Before you listen to this BBC podcast, I'd like to quickly tell you about some others.

My name's Andy Martin and I'm the editor of a team of podcast producers at the BBC in Northern Ireland.

It's a job I really love because we get to tell the stories that really matter to people here,

but which also resonate and apply to listeners around the world.

And because the team is such a diverse range of skills and strengths.

We have trained journalists, people who love digging through archives,

we've got drama and even comedy experts.

We really can do those stories justice.

So if you like this podcast head to BBC

signs where you'll find plenty more fascinating stories from all around the UK.

This program delights in the domestic.

Our little patches of paradise mean the world to us home gardeners,

shown in the blood sweat and yes, sometimes tears poured into every square inch of

cultivated soil. But if a gardener's plot is his Eden, then perhaps

his home is his castle. And castles don't get much more remarkable than in today's program location.

Raby Castle is one of the most impressive intact castles in the north of England.

Built in the 14th century by the powerful Neville family, it was home to Cecil Neville, known as the Rose of

Raby, a mother of two kings of England, Edward the fourth and Richard the third.

It was also the scene of the plotting of the rising of the north. I keep that word rising in your mind and it was a parliamentary

stronghold during the English Civil War. But prior to all that, the Viking King and self-appointed Emperor of the North, King

Knut, owned the estate, then known as Rabi, derived from Raa, that's Danish for a boundary, and B, a settlement or dwelling.

So that's the castle and the people, but what about the greenery?

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