MY dream job just keeps on growing. Imagine being able to visit a historic holiday attraction in the beautiful Lancashire countryside every day, and getting paid for it.

Imagine being able to stay trim and get into shape without going to the gym -- being able to maintain and develop living art.

Well this dream is reality for me, David Roberts, the gardener in charge at Rufford Old Hall, a National Trust property near Ormskirk.

My job is to maintain and develop 15 acres of woodland and gardens in keeping with Victorian and Edwardian garden designs, using plants from that period or before.

The garden is laid out in such a way as to complement the different styles and periods of the listed hall and mansion.

It is great to be part of one of the oldest careers in the world, horticulture. The art of gardening takes many forms, with topiary being one of them. Topiary is the art of shaping trees and shrubs, traditionally box and yew.

Both are used at Rufford Old Hall in a variety of topiary shapes such as pom-poms, spirals, domes, and a particular favourite of mine are the two giant squirrels. Topiary has become very popular at the moment in modern gardens, but the history of it actually dates back as far as Roman times.

To help maintain the gardens to a high standard, Rufford benefits from the services of seven part-time volunteers who help with edging, mowing, weeding, dead-heading, pruning, staking, clipping and shaping.

As well as benefiting the trust our volunteers have a chance to learn new skills that I hope they can take home and use in their own gardens.

Some people moan when it takes them an hour to mow their lawns, but not me. Which is just as well as mowing just the ornamental lawns can take up to two days in the summer months,

Lawns, when cut and maintained correctly, set the whole garden off. It is a bit like having the right frame for a picture.

The garden is alive with hidden features such as an orchard with old varieties of apples and pears. There is a rose border and also shrub and herbaceous borders.

Rufford's herbaceous borders

are late Victorian, dated by the appearance of shrubs that are intermittent throughout the border as opposed to the early Victorian border that was completely herbaceous.

The garden is at its most spectacular in the spring, with naturalised crocus and daffodils, and explosions of rhododendron flowers throughout. Or maybe you would like to stroll along the bluebell walks in the fresh spring air to the chorus of our native and visiting birds.

We would be happy to share with you the history of Rufford Old Hall and its grounds.

DAVID G ROBERTS, Gardener in charge