Andy Murray in his own Hotel Garden, Kim chats with Monty

Recently we were fortunate enough to be invited to Cromwix near Dunblane to explore the Victorian country estate of Sir Andy Murray and his wife Kim. I'm definitely not green-fingered, I actually don't really know what that means either. I'm assuming that's a guarding term that I should know. This bit's changed since I was last here. What are they doing? I think they've cleared the roe does from this bit but the bluebells are out there. They're not blue, are they? They are blue. I'm pretty sure they're purple. No? They're bluebells and when you see them on mass it's definitely blue. An iconic flower in English horticulture and I think you'd be making a lot of people sad by saying it's not blue. I'm Kim Murray and I'm a mother of four. I spend my time gardening and looking after my children. I'm Andy Murray, ex-tennis player and now full-time father. We're in Cromwix Hotel which is a hotel that me and Kim own about five minutes from where we grew up in Dunblane. It's a beautiful part of the world. I always love to come back and spend some time here. Our family have got a bit of history here. My brother, he was married here. Me and Kim also got married here. My gran and grandpa had their 50th wedding anniversary celebrations here. It was for sale and we were kind of advised by everyone around us not to to buy it but we thought it'd be a really nice thing to do. So this bit is, would we call it the fairy garden? I think the kids made it. The kids call it that. Yeah they do. It's that slightly kind of mysterious shape that the rhododendrons make I think and it's just a natural play area. Our kids are definitely always calling out. Yeah we can always hear them back here. We can't see them but we can hear them doing something. At home I see Kim out in the garden all the time. I mean cutting flowers and creating like, I hope this is right, bouquets for her friends. Yeah well done. So many flowers in the house, it's incredible. So I'm harvesting some of our tulips. Tulips are some of my absolute favourites. They make such a great cut flower. It's the life they take on when they're in a vase inside, it's quite amazing. They continue to grow and they move and in their kind of final throws they look fabulous. They kind of fall out of the vase but yeah we've planted over 6,000 of them this year and they're doing really well. So I've got some spiria down here, kind of the woodiness I feel adds a bit of structure and supports everything from underneath and this is a type of allium called a nectiscordium but I just love it. It's like an umbrella the way it hangs down. When it opens up it's got some really beautiful colour inside it. I mean it's a bit of a mess but there's some charm to it I hope. Kathy is our wonderful new head gardener who started here with us in January. She knows what inspires me, what I like, what I'm naturally drawn to but I take her guidance on what works. We've just replanted the beds at the front because we felt that the entrance needed a bit more colour. It's lots of warm colours so pinks, oranges, deep reds, this oregano beauty of Kent which is like a lovely soft pink. Most of the plants are listed as deer resistant. Recommended deer resistant species are things like grasses, ferns, hellebore. Broom is actually listed as a deer resistant species. The deer have chosen of all of these plants to snack on the broom. This is our lovely polytunnel. So we bring seedlings on in here in trays and we also plant early crops. So we've got snapdragons, we've got self-seeded nasurtium which we use as sort of trailing stem in arrangements. Over here we have calendula. These three beds will end up mostly as cut stems in the house in floristry arrangements. Probably some of the calendula flowers will be used in the kitchen. So this is our lovely kitchen garden which is my personal favourite part of the property I think. We put it in when we bought it about 10 years ago and the original aim was very much garden to kitchen and it was anything that could be used by the chefs in the house and it's grown arms and legs from there. Hi Cathy, what are you planting up here? I'm just planting thyme. We've got a few varieties, a variegated one, a golden one and then a silver one and that's in our perennial herb bed and it's planted symmetrically as with the rest of the garden. And this all makes its way into the house doesn't it? That's correct, yeah either the kitchen or the bar or in floral arrangements. I haven't been to the Chelsea Flower Show before. I've been asked to go a couple of times but yeah I'm usually away playing tennis at the French Open unfortunately. I first visited I think it was in 2013 and I got invited because Andy had a hosta named after him so I was very excited I got to go and I received the hosta Andy Murray which I brought home and I took great pride in planting it out and it got absolutely decimated by slugs like really rapidly so but that was my first experience