About

A blog about a garden in central Scotland.

The garden was started in 1962 by my mother and father in what used to be the land belonging to an old water-driven sawmill. When it was started, it was nothing but a steep clay bank beneath the newly-built house, about thirty old spruce trees and deep beds of nettles.

Newly built 1962

The sticky yellow clay subsoil from the house excavations was tipped down the bank and held in place by three stone retaining walls, as shown above. The first shrub plantings were dug into holes in the clay filled with compost. Drainage was not good.

The rest of the garden was rough grass, with the bank on the left thick, ungrazed tussocks. In the centre (just visible) is the ruin of the old mill. To the right runs the burn (stream/river to English speakers) which once powered the mill. Among the spruce trees beyond the bank is the pond which once served as the quarry for the stone from which the mill was built. Everything a new garden could want, except a decent climate and good soil.

Still, over nearly fifty years, we have achieved something, I think. Here is a picture of the garden today (June 2011) taken from much the same spot as above.

And here is the clay bank, now a mix of herbaceous and shrubs:

That’s the bare bones of it.  Back to the blog.