Trustees Dan Cartwright

We welcome out latest new trustee, Head Gardener at Winterbourne House, Dan Cartwright. Here Dan tells us a little bit about his horticultural life was offered a one year training place, working four days a week, with one day a week at Rodbaston College, studying for an NVQ Level II. After being offered a second year there, I was offered a job at Winterbourne. I’ve been there for 16 years in total and worked my way through several positions and am now the Head Gardener. Looking back, I think I would try a more structured approach, engaging more with education like the RHS training or equivalent. I would also benefit from more experience in a variety of gardens in different locations.

What was your route into horticulture? Is there anything that you would do differently?

In a nutshell, I started gardening whilst I was a primary school, at around nine or ten years of age. I grew up in the Black Country and my grandfather grew vegetables competitively for local produce shows. I started growing vegetables with him, giant ones, in fact my speciality was growing leeks and onions. My parents were very supportive, helping me to create space in our garden at home for me to garden and even build a greenhouse. A little later at secondary school, I realised pretty quickly that I wanted to do something like this professionally. I wasn’t sure how to go about it, but ended up approaching the Birmingham Botanical Gardens, it was the only place I knew that might be able to help. I

Who do you enjoy gardening with, it could be alone or alongside your team or even someone from the past?

I love gardening with my team. Like any job there are stresses and pressures, but I think that my ten-year-old self would be pleased with where I am now. I garden in a very special place, seven acres in total and work with a variety of professional and voluntary individuals who are hugely skilled and committed which makes me feel excited about what we can achieve. location in central London, awash with meaning and detail, and brilliantly presented by the museum team. I also very much admire the Old Vicarage at East Ruston, a ‘Neo-Arts and Crafts’ Garden which, to me, embodies everything that’s great about British gardens and gardening, so creative and perfectly executed on a grand scale. Or perhaps I’d like to try something completely different. Gardening in a garden like Little Sparta in Scotland would be very different to anything I’ve ever done before, and no doubt challenging, but I’m sure every bit as fun.

Which sources of information do you use most regularly to update your skills and inform your horticultural thinking?

I rely on my personal network of horticulturalists be it fellow head gardeners, people I’ve trained with, and I connect with peers through various forums and committees. I find that my knowledge has developed in an organic way, which is really beneficial.

What are your top three things to do in the garden in July and August?

At Winterbourne we will be dead-heading herbaceous borders and pots continually! We will also be feeding borders and pots, using slow release and liquid fertilizers, which will really help to extend the flowering season. Finally, we will be rolling out our many meters of hose and watering. At Winterbourne, we aren’t blessed with lots of pressurised taps, so we have hoses secreted in borders and under hedges, that we connect all the hoses up with; we have reels with 50 to 100 meters of hose on them!

If you could be any other gardener or horticulturist who would that be and why?

That is a difficult one! I suppose the honest answer is a gardener at any one of the many great gardens I admire. I love the Garden History Museum, which is in such a brilliant