Kate Evans, HBGBS Trainee at Chatsworth House spent a week with fellow trainee, Jo Parker, at Wentworth Caste in May. Find out how she got on...

"When Jo first suggested that we do an exchange I thought I'd go along with it but didn't expect to get much from it other than seeing another garden. How wrong could I be, because it turned out to be a fantastic opportunity to compare and contrast two different gardens.

From just a week spent at Wentworth Castle garden I noted several things to take back with me. The first was in the use of volunteers at Wentworth, in fact teams of volunteers who not only enjoy working in the gardens, have a social aspect, are able to cover substantial areas to weed, and help raise money for the conservatory restoration fund. Chatsworth garden only has a handful of volunteers in comparison, and then only one a day, who despite being hard working and enthusiastic, are only able to make a small dent in the work that could be done by volunteers.

The second thing I took back was my experience out in the parkland with the parkland officer, and the conservation work he and his team of volunteers carry out. I felled my first tree by hand, which was a fantastic feeling, and saw what future plans there are to develop the wooded areas and restore them back to how they were meant to be.

Finally I had the opportunity to see first hand the problems facing a relatively young garden in terms of restoration in comparison to Chatsworth's long standing history as a garden open to the public.

The exchange also allowed me to get to know Jo better as a colleague and a future contact in the horticultural world, something I'm sure both of us will value in the future.  I would thoroughly recommend doing an exchange to anyone considering it...you never know what you might learn and at the very least you'll make some new contacts."