Why we love Geilston Garden

Transcript

5 speakers: Ross, Malcolm, John, Lorna, Nicole

[Ross]
I'm Ross. I’m the Visitor Services Supervisor for Geilston Garden, which is cared for by the National Trust for Scotland.

Geilston Garden is on the edge of Cardross, which is in West Dunbartonshire.

The garden obviously has many features to it. It’s got a fantastic walled garden; you’ve got your woodland walks, which take you down into the rhododendron areas, which take you along the burn, which lets you explore a completely different aspect of the garden as well. It's got a play area for the kids and it's just a great place to explore.

The garden is covered by our head gardener Alison and also a group of gardeners that look after this and keep the place looking as good as it does. We’ve got a Visitor Services team, who welcome you to the garden and make sure that you know where to go, what to see and what's happening in that week as well.

I love Geilston because it is an escape from reality that lets you come here and explore somewhere that you just didn't know was actually here.

Every time that you come to Geilston, you always find something different in the garden, whether that be that obviously a new area has flowered and grown or the gardeners are doing something in the veg garden. There's so many aspects to it that you'll see something different every time you're here.

[Malcom]
Malcolm McNeil, Gardener at Geilston Garden.

[John]
John Martin, Gardener at Geilston Garden.

[Malcolm]
I love the garden because of the tranquillity, the wildlife, birdsong, the sound of the water. I like the fact that just about every month there’s some sort of colour. There is seldom no colour in the garden at all through the year. And the way that there's different sections -- from snowdrops through to daffodils, then the azaleas and the herbaceous border. There's a real seasonal flow in the garden.

We try to have a variety of stuff for interest and a range of produce -- potatoes; lots of soft fruit; black, white and red currants;

[John]
all different brassicas like kale and cabbage.

[Malcolm]
It’s not a market garden in any way; it's ideas for people. It's to let people see what to grow; if we can do it, they can do it.

[John]
I love the garden because the team in the garden is just superb. We’ve got a great head gardener, we’ve got a great gardening team and we’ve got a great team of volunteers.

There’s always something to do, you're always busy. The day flies in, there's so much variety of things. It’s just such a lovely place to work.

[Malcolm]
The orchard -- there's about six different varieties of apples in the orchard. Generally speaking, every second year there’s a really good crop. We sell the apples when they're harvested.

We’ve started to leave wild bits between the trees to encourage more wildlife, insects and such like in there.

[John]
It’s just a little bit of tranquillity away from the road; it's just such a beautiful place. There’s a wee different thing around every corner, like the wee twisty burn. It's just so nice for people to visit.

[Lorna]
My name's Lorna. I'm a Visitor Services Assistant here at Geilston Garden.

I think a lot of people that come to Geilston don't know what's here. They don't realise the space that we have here; it’s a much bigger garden then you realise.

Visitors tell me it’s a place that they can come to get away. It's a place where it's constantly changing, changing with the seasons. Obviously, we have all our produce in the kitchen garden and then in the spring the azaleas, the rhododendrons, the colours, the smells.

I love this place because it's a hidden gem. There are so many parts to this garden, and it's always changing. It's beautiful all times of the year.

[Nicole]
My name's Nicole and I'm a Visitor Services Assistant at Geilston Garden in Cardross.

I've been coming here from when I was a little girl, and every day there is something new and something different to see and do. There's parts of the garden that I've never seen until now, even though I've been coming here for years as a child.

So, the garden really is somewhere special that is constantly changing and evolving and it's something different every day.

There's something for everyone here, no matter who you are or what you are into, you can always find something about the garden that you really like.