Kellie Castle’s historic garden receives organic stamp of approval

Transcript

Hi, my name is Diane. I'm a Gardener for the National Trust for Scotland here at Kellie Castle in Fife.

Kellie Castle Garden is the first and only garden with the National Trust for Scotland to be fully certified as organic by the British Soil Association.

We gave up using chemicals in 1989. So, there's been no artificial intervention, no artificial pesticides, herbicides, or manures for 3 decades. Five years ago, we decided that we should go for full accreditation from the British Soil Association.  

It took us two years to have our first accreditation, which was for annual veg. The year after that, we managed to get the top fruit, so the apples, plums, pears, etc., all accredited. And this past year, in December 2024, we got full accreditation for the whole walled garden, which now means everything, from grass, hedges, to all the edibles, are fully certified organic.  

The garden at Kellie is now a fully working ecosystem. It has reached an equilibrium where it actually takes care of itself. As you look around the garden, you can see we have an abundance of insect life. We have an abundance of butterflies, bees, etc., which are all doing a job for us organically. So, they will either help us control pests or help us control disease. That's as well as our companion planting system,  which does the same thing. It all benefits nature and does the job that a chemical, or a pesticide, or a fertiliser would do for you. We don't need that; the garden doesn't need it. And as you look around, you can see that the garden is taking care of itself.

So, at Kellie, we talk to our visitors all the time about how they can achieve organic gardening at home. We just ask them to take a look around and see how easily it works. It's a sharp intake of breath, perhaps in the first instance, but once you let the chemicals go and you let nature come in, and let nature take care of itself, the work is done. But of course, when you don't use chemicals to control things like perennial weeds, it is quite hard work. You then have to get down on your hands and knees and take the weeds out by hand. We do that here at Kellie, and it's a team effort.

We have three paid staff, and a Head Gardener, but we have a core group of about 15 really hard-working volunteers who will help us do the job. But, like I say, when you leave the chemicals in the shed, nature will take care of itself.