silverlining48
That’s quite a staff turnover though. 11 out of 12.
Famous gardens, like professional kitchens, often have a very high turnover of staff. That's been my experience working in both (many years volunteer gardener for National Trust at a high profile garden. By my tenth year, I'd worked there longer that any of the paid gardeners. We'd had three Head Gardeners.
. Lots of reasons. Professional kitchens are a very high-stress working environment; Hot, long hours, unsocial shifts, tempers can run high.
Professional gardening also has stresses. It's not all roses and birdsong on a sunny day. Highgrove garden has 40,000 visitors a year. That is a lot of wear and tear on the garden (that it wasn't originally laid out for) , and some, on the staff
trying to get the work done and answer questions and be polite whatever the provocation.*. Gardening for a wealthy owner (especially one who is often away at other homes, abroad etc) can also be very frustrating. Almost every aspect of gardening, operates on a longterm plan. Yet the absent owner wants everything to be perfect on the day he arrives. Even though there's recently been no rain or too much rain; that spring was very early or there was a late frost in June . So the planned program for that year is not running on time. Someone I know gardens for an American millionaire who has properties all over the world and bottomless pockets. He knows nothing about plants, or gardening in the UK climate; but he expects his UK garden to be perfect when he turns up once a year. He never spends more than 2 weeks in uk per year. The rest of the year, the house is unoccupied and the garden unseen and the gardener working alone. I said to the gardener; "Sounds like the job from heaven" , he replied " I thought that. It isn't; just a different set of problems. ".
The payrates for professional gardeners are not high; but the job often comes with a free house and use of vehicle. The member of staff is paying no rent, no insurance, not responsible for upkeep and repairs. Those are a huge tax free perk of the job and to my certain knowledge, many head gardeners live in the free "house with the job" and in addition, are buying a private home which they let out until they retire.
People think of Highgrove as the private garden of a very keen and knowledgeable gardener who's given free rein to his imagination. But in fact it belongs to the Duchy of Cornwall, which is no longer Charles's title. It's William's. Charles now rents it. It's now managed for the Kings Trust whose remit includes the training of young people into work skills. This means a steady through-put of trainees; some of whom with "Highgrove Trained" glowing on their CV then move on to permanent jobs elsewhere; and some of whom leave because they find out gardening is not the life for them. So yes, there is a turnover, and green trainees are at the bottom of the national pay scale. And no doubt some longterm staff find gardening Highgrove has changed a lot or don't see eye to eye with the new management and can take their pick of jobs elsewhere.
