New Gardens Open in June
June is a month to get out and about and soak up some quality time in green spaces, whether it’s your own garden, a friends or neighbours, or you’re visiting one that’s open through Scotland's Gardens Scheme. The options are plentiful with 29 brand new gardens opening for SGS this month.
This includes the Fife Summer Trail, a collection of gardens in the town of Brechin as well as a number of notable other gardens from stately homes such as Gleneagles and Abbotsford to an unusual Railway Station Garden in Dumfrieshire and allotments in Glasgow, and everything else in between.
Here’s a selection of our new June openings, and the full list can be found HERE.
Angus & Dundee - Brechin Gardens in Spring
Sunday 2 June, 1pm - 5pm
A lovely collection of 7 gardens within the town of Brechin will all be open to visitors - teas and tickets can be purchased at Brechin Cathedral Hall. There will also be a sale of second-hand gardening books.
9 Pearse Street
Bishops Walk
Brechin Cathedral
East Kintrockat
Pearse Croft
Westbank Cottage
Westerlea
Ayrshire & Arran - The Carriage House
Sunday 23 June, 2pm - 5pm
Built 1800c the Carriage House was created from old stables, a cowshed and dairy.
The Garden has been designed to provide colour and interest all year round. It features sculptures by artists including Lucy Poett, Lucy Fisher and Mary Stormonth Darling and Ironwork by Kev Paxton.
Paths are designed to take you around the 10-acre field to discover items of interest, such as the mermaids rescuing a girl and some unusual trees such as a variegated tulip tree, a golden dawn redwood, and a wellingtonia.
Dumfriesshire - Dumfries Station Garden
Sunday 30 June, 11am - 4pm
On both sides of the station platform, this is an unusual garden. It’ss formally planted to reflect colour and interest all year round. There’s a specialist wildlife garden planted with native wildflower species and also a Biblical garden, composed of many plants mentioned in the Bible. You will also see unique pieces of artwork depicting the Flying Scotsman and also the beautiful landscape of wild Galloway. The garden is co-ordinated by Louis Wall, holder of Gardener of the Year Award in 2018.
East Lothian - Gullane House
Saturday/Sunday, 22/23 June, 2pm - 6pm
A traditional walled garden, the front of the house looks onto rose-hedged twin herbaceous borders of delphinium, peonies and lupins followed by dahlias, phlox and salvias and preceded by tulips and alliums.
A small lily pond leads to a newly made rose and lavender garden planted within established box hedging. The next ‘room’ is reached through a beech hedge and is full of soft fruit and vegetables.
The garden also boasts several kinds of fruit trees and shrubs, a splendid elm and oak and woodland paths surround the formal areas providing plenty of places for hide and seek!
Edinburgh and Midlothian - Preston Hall Walled Garden
By arrangement
Preston Hall Walled Garden is a beautiful example of an 18th-century walled garden. The current restoration began in 2011 and wonderfully demonstrates what can be achieved in a few years. An imposing brick wall surrounds the two-acre garden, which features two impressive gazebo structures that give spectacular views of the garden, a rose garden, a partly restored Victorian greenhouse, fruit and vegetable patches, and a stunning flower garden.
Edinburgh and Midlothian - 89 Ravenscroft Street
Saturday 8 June, Tuesday 11 June, Saturday 22 June & Tuesday 25 June, 2pm - 5pm
A large walled garden simply bursting with surprises, in the old mining village of Gilmerton. Planting includes mature trees, roses and herbaceous borders. There’s also a potager. There are plenty of seats so bring a thermos and sit and enjoy the garden.
Fife - Fife Summer Trail
Various dates throughout June
Garden open season is in full swing, and this year gardeners of Fife are throwing open their garden gates for a Summer Trail. There will be eight gardens open over the fortnight, showcasing very different, and wonderful designs. From a baby Victorian walled garden with mixed borders and fruit trees at Gordonshall Farm, to a later Edwardian landscaped garden with stunning views, rockeries and water features, including a granite grotto with waterfall pool (The Tower). The air will be heavy the perfume from the English roses at Straiton Farmhouse, which flourish alongside their tree peonies. Visitors can enjoy meandering among the island beds and overflowing borders (Kenly Green Farm), down acrab apple and rose tunnel or pleached lime avenue in the walled garden at Millfield House.
Glasgow & District - Berridale Allotments and Gardens
Saturday 22 June, 2pm - 5pm
There have been allotments at Berridale since before the Second World War. The site has 51 plots, most with huts and/or greenhouses, and is a green oasis in an urban setting with the River Cart running along one side of our site. There is a large variety of vegetables, flowers and fruit cultivated with plotholders regularly winning prizes. Come and have a look around our site and chat with some of our members. We have a large hut so even if it’s wet you can stay dry.
Peeblesshire & Tweeddale - Abbotsford
Open daily 10am - 5pm
The garden was designed by Sir Walter Scott with advice from artists, architects and friends. It is a rare surviving example of a Regency Garden layout – and completely different from the English Landscape Garden style which ‘Capability’ Brown made his own in the previous decades. Abbotsford’s garden aims to provide a harmonious transition between the luxury and comfort of the interiors of the house with wonders of nature in the wider estate through a series of secluded, richly detailed and sheltered ‘rooms’. In its day it would have showcased the latest plants discovered from around the globe, both in its borders and ‘stove houses’, and was tended by William Bogie, a Frenchman trained by James MacDonald one of the most celebrated gardeners of the day.
Perth & Kinross - Gleneagles
Monday 3 June, 2pm - 5pm
Home of the Haldanes since the 13th century. This is a newly created wild garden which has been evolving for the last 20 years. There’s a walk around the pond and along the burn past the 15th-century chapel to the ruins of a laird’s tower.
