How Buckingham Palace's 'wonderful' head gardener sparked my love of nature, says Prince Charles

Prince Charles has revealed how a Buckingham Palace gardener, reputed to have pushed him around in a wheelbarrow as a boy, helped awaken his love of nature.

Charles fondly recalled the 'splendidly' named Fred Nutbeam in conversation with Poet Laureate Simon Armitage for a programme to be broadcast tonight.

Talking of his initial experiences with nature alongside his sister Princess Anne, he described how 'my sister and I had a little vegetable patch in the back of some border somewhere.

'We had great fun trying to grow tomatoes rather unsuccessfully and things like that.

Prince Charles has revealed how a Buckingham Palace gardener, reputed to have pushed him around in a wheelbarrow as a boy, helped awaken his love of nature

'There was a wonderful head gardener at Buckingham Palace, he was called Mr Nutbeam, rather splendidly. 

'He was splendid and he helped us a bit, my sister and I, with the little garden we had.'

Mr Nutbeam was head gardener for almost 25 years until his retirement in 1978. 

He was held in such esteem by the Queen that she appointed him a member of the Royal Victorian Order. He died in 1997.

Charles fondly recalled the 'splendidly' named Fred Nutbeam in conversation with Poet Laureate Simon Armitage for a programme to be broadcast tonight

In 2016 Jim Buttress, a former superintendent of the Royal Parks, told the Sunday Times: 'Fred told me he used to push Charles, Anne, Andrew and Edward around the grounds in a wheelbarrow.'

Charles speaks to Mr Armitage in Radio 4's The Poet Laureate Has Gone To His Shed, which will be broadcast today at 7.15pm.

Charles speaks to Mr Armitage in Radio 4's The Poet Laureate Has Gone To His Shed, which will be broadcast today at 7.15pm