Aberdeenshire is home to some of Scotland’s most remarkable gardens. Visiting great gardens is one of the best sources of inspiration for your own outdoor space. However, seeing them through a designer’s eye can transform a pleasant afternoon out into a genuine learning experience.
Why Visit Gardens With a Designer’s Eye?
> Inspiration That Suits Your Garden: Visiting a real garden which, geographically speaking, is close to you helps you understand your local climate and what will grow in your outdoor space. It is far more relevant to you than visiting gardens further afield or scrolling through endless photos of sun-drenched Mediterranean terraces abroad or manicured English gardens South of the border.
> Understanding Scale and Proportion: Photographs also rarely convey how a space really works and feels. By being in a well-designed garden in your locality, visiting a garden gives you a sense of how paths, lawns, borders, and structures relate to one another.
> Seeing Planting in Context: You can easily see plants in a nursery or local garden centre. However seeing a plant in a pot or reading a plant label does not give you the true picture of how it might work in your garden. By visiting gardens with established borders you can see how large plants can become when they mature, how they fit into a border and how they can be planted in pleasing combinations which you can replicate in your own garden.
> Spotting the Details: A designer notices the things that are easy to overlook. For example, the way a path curves to create anticipation, the use of hard landscaping materials to unify a space, or the placement of a bench to capture the last of the evening sun. These are the details that elevates a garden from being just pleasant and to being inspiring and memorable.
Aberdeenshire Gardens Worth Visiting
- Crathes Castle | National Trust for Scotland is one of Scotland’s finest historic gardens, the walled garden at Crathes is famous for its spectacular herbaceous borders and remarkable yew hedges, which date back to the early 18th century. The design is heavily influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement.
The 4 acre walled garden is divided up into 8 ‘garden rooms’, each with its own theme. These include a double herbaceous border, the Red Garden, the June Borders and the Golden Garden. The clipped yew hedges and Portuguese laurels give added evergreen interest and shape.
An upper terrace gives a good overall view of the walled garden as well as featuring a secret pool garden which gives a sense of tranquillity. A recent addition is a rose garden in this part of the garden.
Designer’s Perspective: Whilst this is a grand garden, don’t be put off by its size for design inspiration for your own smaller plot. Each ‘garden room’ is the size of a typical garden where you can find interesting plants and design features to replicate in your own outdoor space. Events | National Trust for Scotland are also run in the Walled Garden such as tours with the Head Gardener and gardening workshops, so be sure to check out their page!
- Pitmedden Garden | National Trust for Scotland is a stunning formal walled garden, best known for its elaborate planted parterres with geometric bedding schemes planted within formal box edged borders. With almost 6 miles of clipped hedging, the parterres are the heart of the garden and are a masterpiece of intricate patterns and fragrant flowers.
In front of the garden walls there are stunning herbaceous borders planted with perennials for vibrant summer colour. In 2021 the upper terrace parterre was redesigned and reimagined with a new sustainable garden. With a biodiverse, species-rich meadow of herbaceous perennials, it offers changing patterns and colours for the 21st Century.
Designer’s Perspective: Whilst Pitmedden Garden is famous for its formal parterre layout – a structured design was very much the trend in the 17th century – it does require constant care and attention to maintain.
As a designer the most interesting part of this great garden are the newly developed upper terraces which were redesigned for modern times. The aim is to use modern horticultural practices for maximum floral impact and biodiversity, whilst reducing resources required to care for it in the interests of sustainability and climate change.
Amongst the species planted are grasses such as Deschampsia cespitosa, beautiful blue cornflowers, prairie plants like helenium and three different types of peonies. This area is definitely worth a visit for the modern gardener!
- Our Aberdeenshire Gardens | Douneside House is the former home of Lady MacRobert, who developed the magnificent gardens there in the early to mid-1900s. There are ornamental borders with an Arts and Crafts themed terraced garden and an extensive water garden. Douneside House is now an award winning hotel. In front of the hotel is an infinity lawn with beautiful views over the Deeside hills. There is a walled garden with a large greenhouse which supplies organic fruit, vegetables and herbs to the kitchen and cut flowers to the hotel.
The rockpool gardens are a must-see with Hosta, Primula, Iris and Rodgersia which suit this environment. These pools used to be Lady MacRobert’s alpine rock gardens, designed by Backhouse Nurseries of York in 1911. Over time they have evolved into a new feature alongside the burn running through the estate.
Designer’s Perspective: This garden offers lots of design ideas for all different types of gardening styles. From vegetable growing to a water garden beside a burn it offers inspiration for gardening in a variety of environments. With some unusual plant varieties it also gets away from the norm of what you can find in your local garden centre or nursery.
