Lowther Castle’s head gardener on growing vegetables with her grandparents, having lunch with Christopher Lloyd and championing the craft of gardening
WORDS TIM RICHARDSON PORTRAIT ANDREW MAYBURY
Become a head gardener and see the world – that could have been a rallying cry in the 19th century, though today’s horticulturists tend to be rather less internationally mobile. That is not true of Andrea Brunsendorf, who in her early forties has already worked in the USA, Austria, France, Germany, South Africa, Botswana, Israel and, of course, the UK, where she is currently head gardener at Lowther Castle in Cumbria.
“I think it goes back to my training in Germany,” Andrea explains. “There, when you learn a trade, you spend seven years on Wanderschaft, where you work in different places, sometimes internationally. I always thought there was something in that – this idea of going to different places, being open to influences.”
Andrea made a name for herself at the three-acre garden of the Inner Temple, overlooking the Thames in central London. The 76m-long herbaceous border, which she replanted, became renowned in the 2010s, as did the general level of horticulture and the cohesive team of gardeners she nurtured. After 11 years at the garden, she moved on to Pennsylvania in 2018 to take up the post of director of outdoor landscapes at Longwood Gardens.
“It was quite a step up, from three acres to 1,100 acres,” she reflects. “After I arrived, the team tripled in size to 35 full-time and 15 to 20 part-time gardeners. I used to walk in the woods at Longwood every day, just to try to get some perspective. Then for a year and a half [during the Covid pandemic] we were in crisis management. We went down to just seven staff on site and no part-timers. I will never forget having to call those people to tell them not to come in.”
In the end, Andrea only spent three years at Longwood; she could have renewed her visa to make it six years, but decided to come back to Europe. “I grew up in East Germany, so not being able to leave a country felt familiar,” she explains. “I like to know I can move across borders.”
Andrea’s upbringing in Thuringia was the wellspring of her love of horticulture. Both her parents had demanding jobs and in the school holidays, from an early age, she would spend all her time with her grandparents. They owned an allotment, the maintenance of which they approached with an almost professional zeal.
“They had this routine of having breakfast, then grandpa read
