The station volunteers doing a first-class job

RAIL passengers in southwest Scotland have had their journeys brightened over the past decade by the work of volunteer gardeners who have transformed stations along routes across the district. Platforms from Stranraer and Dumfries to Nitshill and Priesthill on the south side of Glasgow bloom with shrubs, perennials and annuals. I discovered this by accident when I visited Dumfries, so was astonished to learn that all the gardens and planters are tended by just 15 volunteers, led by retired professional gardener Louis Wall. Louis, who is originally from Cornwall, was inspired to start the South West Rail Adopters Gardening Group when he offered to plant up neglected containers at his local station in Stranraer.

“One of the rail managers asked me to take on another station, then another, until I was doing 20,” he told me when I returned last week to have a better look. Gradually Louis recruited others, and platforms from Gretna and Glasgow have been transformed.

The hub of activity is at Dumfries, where the garden has been revived into a beautiful, peaceful spot, with beds of lavender, dahlias and fragrant sweet peas. There’s a wildflower area too that in spring is covered in primulas and bluebells. On the day I visited, a group of garden lovers from France had popped in to talk to Louis. The soil is free-draining and the garden faces south, so in dry spells the team is busy. “Watering is an issue,” Louis told me. “Nine stations don’t have water and on all of them hoses can’t be used for health and safety reasons. They have to be watered by hand.” Part of the garden in Dumfries adjoins a church, so Louis planted figs, dates,

palms and plants mentioned in the Bible. There’s a wedding garden at Gretna, and all the gardens have been planted with Bidens and Rudbeckia that will flourish in bright yellow in time for Glow Gold September, a nationwide campaign to raise awareness of childhood cancers. Most of the 5,000 plants are raised by Louis in his own garden and, during summer, he travels around 1,000 miles looking after gardens along the rail network. However he has the knack of inspiring those around him, once persuading Kew Gardens to lend him five gardeners, who arrived on the sleeper early in the morning, worked all day, then took the sleeper south in the evening. “That has to be the highlight of my years in horticulture,” says Louis, who, after a sevenyear apprenticeship, headed up the garden team on several large estates.

He has won many awards for his work on station gardens, most recently being named Gardener of the Year at Gardening Scotland 2018, but he maintains none of it is possible without his team. Now, when I catch the train at Ayr, I pay special attention to the displays and am grateful to Louis and his team for making them flourish.