Iain Govan, Head Gardener: Notes from Culzean Gardens




A sell out crowd came to listen to Head Gardener, Iain Govan, speak about all aspects of Culzean gardens and estate. He will focus on the challenges, highlights and future developments that are planned, giving an unseen insight into what goes on in managing a historic designed landscape.
Iain started his gardening journey as a ‘boy with a strimmer’ at Logan House Garden nineteen years ago before stints at Edinburgh Zoo (while studying for his RHS qualifications at the RBGE) and at the National Trust for Scotland’s school of heritage gardening at Threave Estate, gaining a Diploma in heritage gardening. Iain has been an NTS gardener ever since, working at Kellie Castle in Fife, then as the First Gardener at Crathes Castle in the North East of Scotland before ‘coming home’ to work at Culzean at the same time as starting a family in 2017.
Festival-goers quizzed him about a variety of garden topics including preventing snail damage to plants!
This was an excellent and eye-opening account of the many challenges facing one man as he grappled with bringing the grounds and gardens of Culzean Castle back to full bloom. He gave great insight into the background workings of a major National Trust estate and described the sometimes radical changes that the garden had undergone during his time there. Iain also answered some interesting questions posed to him by the capacity audience.
www.nts.org.uk/visit/places/culzean
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