High staff turnover and low wages have plagued King Charles's kitchen garden at Highgrove, with 11 of the 12-strong gardening team quitting between 2022 and 2025, according to a Sunday Times investigation. The departures included the head gardener and his deputy, while half the team were allegedly earning minimum wage in March 2022.
The kitchen garden at Highgrove, where King Charles grows vegetables for his personal meals, has been subject to the monarch's exacting preferences. According to David Pearce, a former royal gardener who worked there for about a year, the King banned squash and courgettes from the garden. Pearce told the Daily Mail that the King was very particular about carrots being grown to the size of a little finger, and that he especially liked spinach, cauliflower, onions, leeks, and Florence fennel. Gardeners were tasked with growing a whole bed of salad and two beds of asparagus to meet the King's requests.
I spent about a year working for His Royal Highness in the kitchen garden, growing fruit and vegetables and wonderful things that went into his dinners and lunches.
King Charles is known for his hands-on gardening style. He regularly patrols the grounds with secateurs and writes handwritten notes to staff in red ink. Instead of using chemical sprays, he employs electric gadgets to zap pests. This direct involvement, while reflecting his passion for horticulture, may contribute to the high expectations placed on staff.
David Pearce's experience in the kitchen garden lasted about a year, during which he grew fruit and vegetables for the King's meals. He described working closely with the King and accommodating his individual preferences. The high turnover of gardening staff between 2022 and 2025 raises questions about working conditions, though the exact reasons for the departures have not been confirmed. The current status of the gardening team at Highgrove remains unclear.
Things like cauliflower, and he particularly liked his crudité carrots - we would have to grow them to a particular size, of your little finger.
He particularly liked spinach. We grew onions, leeks and Florence fennel. It was mostly working with him and his individual preferences.
But squash was off the cards, and absolutely no courgettes.