Digging up inspiration for the garden, and a cuppa

ANYONE tackling a big job in the garden knows that often the best thing you can do is put down your tools and head off for a bit of inspiration. So, with that in mind, I skipped off recently to visit Culzean Castle in Ayrshire where work is underway to transform the estate’s walled garden.

At this time of the year its woodland is burnished with glorious autumnal colours and the view from the cliff-top terraces takes in a great sweep of the Firth of Clyde.

The area I had come to see lies tucked behind high walls that protect it from cold winds and burning salt.

It is three-and-a-half acres in size and once it would have provided fruit and vegetables for the Kennedy family, original owners of Culzean.

Over the years it had lost its focus and some of the buildings had become run down but recently a robust plan has been developed that will allow the garden to flourish again and I met up with head gardener,

Iain Govan, who along with his team, is hard at work putting that plan into action.

In just 12 months a new vegetable garden has been created, extensive fruit cages installed, the greenhouse has been renovated and yew hedges planted to add structure and maturity. Now the orchard is in the process of being replanted and by next summer fresh blooms will flourish in a new cut flower border.

Regular visitors will also have been gratified to see the huge herbaceous borders, once the highlight of the garden, are in the process of being restored, promising an astonishing display of flowers along their 140m length. “When the Kennedy family lived here the garden supplied them with fruit and veg and they had fresh produce from Culzean shipped to wherever they happened to be in the world,” says Iain.

“But a garden is a living thing, you can’t capture it like something in a museum. “Anyway, these days we don’t have the same number of gardeners that they had in earlier centuries.”

In fact there are just seven gardeners at Culzean, but that small team is putting in place some very ambitious features in the walled garden including a nuttery, a brewing garden and an area filled with botanicals that could soon be flavouring gin.

On the other side of the wall, a tea plantation is being laid out.

The tea plant is a member of the camellia family and camellias have been grown at Culzean since early in the 19th Century when a beautiful pavilion was built to shelter them.

I came away from my visit with lots of ideas, including a fancy for growing a few tea plants of my own.

Not only would they be a beautiful addition to the garden, but they’d provide me with my own home brew.