A member of the Gee family has worked on the grounds at Weston Park in Staffordshire since 1803. I’ll be the last one, though, because I don’t have a son to take over and my daughter isn’t green-fingered at all. When I retire in a few years, it will be the end of a family tradition that stretches back more than 200 years.
I’ll be very sad when I put down my spade for good because I’ve loved being a head gardener. I officially started working here when I left school at 15, more than 45 years ago. In those days, it was taken for granted that you would follow in your father’s footsteps.
My dad, William, encouraged me to get into gardening, probably like his grandfather did with him. I helped Dad around the estate when I was a child and he taught me everything he knew. I had a toolkit and a little garden of my own to grow radishes and lettuce. Mum was the daughter of the head gamekeeper and she gardened too, so this was my world when I was a boy.