On Sunday afternoon I was helping out at the Scotland’s Garden Scheme open day at Drumelzier Old Manse – I’d been excited about this one for quite a while as I’d seen photographs and knew it promised to be quite special.
It’s a traditional Manse garden in the Upper Tweed Valley (just along the road from the Botanical Gardens at Dawyk). They have the most gorgeous herbaceous border I think I’ve ever seen, bursting with colour. they even have their own Meconopsis ‘Hensol Violet’.
There’s a fantastic kitchen garden and in the lower garden they have a wonderful shade garden with a path along the burn. All of this within the most beautiful countryside, it really was quite idyllic.
I was on gate duty and we had over 200 people through within the first hour or so – clearly the sunshine, not to mention a couple of nice pieces of PR, had drawn people in from all over.
It was an absolutely super day, there was an organist playing and singing in the church next door, an excellent plant sale organised by Jane and Graham from The Potting Shed (another fantastic garden in the area that’s well worth a visit) and teas and cakes aplenty were served by an army of volunteers in the village hall.
Yes, I did buy more plants, although there wasn’t very much left at all by the time I got there. A couple of hostas, an ophiopogon (Black Mondo) for the rockery and a Lysimachia Firecracker. I already had an apple tree that I’d picked up from Quercus Plants en route filling my wee mini – it was like a jungle driving home.
Did I mention that I LOVE my job…