However what’s unique is their Horticultural Training Scheme – The MacRobert Trust which provides up to six trainees with a year-long programme focussing on developing practical horticultural skills and enhancing professional career options. With training opportunities in pesticide application, chainsaw operation, and the RHS Level 2 Certificate in Practical Horticulture, trainees gain valuable experience and knowledge that has resulted in 100% job placement success since 2010. At present this is the only horticultural training programme in Aberdeenshire.
- Tigh Braigh is a beautiful perennial garden with expansive views of Strath Deveron. Sitting 200m above sea level the site is challenging. However it shows what can be achieved with flowing ornamental borders with grasses, herbaceous perennials and stunning rambling roses with a focus on pollinators. It also has benches and seating areas allowing you to drink in the sights and sounds of the garden. The garden is fringed with native wildflower strips planted with fruit trees and a large polytunnel and a vegetable garden providing a wealth of produce. The front garden is a beautiful courtyard garden.
Designer’s Perspective: Instagram is a unique garden in Aberdeenshire in that it includes 3 spaces – a beautiful perennial garden, a productive fruit and vegetable garden and a stunning courtyard garden. All of these are encompassed in an outdoor space which reflects the size of many gardeners’ own gardens in a beautiful location which makes it relatable. The owners are also not afraid to experiment, changing planting combinations and areas of the garden which don’t work. The elevation of the garden also means that plants chosen are extremely resilient.
- Tarland Community Garden – Visit Tarland Across Aberdeenshire there are a growing number of community gardens and allotment projects that, while less polished than their National Trust counterparts, offer a different and equally valuable kind of inspiration.
Tarland Community Garden is one such garden which opened in 2013 and is part of the arland Development Group project. It provides an inclusive and accessible community growing space for local residents. It has a polytunnel and also raised beds for garden members based on availability, plus communal planting areas including a soft fruit cage, fruit trees and a herb garden. It is a place for members to grow produce, learn, share and have fun.
Designer’s Perspective: Tarland Community Garden is open to the public one day each year under Scotland’s Garden Scheme. If you are into productive gardening then this is the place to visit for inspiration!
- Airdlin Croft is a stunning woodland garden located in the agricultural plains of the Buchan Countryside. Located at Ythanbank, near Ellon in Aberdeenshire it is a prominent five-acre private botanical and wildlife garden. Developed over more than 40 years by horticulturists Richard and Ellen Firmin on what was once a working croft, the space has been meticulously transformed into a complex, tiered woodland habitat designed to maximize biodiversity. The development of the garden has focused upon building a complex habitat to attract as much wildlife as possible. Their approach has been to mirror the structure of woodland seen in nature, with different levels of vegetation. Deer and rabbit fencing has been installed around the boundary to try and keep the larger pests at bay!
The garden also houses an extensive collection of Hosta (over 250 at last count) and many are also planted in the garden for visitors to get ideas on how to grow them in different environments.
Designer’s Perspective: This is a truly stunning example of a woodland garden in Aberdeenshire. The tree canopy is enormous, offering shelter for woodland shrubs and perennials. There is an extensive collection of rhododendrons so worth visiting in late spring to see those alone! With water features, a productive area and a wildflower meadow there is lots to see. Richard and Ellen offer private tours which you can book in advance.
What Makes A Great Garden?
Strong structure: Every successful garden has a clear framework of hard landscaping, topiary, hedging, or mature trees that holds the space together across all seasons which is softened with planting.
Considered transitions: The best gardens move you through space with purpose seamlessly. This can be achieved with paths that curve to create intrigue, steps which signal a change in level or mood or gateways which frame the perfect view.
Planting with restraint and resilience: The most beautiful planting schemes are rarely the most complex. Repetition, a limited colour palette, planting in odd numbers of 3s or 5s creates swathes of planting which softens the hard landscaping. Resilient plants which have interest in at least 3 different seasons are also key.
A sense of place: The finest gardens feel as though they could only exist exactly where they are — rooted in their landscape, their climate, and their history.
Taking the Inspiration Home
Visiting a great garden is only the beginning. The real value comes from translating what you have seen and felt into your own outdoor space. Taking photographs of what you have seen and like on garden visits can help a professional garden designer help you create your dream outdoor space.
At Gerbera Designs, we draw on a deep knowledge of what works in the Aberdeenshire climate and landscape, and translate it into gardens that are beautiful, practical, and entirely personal to you.
Ready to Bring the Inspiration to Life in Your Own Garden?
Inspired by what great design can do? Book an initial call with Gerbera Design and start a conversation about your own Aberdeenshire garden.
