The King's gardens

Alan Titchmarsh considers the new monarch’s extraordinary contribution to British gardening, which is always underpinned by organic methods and a strong belief in husbandry and stewardship

- Alan Titchmarsh

OVER the past century, our Kings and Queens have made their own mark on British gardens and gardening. Queen Mary, consort of George V, took great delight in pulling ivy away from tree trunks when she stayed at Badminton House in Gloucestershire during the Second World War. George VI was keen on rhododendrons, working with Sir Eric Savill to develop the Savill Garden in Windsor Great Park and Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe to design a series of garden rooms at Sandringham in Norfolk. His widow, Queen Elizabeth, created her own sanctuary, after the King’s death, at the Castle of Mey in Caithness and closer to home at Royal Lodge in the Great Park, where she spent her weekends.

Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh left their own stamp on the gardens at Windsor Castle where, as Prince Philip informed me, he ‘redesigned the East Terrace, including the fountain in the middle’, and supervised the laying out of a ‘sitting-out garden’ beneath the terrace walls. At Balmoral, he ‘redesigned almost the entire garden, except for the formal rose beds directly west of the castle’.

All these endeavours contributed to the personal enjoyment of the sovereigns and their consorts, but they also emphasised the importance of gardens and gardening, regardless of rank and stature. Gardening has always been a great leveller and, whether the participant lives in a castle with thousands of acres or in rented accommodation with a nearby allotment, growing plants to enrich our lives both mentally and physically and, in so doing, benefiting the natural world is undeniably life-enhancing.