Celebrating our Community: Diane Barrie

In July this year I will have worked at Kellie Garden for twenty years. Five of those years as a volunteer and fifteen as garden staff. My name is Diane Barrie, I am a professional gardener, I live,
work and sometimes play in the East Neuk of Fife. Home is two miles from Kellie Castle, in the heart of Balcaskie Estate.

I am no stranger to Fife. I grew up in Glenrothes in my young years leaving at the age of nineteen to study photography at Napier College in Edinburgh. Some twenty five years later, after a career in press and public relations and twelve years in retail management, Edinburgh lost its appeal and I returned to the Kingdom looking for something more meaningful. In 2006 I visited the gorgeous gardens at Kellie Castle and came upon a poster inviting garden volunteers. It seemed the perfect opportunity – a chance to learn while spending time in a breathtakingly beautiful space. Although a novice at this point, gardening has always played a huge part in my life. My father was an excellent gardener growing fabulous vegetables alongside colourful ornamentals in our tiny garden in Glenrothes. He was and will forever be my gardening inspiration. His grounding and influence is probably why I have taken this path into horticulture.

So twenty years on from this chance encounter I am now responsible for the fruit and veg at Kellie alongside a tremendous team of colleagues and volunteers. Kellie is looked after by the National Trust for Scotland and is a fourteenth century Scottish Baronial Castle with a walled garden of just over an acre. The gardens are looked after by a team of three staff, Andy, Aline and myself. Our Head Gardener Mark, also looks after our NTS sister properties at Hill of Tarvit and Balmarino Abbey. However, we four could not achieve the standards we do without the work of our valued volunteers. Around two dozen dedicated helpers maintain, weed and care for Kellie. Their continuous contributions keep Kellie garden world class.

The main priority in my role is produce. Kellie is a traditional kitchen garden with almost half of its mass producing edible produce. We have veg beds surrounding all four walls, fruit trees on all five lawns and espalier fruits lining herbaceous borders. Cordons of Scottish heritage fruits stretch over the south wall and the front terrace is home to a peach tree, kiwi vines and two Hessel pear trees we believe to be over a hundred years old. We have one of the largest rhubarb collections in Scotland with over twenty known varieties plus a couple not so known!

My work is a labour of love but working in such a historical setting is a privilege and one I don’t take for granted – it is a real responsibility. The team care for the garden in a profound and professional manner, it is within our trust, the way we tend it must reflect its historical value and future proof it for generations to come. Some time ago, thirty years or so, the astute gardeners
stopped using chemicals and for all my time at Kellie we have never used synthetically based pesticide or herbicide. In all my years the garden has been managed using only organic management techniques and companion planting methods. We have never felt the need to manage it any other way because this naturally managed environment takes care of itself. Anyone who has ever visited Kellie Garden sees for themselves that chemical intervention is just not necessary. The garden is fruitful, with flowers, shrubs, and plenty perennials. Our annual vegetable harvests are happily free of any chemical residue.

 

So with this understanding in mind, the garden team decided to complete the circle. Maintaining a management structure was one thing but we needed more. We had to be recognised as truly organic. In 2021 we started the process to be fully certified by the Soil Association. Over the next two years we complied with their rules, regulations, restrictions, pages of paperwork and hours of housekeeping. Eventually every arduous minute proved a milestone when in 2023 we achieved accreditation and became the first and only Soil Association organically certified garden in the National Trust for Scotland. We are properly proud of ourselves for this amazing achievement but our work is never done. We continue each and every day to comply and uphold the principles to ensure decades of diligence are not in vain. We are committed to improving soil health and in turn boost biodiversity. The garden is an excellent example of what can be achieved. The team will endeavour to pursue and protect an organic future, one which nurtures nature to keep Kellie in a class of its own.

There is an intrinsic link which leads me back to Balcaskie Estate. Living as I do surrounded on all quarters by estate land, Balcaskie’s organic land management couldn’t be more important to me.
I live and work organically and my own garden is untouched by artificial intervention. The wildlife my space supports has increased in number and health, the ground is pure and pleasantly productive. It would be hard for me both physically and mentally to live as I do if I were in doubt of my surroundings. I watch with great interest the way in which Balcaskie work with nature and I see the results on a daily basis. The ever increasing birdlife is a particular passion. When we arrived here I commented on the lack of birds, it seemed surprising to see so few species in such rural surroundings. In twelve years of knowing this area, the increase in feathered friends is phenomenal. I cycle to Kellie most mornings and in that two mile stretch I encounter Buzzards, Kestrels, Sparrow Hawks, Long Tail Tits, Yellow Hammers and many more. We even have Tree Sparrows! There are wonderful winter visitors like Field Fares and the mesmerising murmuration’s from Starlings are becoming spectacular. The organic management, as at Kellie, nurturing the natural environment, creating resilience and supporting the sustainable surroundings in which I live.