Anonymous

Experienced gardener

Ruthin, Denbighshire, Wales, United Kingdom

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Details

Job Industry: Landscaping, Arboriculture, Horticulture

Job Type / Level: Manager / Head / Head of

Industry Qualifications: Level 3 Landscaping or Horticulture

Skills & Experience: Plant Identification - Advanced, Garden Design, Pruning techniques, Soil preparation, Paving and hardscaping, Tree and shrub planting, Weed control, Lawn care, Chainsaw operation, Hedge trimmer, Brushcutter/strimmer, Hand tools (spade, rake, trowel), Rotavator, Leaf blower, Pedestrian Mower, Ride-on Mower, Pesticide/Herbicide Spraying, Fertiliser Application, Scarification / Verti Cutting, Aeration, Grass Identification, Disease and Pest Identification, Drainage Systems, Backlapping, Regrinding, Turfing, Seeding, Fencing, Brick Laying, Slabbing, Computer Skills - Beginner, Customer Service, Account Management, Budget Management, Estimating, Leadership, Management, Communication, Quoting

About

To Whom it may concern,

I was born and brought up In Ruthin and educated at Brynhyfryd school. While at school I helped my Grandfather with the garden at Bathafarn Hall in Ruthin, he had recently moved there after working for many years at the Rhug Estate in Corwen.

In the early 80s, I applied for and was taken on by the National Trust at Osterley Park in west London, where they were in the process of a major restoration of the 136-acre late Georgian Park.

From there I moved to Coleherne Court, Kensington, maintaining a two-acre Edwardian courtyard garden, where Diana Spencer had lived prior to marrying Prince/King Charles.

I next moved to a ten-acre garden in Richmond Park owned by the Sultan of Abu Dhabi. This was kept in a mid-Victorian style, and I was responsible for the greenhouse work, carpet bedding topiary and fine turf.

In 1990 I moved to Sussex to caretake the house and tend the garden at Charleston Farmhouse near Lewes (famous for being the home of the Bloomsbury Group). This early twentieth century painter’s garden, had just been restored by Sir Peter Shepheard. It featured vegetable, fruit and cut flower gardens, meadows, orchards as well as herbaceous borders.

In 1995 I started a gardening business aiming to provide fine gardening services to five or six local rectories, farmhouses and country houses. Most contained high maintenance areas such as vegetable gardens, mixed borders and rose beds, as well as less intense orchards, meadows and woodland.

Over the last 30 years I have designed and maintained hundreds of gardens all across Sussex. Among the gardens I currently keep are the garden, orchard and vegetable garden, for Caroline Lucas, ecological activist and former Green Party MP.

I have cared for no-dig, biodynamic, permaculture and forest farms, as well as designing many herb gardens. I also once designed a physic garden, only using plants that have extracts currently used by the NHS.

About ten years ago I undertook a BSc in Land Management (while still working full time). This included modules on plant and soil health, landscape architecture and ecology, I wrote a management plan for a local ancient woodland and wrote my dissertation on the “Adverse Impact of Tree Diseases on Human Health”. I graduated with upper second-class honours (2:1).

Business in Sussex is still very brisk, but after my parents passed away, I bought the family home in Ruthin with the aim of returning to north Wales. It is with that goal in mind that I submit this application. I know Llandderfel well having grown up locally, as a large part of my family live nearby or in the Dee Valley.