Behind the scenes in winter: Greenbank Garden

Transcript

1 speaker: Andrew Hinson

Andrew
My name is Andrew Hinson. I am the Head Gardener for Greenbank Garden here for the National Trust for Scotland.

We are standing on the main lawn in Greenbank Garden right now, all to ourselves, because the property is closed during the weekdays for the winter time.
Unfortunately, even if the garden is closed, the work never stops.
Winter can be just as busy as summer for us gardeners, and we have many, many things that we need to do, from pruning and cutting down all of our herbaceous and trimming all the shrubs for the winter, to making sure our historic wall is cleaned while we have access behind the plants, or even, very important, is maintaining all of our tools.
If we didn't do all these winter tasks that we have on at the moment then the garden would actually fall behind on itself.
Everything would look messy and brown, and all the waste would pile up.
We have 700 trees in the local area just surrounding the walled garden as our shelterbelt.
Can you imagine if we didn't clean up all those leaves?
How all the grass paths would be all muddy and squelchy and die with brown patches.
We need to make sure it's all clean and tidy so the paths can have time to rest during the winter, so people can come and enjoy and explore the garden in the spring and summer.

It's very important that, because we're a charitable organisation, we have to not only utilise the funds that the people of Scotland give us but make sure that we're doing the practices properly, that we don't waste that money.
Here at the Trust, we take such pride in the fact that we can display and show this garden off.
So, by allowing us to close and perform these winter tasks, that enables the garden to shine brightest in the summer.

Thank you for your continued support to the National Trust for Scotland.
The vital help that you provide allows us to look after these heritage green spaces and ensure that we can have them looking their best for everyone to enjoy.