A former Dunedin man is looking after one of England's oldest gardens. Rebecca Fox reports.
Clearing a pond of 20 years of plants and mud, clipping a mile-long hedge or restoring a 120-year-old double herbaceous border - it is all in a day's work for former Dunedin man Cory Furness.
Mr Furness (30) is the head gardener at Penshurst Place and Gardens, in Kent, England.
It has been the medieval seat of the Sidney family since 1552 and has an 4.4ha formal walled garden, with records dating back to 1346.
One of the oldest English gardens in private ownership, it remains much as it was when constructed by Sir Henry Sidney in the Elizabethan era and features many plants, from spring-flowering bulbs, through summer roses and herbaceous borders to orchard fruits.
Mr Furness, who trained at Otago Polytechnic and worked at Dunedin Botanic Garden, has been head gardener at Penshurst for the past year, after stepping up from assistant head gardener on the death of the former head gardener, four months after he started at Penshurst.
"It's a big job."
So big that it was hard to drag himself away for three weeks in New Zealand visiting friends and family.
"I felt like I was leaving a precious child at home. I left my assistant gardener seven pages of work to do."
Together with five staff, many of whom have worked in the gardens for more than 20 years, Mr Furness manages the day-to-day work in the garden as well as overseeing any special projects, such as cleaning out the pond in the Italian section of the garden for the first time in 20 years.
"I'm sure they could have thought this young upstart from New Zealand has come over and is telling them what to do . . . but there is a lot of knowledge there."
It was interesting working within the historic aspects of a garden which had not changed much in a "couple of hundred years", especially the Italian garden, he said.
"It's nice working in the same footsteps as the head gardeners who have been there before you."
Nevertheless, the garden is undergoing one of the biggest changes it has seen in nearly a century - a major restoration, designed by Chelsea Flower Show gold medallist George Carter, of a 72m-long double herbaceous border.
Precious plants in the border were becoming overcome by weeds, so it had been dug out, put in fallow and would be replanted, he said.
A new feature was separate colour-themed "bays" interspersed with lawns and seats.
"It's a dramatic change and will make a strong mark on the historic garden."
The biggest challenge was managing and maintaining a garden open to the public from March until November, in the English weather, he said.
"England isn't the driest of places and it's been incredibly wet . . . so it's hard to keep on top of things because of that."
Mr Furness is also the health and safety adviser for the estate - not an easy job given the home was built well before such considerations became an issue.
The garden had deep ponds, Mr Furness said. "It's quite challenging."
Before Penshurst, the New Zealander worked in the private garden of a wealthy English family for five years, picking up management skills and fine-tuning the practical skills he learnt in Dunedin.
