“I love the stately charm of Chatsworth”
Head gardener Steve Porter talks about his role maintaining the historic garden
Steve Porter oversees a large team of 22 gardeners, three trainees and more than 70 volunteers. He works closely with the owners, the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire
How did you get the job? I trained at the National Trust on their careership scheme before coming to Chatsworth 10 years ago as Assistant Head Gardener. When the Head Gardener and Park Manager retired I took over both their roles. I now look after 105 acres of garden and another 2,000 acres of parkland. It keeps me busy!
What are the main jobs? In winter it’s project work – anything from drainage to path improvement – and this year we’ve been improving the hard landscaping along the Trout Stream. It’s all the harder, messier, bigger stuff. In spring it’s all heads down for sowing, bedding out, mowing and planting. In summer it’s mowing and hedge cutting; a large portion of the garden is left to meadow, which is filled with fritillaries and orchids. We cut the meadow from June to August. We’ve been using parasitic yellow rattle to control the grass and the orchids that have popped up as a result have been amazing. We harvest the seeds and re-sow them. Autumn is all about bulb planting en masse and taking out the tender plants.
What will you be doing in June? We’ll be removing the tulips and hyacinths, swapping them for tender tropical plants such as dahlias, bananas, palms and salvias.
What’s your favourite part of the garden? I love the trees and shrubs, and getting out into the wider garden. In the very far reaches of the garden there’s a pinetum – a fantastic collection of trees planted in the 1840s which is carpeted with bluebells in late April and May – they put on a fantastic show under the conifers. It’s the quietest area; you can escape there and not see a soul!
What’s the most challenging part of your job? The scale – everything here is on a huge scale. It’s not planting 30 bulbs but 3,000. Visitor numbers are also huge, which is great but it puts wear and tear on the garden and we have to work around them. Everything is scaled up here, which makes it look amazing but also brings challenges around how we achieve what we want to achieve.
Any special new projects for 2017? For the first time this year we’re doing carpet bedding using foliage, not f lowers. We’re continuing to expand Dan Pearson’s planting around the Trout Stream, so as it matures you’ll be able to see it from every angle, but still keeping the impact of Dan’s 2015 show garden. Obviously, there’s our new RHS show in June too, which we’re heavily involved in. It’s an opportunity to tell the great horticultural stories of the garden.
What’s the best bit of your job? Our diversity – every day is different, and the Cavendish family keeps it alive in terms of ideas and what they want to do. They also want everyone to be involved; we all feed into the process, even the students.