This year Killerton celebrates the anniversary of the laying out of the garden by John Veitch.
1808 marked the beginning of the most important phase in the development of the garden at Killerton. Under instruction by Sir Thomas Ackland and his young bride Lydia, Veitch set about creating a more impressive and mature garden, much of which is still loved and enjoyed by visitors to the property today.
The responsibility of this significant history weighs heavily but also snugly on the shoulders of Killerton’s new head gardener Kate Vivian-Neal:
'It’s the most important thing in the back of my mind whenever I make a decision about the garden, however small.'
Having spent eight years at Killerton as assistant head gardener, Kate jumped at the opportunity of becoming its new head gardener and taking on the responsibility of breathing new life into the garden.
© National Trust
Kate doesn’t shoulder this responsibility alone though. She has a brilliant team of gardeners and garden volunteers who have great knowledge, enthusiasm and skills by the trug-full and without whom she says she would find it impossible to manage.
Generally Kate’s day starts with a garden team meeting, during which the team discuss plans for the day, where everyone will be working and on what.
'It’s a bit like the weather; always different and unpredictable. Much of the week involves planning for the future of the garden. This morning the team and I were out on the garden terrace looking at how to tackle the replanting of this important area, reintroducing the scale of the terrace beds and ensuring it looks good in time for the new season.'
© Teresa Foley
'Removing plants and then replanting is one of the most daunting but exciting aspects of my role. Where possible we will be reintroducing plants with a strong historical Veitch connection.'
Kate’s main objective everyday is to get out into the garden as much as possible...
'It sounds strange as you would think being a gardener would only involve being in the garden, after all that’s what I’m trained for as in an ideal day I really need to get out there and do some physical gardening alongside my team.'
'I usually have to give in at some point, join the 21st century and deal with emails, budgets and staffing issues. Emails to me range in topic from enquiries about tree planting to information about historic ancient monuments in gardens to photographs emailed to me of plant specimens, generally impossible to identify! Its all in a day’s work and I absolutely love it.'
2008 is going to be an important year for the garden. Areas which need refreshing will be planted up in celebration of the anniversary and funded by proceeds from the sale of raffle tickets at the property.
Visitors will get the chance to see this work in action and also later in the year see a special exhibition on the Veitch nursery dynasty on loan from the Royal Albert Museum in Exeter. The property will also be holding a series of tours around the garden by Kate and her team.
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