of it but it was it was absolutely incredible and I just love seeing how that part of London comes alive at that time and I think yeah seeing everything it's a sensory overload. I think gardening is it's like art everyone has different tastes and preferences and you know what does it for one person isn't going to do it for another so you know we all go there for looking for different ideas and different things but yeah it's wonderful I'd love to go. Kim clearly you're a serious gardener, I mean you're tackling big projects anyway. I absolutely wouldn't describe myself as a serious gardener, a serious amateur possibly. I think it's a it's a challenge that appeals to me and I think we I came through a wonderful project where we built our family home and I got to landscape that from the start and then that gave me the confidence to look at Cromlechs and think what can we do there and I think it's yeah it's a wonderful journey and it's always always going so it's yeah it's a privilege. And is this something that that came from childhood? I was I had the most wonderful childhood I grew up in the Sussex countryside on the banks of and yeah we were outside all the time my mum's a really passionate gardener but I think I probably didn't come to gardening you know in a grown-up sense until I was older and I had a you know children of my own and a home of my own I think and that's when my passion started. It does seem to be the thing is that when you can make your own home then a garden comes with it. Oh absolutely because I view the you know I'm sure you do the garden's extension of the home it's another room in the home so that's you know my love comes from cut flowers. Well I was watching that I mean you're clearly really good at it. Oh that's very kind of you. And so I mean is that the main motive? I think that's where it started I used to paint I love what things look like I love beautiful things and so you know the idea of you know cutting flowers creating something beautiful and bringing it inside the home that's where it started and from that became you know my interest grew in terms of you know what's going on outside and you know I guess you know cutting something as simple as a posy of sweet peas and bringing it home bring it inside that scent it draws your eye outside and it starts you taking an interest in what's going on outside and so from there I started developing yeah what you know an idea of what are we growing and and how how does that translate to what we're bringing inside. That relationship between a border and cut flowers is I think a very English thing you know that you look at the rather less formal style of doing it Does the garden, is the garden influenced by your idea of cut flowers rather than cut flowers influenced by the garden? Absolutely it started with what would I like to cut and what would I like to bring inside but from that I've learned not to just go around with a pair of secateurs and you know bring everything inside so you start you know noticing the beauty and actually it's there and it's you know it's standing on its own and then it's nice to you know cut and come again so to speak. Do you think you're going to get Andy to garden? It's my aim he got into art and he wasn't into art so I do I have high hopes that one day he will I mean he's he loves the outdoors and he's really passionate about you know our children being outside and so that's that's where it starts it's different for everyone isn't it but I think yeah he you know he he noticed my tulips this year which was the You put in 6,000 tulips! I know you can't it's hard to miss isn't it but I think that you know so that was that's his intro flower I'd like to think but I think I think absolutely I think he's got more time on his hands now and he's you know he's really he's got a really curious mind so I hope one day we'll we'll have him at the garden. I mean I think making a garden with somebody is always more interesting. Absolutely it's collaborative it's teamwork. And what about the children I mean I guess they just run around. I mean they're so good at making a mess but they are kids are curious and they're interested so that's as a mum that's all I want is I want them outside and I want them you know starting to appreciate the world around them. Now finally what are you particularly looking for here at Chelsea? What am I looking for? What do you want to take back in your head or or literally? It's inspiration I just I love seeing you know beautiful I can't ever get fox gloves that look quite like they do at Chelsea but it's just having a look at um yeah I think the the South African display in the pavilion my mum's South African I've got here today so I'm quite excited about going and having a look at the proteas but it's just coming and enjoying um you know having a look at all the creativity and taking some of that home with me. There's lots of lovely things here so have a nice time thanks for talking. Thank you for having me.