I did well at school but I never loved it. I went to school because I had to. When I turned 17 I decided I wanted to do something. The head gardener at Beer Castle lived across the road and I said to him, “Do you do anything in the garden? I love gardening.”
He said we were running a student programme and you'd get a few pounds a week. After 12 months you'd get another 12 months. What I really wanted to do was tree management so I did a course in Scotland. I then became headmaster at Beer Castle. It was 2001 and I was still in my 20s.
There are over 4,000 different kinds of trees here and I became very interested in learning about them all. At the time, Sir Rose was on an expedition to China in search of the wild seeds we were growing and I also became interested in all the things his father had collected.
What interests me is planting plants that will grow for many years. I look back at what I've planted over the last 34 years and look back now at how much they've grown. I can see what Sir Ross planted and what his father planted. His father wasn't able to see it grow, but I can. In the last 10 years we've seen more and more of what Sir Ross's father planted. Sir Ross is 88 years old and can see it grow.
I started a big collection of chiles 30 years ago, and some of them flowered for the first time last year. Some that were planted in 1909 flowered 90 years later. Some never flower. The ones I planted will be really spectacular in another 20 years. The sad thing is that I probably won't see them. That's always been in the back of my mind.
When I plant something, I think about who will see it in the future. Someone will benefit from it, and my name will be mentioned. I've been working on all the trees on every corner of this site for 25 years. Before that, the trees were not well cared for. The older trees date back to the 1820s, but we also have 500-year-old oaks here.
99% of gardeners you will meet are happy people. I have never met a disgruntled gardener.
I treat Beer Castle like my own backyard — or at least that's where I spend most of my time anyway — and I have control over the trees, shrubs and lawns across Beer Castle's 125 acres (50 hectares).
When I first got here, we always had what we would call summer. Now we have summer, but we don't have summer weather. Plants from years ago are sitting in the wet ground. We're prone to flooding. We see rivers overflowing in June. That never happened before.
The weather has changed a lot. Winters have become milder than before. I think that's why the plants keep their leaves for longer. Maybe that's why they started to flower after so many years. Here, you can see that the trees don't lose their leaves even in winter. A few years ago, you didn't see any leaves at all. Now, you can see the leaves coming out even in December, which is not normal at all.
When I took over as principal in 2002, I wanted to say no when I was first offered the job. Principals usually wear shirts and ties, and I didn't think that suited me. So I agreed to work as principal. I get to go out and I'm happy when I go out.
October marks my 34th year living here and I have never missed a day or been late, a record I hope to maintain. I still find plants on this property that I never even knew were here before. I've been walking near them for over 30 years and have never seen them. I ask myself, “Am I not awake?”
The Chilean collection is the best. They were very rare and many of them were endangered species. We propagated the surviving species and the second generation is growing well. That is what motivates us. There are good things and bad things. We received a really great collection from South Africa, but most of them died in the harsh winter of 2010 and the harsh spring of 2011. It was heartbreaking and made me think, “I'll try again.” But the years are passing by so quickly that I may never be able to try again. Trees are like people, they have a lifespan. But even if something dies, something always grows and produces seeds.
I definitely found the right job for me. 99 percent of gardeners you will meet are happy people. I have never met a grumpy person. Outdoor life is hard, cold and wet, but it makes you happy. You are out in nature and working with people who love the same things as you. If you had to do it all over again, would you do anything differently? To be honest, no, I wouldn't. I am happy with my job.
A conversation with Joan Hunt
