Being passionate about something often goes hand in hand with a certain exacting eye. So, for hobby gardeners who swear by a well-worn spade or measure their seed drills with a ruler, it may come as a comfort to know that even our famously green-fingered King has a few horticultural quirks.
As his former gardener, David Pearce, revealed last week, King Charles III – long celebrated for his devotion to nature and environmentally friendly gardening – was decidedly selective about what made it into his vegetable plots and how certain types were grown.
Squashes and courgettes were firmly unwelcome, while carrots were expected to meet a rather precise standard.
"I spent about a year working for His Royal Highness in the kitchen garden, growing fruit and vegetables and wonderful things that went into his dinners and lunches," David, who tended to the mixed beds in the middle of the plot, told the Farnham Herald.
After graduating during the pandemic, he secured a role at Highgrove, the private Gloucestershire residence of King Charles and Queen Camilla near Tetbury.
There, he stepped into an estate the King has, over decades, carefully shaped into an example of sustainable, organic gardening and environmental principles he has long championed.
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David describes the King's approach to gardening as progressive. “When everyone else was primping lawns, he was cultivating wildflower meadows as far as the eye could see," he said.
Working in the kitchen garden offered an exclusive insight into the monarch's individual taste. "We were growing mostly things he requested himself – a whole bed of salad and two whole beds of asparagus, he was very keen on that," David said.
Alongside these, there was a steady rotation of cauliflower, spinach, onions, leeks and Florence fennel. "It was mostly working with him and his individual preferences," the gardener said.
But there was one species he liked so much that it came with meticulous instructions. According to his former gardener, the King's fondness for neat, baton-shaped crudités – the sort served at a classic French appetiser – meant they had to meet a very specific standard.
"We would have to grow them to a particular size, of your little finger," David shared.
The King's diet may be varied, but there were still firm lines drawn in the soil. "Squash was off the cards, and absolutely no courgettes," he added.
Even a king has his dislikes
Wanda Sachs is the Multiplatform Writer for Country Living and House Beautiful, exploring the latest in gardening, wildlife and sustainable living alongside interiors and property. She is particularly interested in human-interest stories, the intersection of design and pop culture, and the evolving relationship between urban and rural life. Previously, she served as Associate Editor at The Berliner in Berlin, where she reported on culture and fashion. Wanda studied English and German at the Goethe University Frankfurt and Exeter University.
