For me Levens is the ideal garden. It\u2019s an old place but it\u2019s a living place <\/blockquote> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n<\/div>
Chris also comes from a family of gardeners. His grandfather was a jobbing gardener. His father, who studied at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, worked as parks superintendent in Warrington, in the North West. \u201cI grew up on this large Victorian estate. It was an amazing childhood. There were greenhouses, hothouses, vineries \u2013 all working and heated and filled with plants. I had the run of the garden. We were pretty much self-sufficient. I walked home from school at lunchtime to damp down the tomatoes in the greenhouse. The Good Life was on TV and we were living it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chris admits he wasn\u2019t particularly academic. \u201cI just loved being outside and gardening.\u201d So, at the age of 16, he followed in his father\u2019s footsteps and joined his local parks department, working as an apprentice. Two years later he earned a place on Kew\u2019s three-year diploma course. All the time he was living in London, Chris would feel the constant pull of the hills. \u201cOften on a Friday evening I would stand on the side of the M1 and hitch a lift up north.\u201d<\/p>\n
After finishing his studies at Kew, Chris fancied a bit of break. He worked as a freelance gardener, living out of his van and spending his free time potholing and caving in the Lake District and the Yorkshire Dales. Then the Levens job came up. The fact that the estate was located between Yorkshire and the Lakes was a big draw but so was the ten-acre garden, with its many original 17th-century features.<\/p>\n

Visitors tell us they can see somebody is having fun with the garden <\/blockquote> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n<\/div>
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chris loves the fact that Levens is relatively small and made up of different areas. It means he can be creative and hands-on. \u201cVisitors tell us they can see somebody is having fun with the garden.\u201d Levens\u2019s crowning glory is of course its famous topiary. Despite some of the shapes being 300 years old, each piece is reshaped and remade every year. \u201cIt\u2019s new this year and yet it\u2019s also 300 years old,\u201d Chris explains. There\u2019s a thrilling tension in this: the sense that the garden is filled with these ancient \u2018characters\u2019 that have witnessed so much and yet are still very much alive. Nothing at Levens is set in aspic.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are about 100 different shapes,\u201d says Chris. \u201cSome of the yew ones are about ten metres tall. I quite like the small ones myself: the box ones that are about two metres high. Over the years they all change. When I first arrived at Levens, the garden had a bell-shaped topiary. Slowly, we\u2019ve rounded it and we now call it the Henry Moore sculpture.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The twice-yearly bedding schemes grown under the topiary have also evolved. \u201cNowadays we go for more of a natural-looking tapestry effect, and my flower choices are a lot more bee-friendly. I wasn\u2019t thinking of this so much 30 years ago, but farming practices have changed. You don\u2019t see flowers on farmland anymore. In a way, the garden used to be controlled because outside the walls was wild. Now outside the walls is not such a wild place, it\u2019s agricultural land. Maybe that\u2019s why gardens today are less about controlling nature and keeping them more natural-looking.<\/p>\n

Visitors now see through a camera lens, so I try to present the garden as a series of different pictures, like mini photo opportunities <\/blockquote> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n<\/div>
The way we garden is changing.\u201d The way people enjoy gardens is changing, too. \u201cMany visitors now see through a camera lens, so I try to present the garden as a series of different pictures, like mini photo opportunities. My hope is to make each area as distinct as possible \u2013 visually fantastic and full of joy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chris has recently taken up painting as a hobby. \u201cI feel like I\u2019m looking at everything with new eyes. It\u2019s really developing my eye for seeing.\u201d No doubt this new pastime will affect the way Chris develops the garden in the next few years. There is a lot more joy to come.<\/p><\/body><\/html>\n
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