He’s toiled the soil since he was 16 and has just landed one of the most prestigious roles in UK horticulture.
Proud Jim Crawford is the new head gardener at historic grounds on the Royal Estate in Windsor.
And he admitted: “It’s a long way from Dykebar Garden Centre.”
Now 54, Jim will be in charge of a team of ten gardeners at Fort Belvedere, the very place where King Edward VIII abdicated after falling for Wallis Simpson.
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Not bad for a boy from Paisley’s Foxbar who lost his mum Janet aged just two and his dad Jimmy in his early twenties.
Most folk reckon he is not just green-fingered, but has green rather then red blood flowing in his veins.
As a young man in 1987 he worked for a couple of years for Peter Jackson at the former Dykebar nursery in Paisley.
And as a Camphill High schoolboy he became addicted to outdoor life, roaming the Gleniffer Braes with his dogs.
While still at school he acted as a grouse beater on Lady Anne Bentinck’s estate in Caithness before landing his first job there.
It was while beating that he switched attention from gamekeeper aspirations to horticulture after being mentored by the estate’s head gardener Francis Higgins, who he keeps in touch with to this day.
Another mentor was the former Paisley MP Gordon McMaster who was one of his tutors at Woodburn Horticultural College in Glasgow.
McMaster knew Jim was short of cash and would encourage people in Paisley to hire him to tend their garden.
Jim and his girlfriend Nicki will move into a tied house on the Windsor estate at the end of March, a moment marking the zenith of his career.
Fort Belvedere dates to 1750 and lies within Windsor Great Park and includes some ancient and stunning features of the plant world.
It boasts 100 acres of formal gardens and woodland and are Grade 1 Listed, owned by the Crown Estate.
They have long been leased to the family of the late Canadian billionaire retail magnate Galen Weston.
Mr Weston died aged 80 last April and his widow Hilary is now head of the family.
Jim is currently serving his notice at Rotherfield Hall in East Sussex where he has been head gardener for 12 years.
He picks up his fork at Belvedere as the growing season gets into full swing and he said: “Gardeners begin to panic at this time of year, what they need to sow and what they have not done. But there is also the excitement and anticipation of spring.
“This is a great deal to me and I have always admired the royals.
“Back in the nineties I used to go to Balmoral and became friends with John Young the head gardener, who was mad on greenhouses and used to give me a lot of advice.”
Jim has a daughter Heather, a 23-year-old nurse in Glasgow, and his ex-wife Tricia was a typesetter from Linwood.
Most of his family including sisters Pearl, Myra, Janette and brother-in-law Billy remain in Paisley, Elderslie and Glasgow.
They played a major role in bringing him up after the death of his mother Janet.
He landed his Windsor job after a two and a half month process of interviews and spending time with the staff.
In the past he also worked at Rouken Glen Garden Centre, Linlithgow and was head gardener at Pitlochry Estate in Perthshire for 14 years.
While in Scotland he exhibited across Scotland, bagging the top silverware for herbaceous and annual plants at highly competitive shows such as Ayr and Dundee.
Phlox Paniculata were his show-stopping exhibits and even after hours he would be found in his garden, perhaps growing exhibition begonias.
Jim said: “I would always encourage young people to take up horticulture, it’s a fantastic life and there are so many opportunities now.
“There has been a bit of a resurgence in interest in historic gardens and houses.
“It’s not like a busman’s holiday when I am in my own garden, I don’t regard it as work, it is just me.
“Belvedere is fascinating and the gardens have been around for a long time, King Edward was a keen gardener himself and he was very attached to the gardens.
“There will be a lot of projects I can get involved with and shape for the future. It was certainly be a challenge and exciting.
Since the Weston family moved into the property in the 1980s they have carried out extensive works, constructing a polo stud and doubling the size of the lake.
The relationship between Edward and Wallis Simpson blossomed at Fort Belvedere, the couple spent their first weekend there at the end of January 1932.
It had been his home since 1929 as the Prince of Wales and was the site of his abdication as King in 1936.
Much earlier Queen Victoria had used it as a tea house where she enjoyed the view, stretching as far as London, from the hilltop location.
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