ALAN POWER: Thank you for downloading this garden cutting

from the National Trust. I'm Alan Power, the head gardener at

Stourhead in Wiltshire. And today I'm At Croome in

Worcestershire, one of Capability Brown's first

landscape gardens.

The National Trust works in partnership with many landowners

and tenant farmers around the country. But one particular

relationship that has developed at Croome Court is a

relationship with Karen Cronin and her husband Chris who bought

the walled garden and gardeners cottage here in the year 2000.

They've been restoring the garden themselves over the past

few years and have been opening it recently.

Karen, It's a pleasure to meet you and especially to be

standing here in such a massive walled garden. The work is

bearing down on top of me. I mean, what was it like in 2000

when you, when you bought the place.

KAREN CRONIN: Completely derelict and completely

overgrown and wild, but in its own way, it was very beautiful

even then. And I think that's what really attracted us to it.

We- it was in such a state that we really didn't know what we

were buying.

ALAN POWER: You're, you're productive here already. You

know, you've made massive, massive steps forward. Do you

mind telling us what you're producing at the moment and what

you're growing In the walled garden?

KAREN CRONIN: Right. Well, we grow a little bit of everything

really. I like to cook so I like the idea of, you know, coming

and picking my own produce. We've grown sweet potatoes this

year for the first time and they've been successful.

We've, obviously, as you can see, we've got lots of fruit

trees which are going to be espaliered against those wires.

We've got a whole path that are full of old varieties that have

come from either Hereford, Worcestershire or

Gloucestershire.

And then another path which is full of more modern varieties,

the eldest one- going back to 1955 I think the idea there is

that people will be able to see the difference of the progress

of apples and be able to taste the difference between an old

apple and a new apple. We've got espalier of pear tree and of

cookers as well. You know, we grow beans, we, you know, we got

cabbages, we grow everything.

ALAN POWER: Heading- heading into the winter and looking at

the months ahead, I mean, we can see the work that you've

achieved this year with the wires and the espaliers.

But what I love in the, where we're standing is the contrast

to the left, there's kind of established fruit beds, there's

cages protecting next year's crops on the right hand side,

there's a JCB, there's a dumper truck. You know, it's a real

story, isn't it? I know that you've mentioned that there's a

few Daffodils been planted, isn't there?

KAREN CRONIN: Yeah. Well, up in the very top bank there last

year we planted 5,500 Daffodils, with some help from our

volunteer friends. And this year I've bought just over another

1000 to go below that and then, that's then going to be sowed

with, a wild flower meadow, which I thought would be rather

nice to help with the pollination.

And also for the general public will bring summer colour and

also the bugs for the children to look out for and the

butterflies and things.

So we thought that would be very interesting. We also, developing

another bed further down which again, I've bought a load of

tulips to go in for. So that'll be all done in the next sort of,

you know, month.

ALAN POWER: In kind of five years time in the middle of the

summer. If we were to put a deck chair out here, what, what would

you want to see?

KAREN CRONIN: And the Todd Vineary will be fully restored.

And hopefully, we might even have managed to start on the hot

wall as well. Because our real dream is to be able to fire that

up again one day.

ALAN POWER: It's amazing. I want a hot wall.

It's, this hot wall was was heated by furnaces, wasn't it?

KAREN CRONIN: There was five underground little fireplaces

and in fact, the way that they look, is one that's exposed at

the top. We've left it for people to see if you can imagine

what, the- in a Victorian bedroom, the sort of size of the

fireplace in there.

Well, they're about that kind of size but we understand that the

main reason that you get a hot wall, is because of the, glass

tax, the window tax as people know it.

So, if you had a glass house, you had to pay tax on the glass

in your glass house.

So it was a way of trying to get, an extended growing season

without having to pay the Exchequer a lot of money. So, in

fact, when that, when the glass tax was rescinded, most people

just stop using their hot walls and I don't think there's that

many left now.

ALAN POWER: It's lovely. I've been to Croome quite a few times

and I've kind of wondered at the walls from the other side, you

know, and you wonder what, what's in there and, you know,

from what you've described, the- the National Trust volunteers

get to come through that gate and get that wow factor when

they come in and the fact that visitors can see the whole

property now, you know, they can see Brown's work outside and

they can, you know, visit, visit you when you're open and come in

and see what's going on in here as well.

It's been a pleasure to talk to you. It's been lovely to see

your walled garden. You very, very best of luck with it. And

thanks a million for your time today.

Hope you've enjoyed this garden cutting from the National Trust.

You can subscribe or follow on your podcast app for the full

program. Join us for December in Sissinghurst. We'll see you

then.

BETTANY HUGHES: I'm Bettany Hughes. I've been visiting

National Trust Properties all my life. But in this series of

podcasts, I'm going beyond the delights of teas and topiary to

reveal the surprising European roots of some of the most

splendid sites in England. You can subscribe to my series by

searching for Bettany Hughes's 10 Places, Europe and us. On

your podcast app.