to welcome visitors.
What are the main seasonal jobs? In spring we have annual seed sowing, mulching, dividing herbaceous material, staking borders, planting out tulips, lawn maintenance and potting on cuttings taken in September – and plant the summer container displays. In summer there’s lots of weeding, dead heading and planting out. We give some taller perennials the Chelsea chop in May to control their height and take about 2,000 cuttings for planting out next year. We also pot on the orchids and clean the greenhouses. We cut back the borders from October onwards, mulch the veg garden and plan for the following year, planting 5,000–10,000 bulbs.
What will you be doing in May? I’ll be planting annuals and other tender plants, tying in new growth on clematis, climbing roses and wisteria. I’ll be seed sowing for autumn, removing spent bulbs, cutting back early flowering perennials and annuals, planting in the veg garden and giving our box hedges their first trim.
Do you have a favourite part of the gardens? I love the Well Garden. It’s a small green-themed garden room: a mix of soft white and lime green f lowers and an array of bold foliage. It’s a calm area of the garden where you can sit on a south-facing bench and enjoy the warmth of the sunshine and relax.
What’s the most challenging part of your job? Woolbeding borders are all colour themed and getting the right shade of pink or yellow is a challenge. Planting out something new where the label or seed catalogue shows one colour, then it f lowers very differently can cause a headache, leaving me and the team with a hole to fill!
Anything unusual that we can’t see elsewhere? The lovely colour-themed formal borders and the Bannerman Pleasure Garden are both really special, as is the 18th century landscape that surrounds them. Plants are allowed to fill the space in the border and tumble over the pathways here. Plus there are lots of personal touches – odd planters here and there – which create the feeling it’s still someone’s personal garden.
What keeps you interested? A great team of people who work hard to maintain the gardens and also, learning something new each week. I also enjoy adding plants to the garden, solving problem areas and improving the level of horticulture year on year. There’s always a new project that requires new skills to be learned and old skills to be refreshed and shared.