Steve Edney – The Secret Gardener!

From Farmhouse to Greenhouse

For most of us, gardening is a hobby. Something to while away an hour or two in the summer, before we sit back, relax and enjoy the fruits of our labours.

Not so for Steve Edney, for whom gardening is his passion – indeed, his life.

As far back as he can remember, Steve has worked with – and on – the land. As a small boy, brought up in the hinterland of Margate, he spent hours down on the farm with his grandparents, helping the menfolk to dig, plough and harvest, before moving indoors to help his grandmother prepare, pack and freeze some of the crops, while turning others into delicious preserves, jams and pickles for eager consumption at the end of a hard day’s toil.

Traditional farmhouse life was pretty much echoed with his other grandparents, who had an allotment and were forever planting, sowing and growing to help feed the family.

Steve recalls: “Neither of my parents was particularly keen on gardening, but as a child I was always out digging and getting my hands dirty with one granddad or the other. Then I would help my nan with the chopping, peeling and pickling. I loved it!”

When he left King Ethelbert’s School, Birchington, at the age of 16, going to Hadlow College, near Tonbridge, to get some formal training credits seemed a natural thing to do for someone who already had packed in years of practical experience.

Although he now has a clutch of certificates to his name, Steve still modestly maintains: “I am a mediocre gardener at best. What I have is a determination and a passion – they are my driving forces – plus a solid practical ability.”

To see an example of this ‘mediocrity’, it is necessary to take a look at The Secret Gardens of Sandwich, where Steve has been Head Gardener for the past five years.

During that time, he has transformed a desolate, neglected garden, once the pride and joy of owners at the Lutyens-designed Salutation manor house, into a flourishing and magnificent oasis of calm and tranquillity, bursting with blooms and species from all corners of the globe.

Of course, he hasn’t done it single-handedly. Today, he has a team of three other gardeners and four students, also from Hadlow College, to help run the exacting round-the-clock rota which keeps these stunning gardens in their prime throughout the changing seasons.

While other folk are resting at home, or maybe taking a day out to the coast, on a weekend, Steve and his team will be busy behind the scenes ensuring that visitors to the Secret Gardens get the most out of their experience.

There is always a gardening expert on hand to answer questions while ensuring the feeding and watering programme is maintained and any unwarranted predators – of the pestilential kind – are well and truly nipped in the bud.

Sundays and Bank Holidays tend to be the busiest times for visitors, so that means a surge of extra effort in the run-up to the weekend.  And there’s no let-up in the winter months; that’s when all the weeding out, sowing and propagating gets underway – as well as planting out of extra spring bulbs to ensure an early splash of colour in the Spring.

“There are 60,000 bulbs in the gardens now,” says Steve. “What was once a neglected meadow area is now filled with Giant Crocus, Reticulated Iris and Chinodoxa.”

In a few weeks’ time, their place will be taken by a raft of wild flowers, bobbing gaily in the breeze, while some 40 species of daffodils will be turning their faces to the spring sunshine.

As any gardener will appreciate, none of this happens by accident.

Indeed, the role of a gardener is probably one of the most physically demanding jobs there is.

“It can be quite tiring spending an afternoon weeding, planting and mowing your own garden,” says Steve. “Imagine doing it for eight hours a day, five or six days a week!”

Steve maintains there are three prime reasons for choosing to work as a gardener – to earn money and because you have a love of plants and a desire to work outdoors.

“Why else would you do it? – it physically wrecks you and mentally exhausts you. Sometimes I get quite emotionally burnt out.”

Steve has seen five years-worth of students pass through the gardens and reckons only about 50% of those who think they want to be gardeners actually complete the course and go on to fulfil their dream.

“The reality of what the job involves is just too much for most people,” he said. “You need to be physically fit – and if you aren’t you soon will be.”

But, he adds with a grin: “You’ll never need to go to the gym – so I suppose there are some perks to be had!”

A willingness to work hard and good people skills are an asset to the job and, since taking on the role of Head Gardener, an ability to draw up rotas, duty rosters and work to budgets has been an added advantage in managing his team.

As with any job, you can’t beat hands-on experience and enthusiasm. Even as a student, Steve worked evenings and weekends as a groundsman at Sandwich Town Cricket Club to help supplement his meagre student allowance of £29.50 a week!

After spending a year studying arboriculture at Merrist Wood, near Guildford, Steve spent a time working for a local tree surgeon before branching out (ouch!) into gardening.

The work is doubly challenging because the gardens form part of the Parker’s family home as well as being an award-winning tourist attraction.

However, being part of the Parker’s ‘extended family,’ means the job is also twice as rewarding.

Although Dominic and Stephanie have always been garden enthusiasts themselves – indeed, part of the attraction of purchasing The Salutation was the challenge of restoring the garden – they are happy to bow to Steve’s superior knowledge when it comes to ‘pots and plans’……

“There are times when we disagree – but not very often,” says Steve. “This is such a massive project that it is important we work as a team and, I am pleased to say, we’ve got one of the best teams around.”

The team were among those recognised at the end of 2009 when The Secret Gardens was joint winner of the Kent Business Excellence Tourism Award, alongside the well-established Chatham Historic Dockyard – not bad for an enterprise which is still very much in its infancy.

A victim of their own success, the Secret Gardens of Sandwich are no longer quite the secret they once were.

However, Steve’s vision for ongoing improvement to the gardens, in keeping with Gertrude Jekyll’s original designs, mean there will be plenty of surprises for visitors for many years to come.

It would be wrong to give out too many ‘secrets’, but suffice to say the gardens already boast 30 out of Britain’s 33 native trees…. not to mention some of the world’s rarest species, such as its Jurassic conifer, the Wollemi Pine, and the unusual midsummer-flowering Tree Lupin.

Constantly adding new varieties of flora and foliage is high on the agenda, as is improving the gardens with even more of Gertrude Jekyll’s signature plants, such as Cistus, Hebes and Euphorbias.

Steve and his team have just added 40 new roses from the National Rose Collection and these ‘ramblers and scramblers,’ adorning locally-sourced Chestnut columns, should be well-established by the end of the summer.

With 10,000 seedlings ready to plant out and 8,000 plants in 2-litre pots, all for sale or planting in the garden, there’s no sign of the gardener’s work abating.

And, when he’s not digging around in the gardens, he has a busy schedule of speaking engagements and lectures at his Alma Mater, Hadlow College.

So, if gardening is not for relaxation, what does the busy gardener do to wind down at the end of a strenuous week?

Read a book? Chill out in front of the TV and watch a bit of sport?

“No! For rest, I climb a mountain.”

Steve, who is a fully-qualified UK Mountain Leader Guide, has successfully completed the gruelling Three Peaks Challenge four times, and guided groups for charity three times.

Although it took eight months in training, running seven miles a day, he still enjoys nothing more than heading for the hills, with little more than a rucksack, a tent and a camera for company.

He will happily camp ‘wild’ for up to three days – with nothing and nobody to disturb him. As in the Secret Garden, mobile phones are strictly no go!

Steve said: “Half the excitement is gambling with your life – although obviously I don’t take unnecessary risks.”

He is already excited by news that flights are to resume from Manston to Edinburgh, getting him closer to his much-loved Scottish Highlands a whole lot quicker, while this winter’s snow meant more opportunities for his favourite ice climbs in North Wales.

So, if you don’t bump into Steve on your visit to The Secret Gardens, try heading for the hills – you just might find him under canvas on a mountain top!