Angus & Dundee Garden Trail Virtual Garden Tours

St Bride's Cottage, South Kingennie, Broughty Ferry
This half-acre garden was started from scratch in 2002 and now provides year-round interest. Planting several trees and making a wildlife pond and stream were the first priorities, as birds were sadly rare visitors to the garden. Parts of the perimeter of the garden are left semi-wild with dense shrubs to provide cover and nesting areas, while the area visible from the house is planted for viewing, with a mixture of shrubs, perennials and bulbs. Some features are inspired by visits to gardens around the world, including a Japanese-themed area with island bed. There is a small bog garden with a lovely early summer display of Iris sibirica and many plants justify their existence by attracting a wide variety of bees and butterflies.

8 Leemount Lane, Broughty Ferry
This is a compact residential garden secluded and sheltered by large trees. There is a pond, hens, vegetables, herbs, fruit and flowers. There is also a small chamomile lawn and mirrors are used to reflect light. The garden is ideal for young children to explore the paths, look for frogs and feed the hens and includes child-friendly vegetable labels.

North Lodge, Edzell
North Lodge was designed by James Salmon in the Arts and Crafts style and built as a summer home in 1906. The current garden was designed and planted up in the last 15 years but has grown up quickly. It is predominantly a semi-evergreen woodland garden, full of mature trees and shrubs, which act as a good backdrop for a multitude of climbers and herbaceous perennials. June is a beautiful time of year for this garden, with numerous flowering azaleas, rhododendrons and spring bulbs. The garden also has a Japanese element to it, which has been included to reflect original design features inside the house itself. Pots of acers and bamboo thrive within the protected walled environment, ferns share a shady area with our collection of snowdrops, and a still pond reflects both the sky and plants around it. Our current focus is on increasing the wildlife elements, the pond is loved by birds and a bed of plants specifically chosen for pollinators proved very successful in 2019. Red squirrels and pheasants visit regularly, and we have many varieties of nesting birds owing to the excellent number of trees, shrubs and ground cover.

5 Glamis Place, Il Gardino de Giovanni, Dundee
Il Gardino de Giovanni is a terraced south-facing garden with excellent views. It includes a border garden,

Mains of Balgavie, Forfar
The owners established a species-rich wildflower meadow, in about 2008, which has developed into a wonderful wildlife haven, particularly for butterflies and insects. There is a mass of yellow rattle, oxide daisies, varieties of vetch, broad leaf plantain and different clovers as well as some cowslips earlier in the season and later on lots of common knap weed. It is next to a small orchard which now has lots of yellow rattle under the trees. The garden has three mixed herbaceous borders around the walls and in the middle, raised beds where a variety of annuals and lots of delphiniums grow.

Balhary Walled Garden, Alyth, Blairgowrie
This walled garden is being lovingly restored back to a full production with the gardener’s cottage gardens being transformed from concrete and grass to a magical, therapeutic hidden gem. The walled garden features 75 varieties of fruit trees lining avenues with new trees being planted. A large herbaceous border springs from the lavender hedges to the height of the walls. Vegetables of heritage and new varieties are grown extensively to supply ‘foodies’. The cottage garden comes into its own with lighting, living flame, Zen, formal planting and a fairy garden with red squirrels frolicking about. There are quiet seating places to take in the beautiful and serene water features and sooth the soul.

Lawton House, Inverkeilor, by Arbroath
The 1755 house of red sandstone is approached through beech woods and pasture. Pleached lime trees form a screen on arriving and a path laid with sets and pebble mosaic leads to the front steps, bordered by clipped hawthorn and underplanted with alliums. The borders in front of the house are a mixture of herbaceous perennials, roses and shrubs in varying shades of soft grey. In front is a lawn enclosed by a ‘haha’ looking onto a meadow of grazing cattle with swallows swooping low. The lawn is pierced by a Maltese flower cross planted with varying coloured stemmed dogwood, bergenias, sage and thyme which looks good in all seasons. A short walk takes you to the walled garden. This is planted with a double cross of apple, pear and plum trees, vegetables and fruit bushes quartering the garden. Two of the walls support roses and wide mixed herbaceous borders. Between the apple trees are clipped yew punctuation marks.

Damside Cottage, Arbroath
This cottage garden is set in farmland, overlooking an old dam. It used to be two cottages and a byre and it was converted into one house. The garden once featured in early television garden shows and has evolved over the years as its owners have changed. Today the framework of the original garden remains in the abundant plantings. It is surrounded by dry stone walls and faces south. There is a small pond, area of raised beds with cutting flowers, wonderful espalier fruit trees on house walls, roses, herbaceous beds, scree planting on two low drystane walls and interesting trees. There is a beautiful example of a Tibetan cherry in the main garden.

Templeton House Garden, Arbroath
The garden is set around a 15-year-old house in farmland and created in a farmyard where pigs used to live! This was a bare site and has evolved since the house was built. It is south-facing and protected by a dry-stone wall and beech hedges. It consists of a mixed border, a rose parterre with developing topiary, a raised bed vegetable and herb garden and a small orchard and fruit garden.