In conversation with Tim Parker, Head Gardener at Stourhead
25 April 2022
Tim Parker fell in love with gardening the moment his parents gave him a small plot in their back garden when he was aged just five. Since then, Tim has gone on to forge a deep affinity with a the natural world with gardening providing a gateway into it.
Now head gardener at the National Trust’s Stourhead House and Gardens, and with a wealth of experience and knowledge behind him, Tim spoke to us about nature-based gardening, climate change and what he expects from the first ever Planted event to be held at the iconic venue.
What are you expecting from Planted Country, Tim?
Having seen the literature and coverage of past events we are very excited to be hosting the first ever Planted event in the countryside and we hope this is the start of many more here to come. Planted presents a real opportunity for us to broaden ourselves and open our minds on currently, pressing issues including well-being, sustainability and living with a minimal footprint.
How much interest do you personally take in issues around climate change and biodiversity decline?
Much, both inside and outside of my work, working for the National Trust is in itself a specific choice and it is a great privilege as a member of staff to dedicate my working life towards a meaningful cause where values are aligned. With the growing knowledge we are gifted with today the future of our environment is now more than ever knowingly in our hands. We can, to a large degree make positive choices and make positive actions to better secure the future of our environment no matter how tiny. Not only is this a positive act for our children’s children but good for our internal inbuilt wellbeing, a fundamental human need is being at one with nature.
What motivated you to become a gardener?
I was lucky, my parents had a garden, and while it wasn’t huge, to me aged five the area they gave over to me felt as if it was. Today when revisiting the 1 x 2 metre border that once looked so big as a child looks small. But most importantly it was mine for many years and the seed was sown early, pocket money would be spent on packets of seeds picked up from DIY stores and garden centres when following my parents round as a young boy. I am too, a practical person at heart so my journey in came early. Being practical I wasn’t inspired to follow my many classmates into the burgeoning IT industry or other office roles Early on I toyed with being a chef but very happily settled into my first seasonal Assistant Gardener Job at Claremont Landscape Garden back in 2003 and have never looked back. It is the most rewarding job you could ever do, that and caring for the countryside as a ranger.
What role can gardening play in improving the current situation?
Traditionally gardening hasn’t always been at one with its natural environment, to garden an area to a certain degree can be viewed as creating an artificial environment in the outdoors. However experiences in our garden spaces can be our very first brushes with the outdoors and the springboard to a lifelong connection with our wider natural environment. Gardening is if you like a gateway drug to the natural world.
The annual National Survey on people and the Natural Environment by DEFRA year on year quote the rising importance and demand for people to have access to greenspaces and wildlife. But conversely over time our national portfolio of green spaces and gardens has contracted and got ever smaller. Even a small balcony with an array of potted plants can create a much-needed oasis for people and wildlife alike and counteract this trend.
Garden spaces counteract the growing impact of flooding, rising temperatures in the warmer months and act as a warmth sump in the colder months, most noticeably felt in urban areas. We all need home and most importantly gardens can provide good homes, habitat for wildlife. In short it doesn’t matter how large or small a space collectively our gardens and green spaces are intrinsically important.
Gardening allows us to connect with the natural world at our very most subconscious level, something that is an absolute human need a need that’s built into our DNA, wherever you come from.
How much notice does the National Trust play to climate change and habitat loss?
The National Trust is a ‘Conservation’ focused charity in every sense of the word, more obviously we have long preserved amazing houses, estates, gardens but our ambition and impact is much wider felt than that. We care for wide-ranging landscapes and we are looking at these areas at a landscape scale. At Stourhead we care for 2650 acres of countryside including the magnificent hill at White Sheet overlooking the whole of Stourhead, Farmland, Countryside and Woodland that surrounds it and joins major neighbouring landscapes.
In our day to day work we have trackers that enable us to manage and reduce our impact on the environment. We are currently divorcing from the use of petrol-powered garden equipment and replacing with battery tools which are cleaner, quieter and better for our health. We have annual environmental compliance targets which have meant many sites including Stourhead have adopted specialist machinery wash down areas with recycling water systems in place to safely contain unwanted materials from water courses. All garden waste is composted onsite and returned back into the grounds as a usable soil enhancer. We have a working woodland estate which is carefully managed with nature in mind to provide wood for use on and off the estate and a biomass woodchip powered boiler supplying heat for the main house to drive conservation heating systems.
Both the gardens and shops only source plants and compost from peat free suppliers, something that the National Trust adopted as a policy as far back as 1999, as an organisation we have been a leading light on this environmental issue and many more and led the way. More widely we want to influence positive solutions for wildlife, particularly at a landscape scale and some of this involves getting our own sites in as good order in sustainability terms in order to better support this wider work.
What is it doing to help effect positive change?
Fostering support for issues surrounding our climate, sustainability wildlife, nature and wellbeing, being more and more adopted as a mainstream issue, making it something we can all be involved in and that these important matters permanently remain at the forefront of everyone’s consciousness. The National Trust is in an amazing position to help people learn more about the natural environment and we continually look to create special opportunities to be connect with it. People, naturally will only care about something, if they feel connected with it, so one of our roles is to support creating more and more special experiences in and with nature.
Like everyone the National Trust and Stourhead, we are on a journey to a more sustainable future. We are open to learning more along the way and a big part of that is opening out as an organisation and property to wider partnership working and one of the key reasons we were keen to work with and host Planted.
From a gardening perspective, what are the easiest things people can do to help nature?
I have mentioned avoiding peat above, so this is a great conscious decision we can all make at the checkout and an easy change. Leaving a section of a lawn unmown, to become longer will create a burgeoning habitat in any garden with a lawn, plus its less work and energy. Working with nature and not against it has to be my top tip. Do we really need slug pellets when hanging a bird feeder up in a garden would likely yield the same effect? Nature always has a solution we just need to find them and harness them.
I am fortunate to have a garden but it is relatively small so I am really keen on getting a wormery for our food waste which the worms in turn will create the most wonderful soil enricher and liquid feed. Avoiding the need to buy in industrial made liquid fertilisers that in the long run do more harm and create an ongoing reliance on such feeds could be a good way forward if space/time is too limited for composting.
Growing what wants to grow in a given space, doing a little bit of research into a plants native environment can save a lot of pain further down the track.
To quote a colleague “use lolly sticks or similar as plant labels rather than plastic ones”.
What are you most looking forward to at Planted Country?
Just to see us working alongside a like-minded, aligned organisation and Stourhead. Opening our gates to welcome the wider public hosting the first ever Planted Country event and on National Trust land, in this very special landscape I think is going to be something very special indeed. I am looking forward to having my and many others minds opened and broadened and for all this to happen amongst the surroundings at Stourhead is going to be a great experience to witness.
