Kate faces abundance of history at Arundel Castle

A horticulturist is trying to resist the urge to label every plant she sees in the brimming herbaceous borders at Arundel Castle.  Kate Pheasant, 32, is the latest addition to the team responsible for the stunning displays that mesmerise thousands of visitors to the Sussex castle every year.


Even though it is closed for the winter season, new arrival Kate is finding there is plenty to do. A heavy planting schedule is underway, including more than 32,000 bulbs around the castle grounds for a spectacular display next spring.


Having been here for just a few weeks I’m still getting to know all the different areas of the stunning gardens,” Kate admits. “It’s really, really beautiful and at the moment I’m quite overcome by the history of it all and working on such a magnificent site, which gardeners have worked on for centuries”.


Kate, who originates from London, now has her dream job after following a circuitous route as a PA, first for a publishing company in the West End and then for the environmental regeneration charity Groundwork, based in Hackney. She realised her destiny was with plants after completing a course in permaculture, while travelling around Australia. “It made me think about how we grow food, and how we use land and the value we put on it,” she said. “So when I came back to England, I ran away to be a gardener!”


Kate has completed a Royal Horticultural Society course and a series of City & Guild diplomas in horticulture, organic gardening and garden design, studying during her evenings and spare time and through day-release while she was still a PA. “My boss realised early on that I was passionate about plants, so I was allowed to be a PA for four days of the week and study plants the rest of the time.”


Kate reveals how light was recently thrown on her long-standing love affair with all things green after her mother discovered a ‘Get Well Soon’ card she had drawn as a child for her late grandfather. “He had been a keen horticulturalist too, so I drew a picture of him in his garden surrounded by plants” she said.


 


Kate has now been a full-time gardener for seven years including as a maintenance gardener for large private estates in Middlesex, and as a horticultural manager on a 175-acre farm in Hertfordshire where she supplied produce for vegetable boxes and the farm’s visitor cafe. With this experience behind her, Kate is now looking forward to a fruitful career at Arundel Castle.


For more information contact Susan Fleet at Lea Graham Associates on 01444 235475 or email susan@leagraham.com