Kathy Gandolfi
MANY South Easterners know him as the knowledgeable voice often heard on a Saturday morning local radio gardening show, or the chap among masses of plants helping customers at one of Mount Gambier’s plant nurseries.
But the Queen Mother knew him too.
He is Gardenarium owner, Calum Haygarth who began his career in the Queen Mother’s employ at the Castle of Mey on the north coast of Scotland.
Born at Thurso in Caithness County, Calum grew up with the imposing 450 year old castle being a part of the every day scenery and its owner, the Queen Mother, being a twice a year visitor.
The Queen Mother had purchased the castle in 1952 following the death that year of her husband, King George, and her daughter Elizabeth becoming the new monarch.
It had been used as an officers’ rest home during the Second World War and fallen into disrepair.
The Queen Mother restored the castle and used it as a holiday home each August and October until her death in 2002.
Built in one of the most inhospitable places in the United Kingdom, the Castle of Mey is known for its garden surrounded by high walls which shield the plants within from relentless winds.
Calum was to become one of the Castle staff tending this protected garden.
With a long line of green thumbs in his family, Calum had a passion for gardening but it was his family’s other skills that gave Calum a link to the Royal Family.
His grandmother was a dressmaker and haberdasher whose customers included the Queen Mother, and Calum said his grandmother sometimes would have her lunch at the Castle sitting on the Queen Mother’s bed which was adorned with her handiwork.
Also, his father’s gunsmith business had a Royal Warrant to supply the Royal Family with firearms and crossbows for pheasant shooting and Calum recalled, as a boy, going to the castle to deliver guns.
Calum’s brother continues this business today.
This association made his family confident enough to encourage Calum, then 16 years old, to write a letter to the Queen Mother asking for a job.
He wrote the letter, and got a job – simple as that.
For the next 18 months, Calum worked in the garden at the Castle of Mey, tending to its 30 acres of parklands, high hedges, orchards, and vegetable and herb plots which supplied the Castle’s kitchen.
“I’d get a list from the cook in the morning and, armed with a wooden wheelbarrow, I’d collect everything that was on the list and bring it back – all the Castle needed in fruit and vegetables, cut flowers and indoor plants came from the garden,” Calum said.
Another one of Calum’s tasks involved raising and lowering the Castle flag which sounds simple enough except the flag pole was on the highest tower of the castle and would require him to climb up the pole, hauling a large and heavy flag with him – not a job for the faint hearted.
Thankfully the flag was only flown when the Queen Mother was in residence which, Calum recalled, were the most exciting times.
“The Family would come from Balmoral and sail up while their entourage in cars would come overland to meet them.
“It was quite a big thing for Thurso.
“There were always lots of security officers when she (the Queen Mother) was in residence,” Calum said, recalling an incident where the Queen Mother, in her familiar blue raincoat, walked from the Castle to the nearby ocean with her dogs, without alerting security officers, for which she was ‘told off’ on her return.
He recalled having spoken with the Queen Mother and found her very amicable.
“I was nervous the first time – I mean, what do you say to the Queen Mother – but she’d talk to you like normal,” Calum said.
“The Queen Mother would come into the garden with her corgis and she had a favourite bench she sat on in the rose garden.
“She did love her roses and often sat on that bench in the ‘Shell Garden’ and would have a chat with the staff.”
On one of these occasions, the Queen Mother presented Calum with a book on Caithness County, which he treasures to this day.
His stint at the Castle proved to be a launch pad for him and he climbed as high as he could on the horticultural ladder, completing a degree in horticulture at the University of Birmingham majoring in landscape design.
And, at the age of just 18, he won a gold medal at the the world’s top flower show, the Royal Chelsea Flower Show in England.
Pursuing his career further meant leaving England on horticultural exchanges, the first being to Australia 33 years ago when he was 20 years old, then to the United States of America, on to Canada and back to London.
He returned to Australia almost 30 years ago to work at Conboy’s Nursery in Mount Gambier and he has remained in the city ever since although in more recent years as the owner of Gardenarium which he operates with his wife Sandra.
