A brave gardener with a head for heights has started the mammoth task of using a cherry picker to trim a historic castle’s famous 300-year-old hedges.
Dan Bull will spend eight weeks pruning the gigantic 55ft (16m) firs at Powis Castle, often referred to as “the world’s toughest gardening job.”
Each year, the senior gardener uses a hydraulic platform and powered shears to meticulously maintain 15,000 sq m of formal hedging in pristine condition.
Originally planted in the 18th century, they are almost 300 years old and
considered one of Britain’s greatest examples of Baroque garden design.
Dan said: “It’s a bit scary when we first start cutting them, but after trimming them for several years, I have got used to it.”
Despite the height, he likens the job to trimming an ordinary garden hedge – albeit much higher up.
He added: “Basically, it’s like cutting your hedge at home just a bit higher up in the air. The garden here is pretty spectacular.
“I get a great sense of achievement when it’s all finished, and the tumps are back to the shape that our visitors, staff, and volunteers admire so much.”
Standing proud and spilling over the Italianate terrace, the yews have survived style, fashion, and design changes over hundreds of years.
They have grown to such a size that a tunnel has been formed so visitors to the historic venue in Welshpool, mid-Wales, can walk through it.
Luckily for Dan, advances in technology mean he spends only around a fifth of the year tending the hedges, unlike the four months required in a bygone era.
It used to take ten men 17 weeks to clip all the box and yew hedges using hand shears – all while perched on long ladders and tied together where necessary.
The hedges are among the largest in the entire country and form a stunning backdrop to the magnificent castle, originally built in 1200 as a medieval fortress.
Lady Violet, the wife of the fourth Earl of Powis, who was responsible for restoring the gardens, said they had the potential to be “the most beautiful in England and Wales.”
The hedge’s unusual cloud-like shapes tell the story of changing fashions in the horticultural world over hundreds of years.
They were originally clipped into small cones but allowed to grow more naturally and tree-like after landscape gardening became more popular by the end of the 18th century thanks to the likes of Lancelot “Capability” Brown.
This lasted until formal gardening made a resurgence in the Victorian era, and the yews were again clipped back, giving them the unique shape visitors still see today.
Produced in association with SWNS Talker
