castle gardens: 1

At the bookstore shortly before I left for Scotland, I was browsing through a book magnanimously titled: 1001 Gardens You Must See Before You Die. I was surprised to see the number of gardens in Scotland. Upon visiting, I concluded that as a gardener, Scotland is an fantastic place to visit. The weather in Scotland makes for amazing plant growth: steady moisture, long summer days (it was dark only from 11pm to 4:30am when I was there), cool summer temperatures (so that flowers last longer as well as being able to grow things like Himalayan blue poppy), and mild, if chilly and dark, winters (mild enough that plants like Phormium and Alstroemeria do fine).

I am certainly not an expert on Scottish gardens, and I'm sure I didn't visit more than a couple of places in the book. But even in my limited time there, I visited more places and saw more gardens than can be placed in a single post. I'm limiting myself to castle gardens (or big houses or such), and in order on in that these were the order in which I visited them. I'm also trying not to focus on individual flowers, although some were very impressive.

Two for today. Edinburgh castle (first three images above) and Abbotsford house (below), the house of Sir Walter Scott. I can't consider it a "house" myself. I really consider it a castle. It's a shame that the grass looks so brown in the photos. I did not see that at all when I was there, but I was preoccupied by the magnanimous borders, and the amazingly plump and tempting raspberries.