Stepping through the small, arched doorway that marks the only entrance is like entering a different world. The walls and surrounding woodland provide shelter and give a sense of security, serenity and seclusion.
The hedging nursery and the parterre together occupy around 1/5th of the 3-acre gardens. Other features include:
- Mixed borders, in which shrubs and perennials blend to provide colour for much of the season.
- Rose Garden with scented old English shrub roses, together with more than 20 climbing and rambling roses on walls and through trees,
- A working vegetable potager, with up to 30 types of vegetable grown annually for home and local consumption, 20 types of fruit, including local apple and pear varieties, and a box-edged herb garden,
- Grass Garden, in which herbaceous perennials accentuate the graceful forms of cultivated grasses,
- Winter Garden, filled with winter and spring bulbs, winter-flowering or berrying shrubs, winter heathers and plants with bright stem colours such as Cornus and Prunus cultivars
- A small fernery in the remains of the former summer house, showing the elegant form of some of our native and cultivated ferns.
- Woodland Garden, which looks at its best in Spring
- A start at establishing the National Collection of Parthenocissus, commonly known as Virginia Creeper, with financial help from Dumfries & Galloway Plant Heritage
- Horticultural Archaeology - the remains of old buildings and gardening artifacts provide evidence for how the 19th Century kitchen garden operated.
The gardens have a natural balance between "friend" and "foe". Frogs, toads, newts and even slow-worms have been seen and are helped by leaving log piles and undisturbed damp corners. Plants such as Tagetes, Digitalis & Limnanthes, and herbs like borage, encourage several types of bee and hoverflies for pollination and pest reduction.
Many native and migrant birds nest in the gardens or the surrounding woodlands, while the prolific windfall fruits help to feed both birds and butterflies
Events take place in the garden during the season.
Dates for the 2008 diary:
Sunday 1st June: 2.00-5.30 pm Scotland Garden Scheme (Yellow Book) Open Day. Admissions: Adults £2.50, Concessions and children £2.00. Proceeds to the Scotland Garden Scheme Charities, the Swallow Theatre, and Glasserton and the Isle of Whithorn church.
Monday 7th July. Opening in conjunction with violin and harpsichord recital performances in Glasserton church. Please contact Swallow Theatre on 01988 850368 for confirmation of details of this event.
Sunday 20th July: 2.00-5.30 pm Scotland Garden Scheme (Yellow Book) Open Day. Admissions: Adults £2.50, Concessions and children £2.00. Proceeds to the Scotland Garden Scheme Charities, Alzheimers (Scotland), and Glasserton and the Isle of Whithorn church. Weather permitting, the children’s theatre will put on a performance, organised by the Swallow Theatre.
And at other times from May to September by prior appointment