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Trevor Jones has only been at the Alnwick Garden a few months but already he looks completely at home.

The head gardener arrived from Threave Gardens in south-west Scotland in March 2008 and over the spring he's been busy getting to grips with the new challenge.

There are 11 in the gardening team

It's been quite a shift in gear.

"This is a more contemporary garden [than Threave], very modern and lots of visitors. On a good year at Threave we'd get 60,000 visitors, here we get 600,000," Trevor says.

"Obviously there's an awful lot of wear and tear on the garden, which was only designed for 60,000 initially.

"Some of the paths are quite narrow and they get worn away very quickly, especially if they're grass.

"It's always good to see the visitors but they damage my garden!" he adds laughing, tongue firmly in cheek.

Getting your hands dirty

The 24-acre Alnwick Garden, which was the vision of the Duchess of Northumberland, was designed by Belgian firm Wirtz International.

Construction work began in 2000 and the first phase was officially opened in 2002.

Some sections of the garden are still to be completed but, with the plans already laid down, Trevor's role, and that of his team, is about maintenance rather than design.

"There are 11 of us altogether so we're hard pushed really because there's always plenty to do."

Trevor's working day begins at 7.30am. He spends the first half an hour getting his thoughts together, planning who will do what that day and having a quick walk around the garden before the rest of the team arrive at 8am.

The grand cascade

After sending the team out Trevor then plans for the following days, meets people to talk about the garden and then, all being well, gets his own hands dirty.

"That's really what I love doing," he says. "I'm not office bound. I'm far happier actually being out in the garden working with the team."

Regular tasks for the gardeners include pruning, mowing, planting out annuals, staking, hedge trimming, spraying and the up-keep of paths.

Jobs vary from season to season and one of the next jobs on the list is to cut the four and a half miles of box hedging, which has to be done twice a year.

One of Trevor's longer-term jobs is to develop a harder-wearing grass mix on the lawns, so that they stand up better to the footfall of so many visitors.

Can't beat it

It's an extremely modern garden but the team still use some very traditional methods of gardening, such as pleaching with crab apple trees (training the trees into a raised hedge).

Visitors are encouraged to ask questions!

Trevor feels it's important to pass these old skills onto the younger members of the team and from summer 2008 they will also be inviting a number of international students to work with them.

Trevor, 49, has been working in horticulture since he left school. He fell into it by accident, applying for a forestry and landscape apprenticeship after his O Levels without telling his parents.

After a little persuasion - their initial response was that he would spend his life "planting daffodils" - he started the apprenticeship and quickly realised that he loved it.

"You can't beat being outside, working in a garden I don't think," he enthuses. "Even when it's raining. It's good for you!

"These days there's fantastic career opportunities within horticulture. It's a job that doesn't give you stress, or shouldn't do.

"It's a relaxing environment, fantastic to be outside working with living things, with plants, and also being surrounded by wildlife that the plants attract.

The ornamental garden in June

"I would never go and work in an office or a shop, for example, would just be my biggest nightmare. I think you need to be out working with plants.

"Get your hands dirty, get the soil under your fingernails, you can't beat it."

No stress

They say never work with children or animals but plants can be unpredictable too.

They might flower too early and get killed by frost. Or flower later than expected. Or have a massive growth spurt for no obvious reason. Or simply not grow at all.

But to Trevor that's just another part of the challenge.

"I think that's the beauty of it. Gardening is a challenge because really you're working with living plant material that you want to put on a show, and they don't always stick to the rules!

"It can be very challenging but very, very rewarding."