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I had no plans to become a presenter. It was gardening – that was my love
CAROLE BAXTER REFLECTS ON HER RELUCTANT TV DEBUT ... AND WHAT SHE’S LEARNED AFTER 40 YEARS ON THE BEECHGROVE GARDEN
CAROLE Baxter never planned to be on TV. When she joined the Beechgrove Garden team 40 years ago it was with the intention of staying firmly out of sight as resident gardener behind the scenes. Her sole goal was to gain experience in her fledgling horticultural career.
But then – after three years in the job – an unexpected opportunity came knocking: would she like to be a presenter? Baxter, now 65, recalls her jangling nerves as she did her debut piece to camera for the BBC Scotland programme alongside the show’s stalwart presenter, Jim McColl.
“When I was interviewed for gardener behind the scenes, I didn’t have a television,” she says.
“I was very much there to get the gardening job. I had no plans or thoughts to become a presenter. It was gardening. That was my love. And it was a bit of a shock when I was approached.”
Baxter laughs heartily at the memory. “I can still remember the day where I had to walk out of the greenhouse and speak to Jim,” she continues.
“I was thinking, ‘Oh, my goodness. I am really nervous about this …’
“Even now, I still feel far more comfortable when I am doing a piece to camera that is practical. I often say to people, ‘I am not an actor; I am a gardener.’ If you are doing your trade, you are perfectly comfortable.
“It was far easier to start off with speaking to Jim, who was the other main presenter, because you are having a conversation rather than doing a piece to the lens. People nod, you can see whether they are smiling or look like they don’t understand what you are saying.
“The lens doesn’t respond the same way as when you are talking to somebody. I found that hard in my first year.”
Let’s rewind a bit further. Baxter’s love of gardening began in childhood when she would help her father to tend the one-acre plot around their home near Maidstone in Kent. As a youngster, she would get pocket money for picking out stones from the soil.
“I was encouraged to help and only too happy to do that kind of thing,” says Baxter. “When I was a Brownie, I did my gardening badge and had a little patch in the garden where I sowed wildflowers.
“My dad was a keen gardener and loved being outside. My mum did a bit of gardening as well, but my dad in particular I always used to help out in the garden. So, it started from a young age, but I never
thought about it as a career until I left university.”
Baxter studied geography at Sussex University. “I did quite a bit on soils and plant physiology,” she says. “There was a background of ecology, as well as the quaternary studies. It was geography as a science, rather than geography as an art.”
After university, she moved to Scotland where her first job was on the estate at Kildrummy Castle, Aberdeenshire. Baxter then went on to look after an ornamental garden belonging to the University Air Squadron in Aberdeen.
She honed her skills while doing day release classes in amenity horticulture at Elmwood College in Cupar, Fife. “Somebody showed me an advert for Beechgrove,” says Baxter. “I wasn’t looking for a job at the time, but I thought, ‘Why not go for it?’”
And the rest, as they say, is history. Asked about the highlights of her 40-year stint on the series, Baxter has no shortage of engaging anecdotes. One particular standout was when Beechgrove decamped to the Glasgow Garden Festival for the summer in 1988.
She describes it as “wonderful and fun” but also “hard going” because the team had to split their time between the garden in Aberdeen and a dedicated festival garden in Glasgow.
“If my memory serves me correctly, we filmed in the Aberdeen garden one week and then travelled down to Glasgow and
filmed in that garden the next week,” says Baxter. “We grew quite a few of the bedding plants in Aberdeen and those were used in the Glasgow garden.
“It was a fantastic atmosphere and a very successful garden festival. There were so many people there.”
Filming amid the hustle and bustle – 4.3 million visitors attended the summer-long festival – wasn’t for the faint-hearted. One such occupational hazard was folk accidentally wandering into shot or chatting to Baxter and her fellow presenters as they worked.
SHE chuckles at the memory. “People would come up to you and ask a question when you were in the middle of filming. We had a bolthole – a potting shed – that we could hide in. We could see out the windows, but people couldn’t see in.
“It was funny. We would be inside having our lunch. There were little window boxes at the front with fuchsias. We actually saw somebody taking a cutting and knocked on the window.”
The Beechgrove line-up has changed over the decades and when Jim McColl retired in 2019 after more than four decades, Baxter took up the mantle as the longest serving presenter still on the show.
“Jim and I are still good friends and I meet up with him occasionally for coffee,” she says. “I miss him because he has been very supportive – we are good pals and looked after one another in that way.”
Baxter reminisces about her baptism of fire as she took to the stage for her first Beechgrove Garden Roadshow Special back in the early days of her presenting career.
“That was terrifying,” she says. “You are going out in front of an audience and having to answer questions on anything – you don’t get given them in advance. I remember Jim patting me on the back and saying, ‘You will be OK, Carole – just go for it.’”
Working on Beechgrove has led to many adventures over the decades. “We have done some wonderful community gardens,” says Baxter. “I feel like I have travelled to so many different parts of Scotland.
“We have gone right up to Shetland and Orkney, over to some of the Western Isles and down to the Borders. You meet so many like-minded people, which is wonderful.”
IT is the variety of the job, she says, that has made the long-running series such a joy to work on and kept her there all this time. The latest run will see the team tackle an array of projects, as well as celebrate a big landmark for the show.
“I have worked on the programme for 40 years, but Beechgrove is celebrating 45 years in 2023,” says Baxter. “That is a sapphire anniversary, so we have decided to come up with a bit of a blue theme.
“With our containers we will definitely be having a touch of blue and that happens to be one of my favourite colours. We might be growing a few blue tatties – I don’t want to give too much away …”
In response to viewer feedback, there will also be a monthly “back to basics” slot where the Beechgrove team give a masterclass on skills that should come in handy whether you are a long-time, greenfingered enthusiast or an aspiring rookie.
What else can we expect from the current series? “Wildlife gardens,” says Baxter. “We will also be thinking very much about the cost of living and our handy hints will focus on how you can save some money.
“We are going to be taking on a new-build garden and showing how that can be developed throughout the series.
“We will continue to do things like growing our tatties and tomatoes,” she adds. “We have found that a lot of people have turned to their houseplants as well. If you haven’t got a garden, you can have a garden indoors, can’t you?”
What comes across strongly throughout our conversation is that Baxter loves connecting with people and hearing their stories, as well as sharing her own expertise.
“I think it is so important,” she says. “Jim uses the phrase ‘every day is a school day’ because none of us can know everything about gardening. There are so many plants – you are always learning.”
Similar to many viewers, Baxter enjoys the “therapeutic” benefits that gardening brings. “For me, I can go out in the garden and never mind the lunch,” she says. “Hours and hours can go by. I think
I can go out in the garden and never mind the lunch. Hours and hours can go by. It helps so many people