TGt Meets…Mark Bobin of Minterne House

In this piece, you can meet Mark Bobin, the Head Gardener at Minterne House & Gardens as he talks about his career and projects he works on in his current role.

Tell us about your role as Head Gardener at Minterne House.

Conserving and developing plant collections, creating spaces to enhance the garden and add interest are at the heart of my role.

The historic gardens and grounds are set in a Dorset valley which gives me a unique and varied role. Chalky, wildflower-rich hillsides lead all the way down to a boggy ericaceous woodland that creates a vast range of flora and fauna to look after. The woodland garden is full of unusual plants with a topography much like a Himalayan glade, giving visitors a Himalayan experience – and having travelled on plant-hunting expeditions to the Himalaya, I can vouch for this. Open seven days a week to the public, we welcome garden enthusiasts and families so my job is about ensuring everyone has the best time they can. This also extends to the many events hosted at Minterne, including seasonal garden trails, weddings and fairs.

How do you think gardening helps separate Minterne House from other venues?

The landscape, planting and water features all create an immersive experience that is very unique, leaving everything behind and being in amongst the giant trees, trickling water, captivating birdsong and mesmerising plants. The views here are simply stunning. You can sit on the East Tea Terrace whilst tucking into a delicious lunch and gaze at the main lake with the landscape beyond. It has been noted by many professional gardeners that Minterne Gardens gives you the closest you’ll get in the UK to being in the Himalaya. That’s very unique!

Can you provide a brief history of Minterne House gardens?

The valley around Minterne House remained relatively exposed and bare until Admirial Robert Digby arrived in 1676. He created a Capability Brown-inspired landscape with lakes, cascades and far-reaching vistas, and later a woodland. The golden age of woodland gardens exploded with the arrival of plants from the newly explored Himalayan region of Sikkim, India, by Joesph Dalton Hooker. The Digby family part-sponsored this trip and, with a mature ericaceous woodland now at Minterne, this was the perfect place to grow these new introductions. The plant-hunting expeditions continued with explorers like George Forrest, Ernest Wilson and Frank Kingdon-Ward, to name a few. Also, exchanging plants between estates and plant collections from around the country continued to bring new and original plants into Minterne. This continues throughout the history of the gardens, right up to the present day.

How has the design of the gardens evolved over time?

The design of the garden has a Capability Brown-inspired landscape which has mesmerising views of the Dorset valley. The woodland garden was a later addition created in the middle. The Himalayan garden is ever-evolving with new plantings, new structures - such as a Pagoda/Pavilion-like structure named the Pagolion - and the nature of a woodland garden with trees coming to their old age will continue to create new spaces to plant up and landscape.

What inspired you to become a gardener, and how did you start your career?

I’ve always loved gardens and nature with the joy they bring to everyone. At the very young age of just three months old, still in my Moses basket, my family moved to the woodland garden and grounds at Sheffield Park in Sussex. I grew up taking in all the trees, shrubs and plants as I played in this wonderful place. Later, I began gardening alongside my parents and realised this was actually something I could do and make a living from.

Can you share a memorable experience or rewarding project you've worked on at Minterne House?

Constructing the Himalayan Hut was a very memorable experience. This was back in the winter of 2018 – cold, dark and, like many winters, wet. The Himalayan garden has little access for machinery due to the topography and winding single-track paths so getting all the stone, wood and materials down to the site was a challenge but also a lot of fun. It really felt like we were building this new project in the Himalaya. I learned many new skills from our on-site engineer and the whole project was a puzzle that needed constant adjusting. I’m very pleased and proud of our achievements.

Visit Minterne House's website.

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