One gorgeous day last week we decided to take ourselves off to the lovely mediaeval university town of St Andrews, a favourite place of mine, you can see images of the town here, but first we stopped off at the St Andrews Botanic Garden. Jack had prepared a picnic lunch (he’s not a bad lad) and these two photos are of the view from our picnic bench. The pond was alive with life but luckily none of it was biting.
The bit of land below has been set aside as a wildflower meadow.
There’s also a herb garden and they sell a lot of unusual herbs at the Botanics shop, as well as some very fresh (just dug up) produce from the vegetable garden.
Below is a lily pond.
Below is part of a rockery, alpine garden.
More rockery/scree garden. I must admit that I’m tempted to create a mini rockery in my new garden. Remember they were all the rage in the 1960s? everything comes back around!
I would have to scale it down more than a wee bit, there’s no way I could cope with rocks the size of the ones above.
Last year I and a lot of other people signed a petition to try to keep these gardens open to the public as they were under threat of closure, due to cutbacks I think. You can read about it here. They’ve got a reprieve for the next five years anyway, but given the huge price of land around the town (due mainly to golf) I have no doubt that at some time in the future someone will try to grab it again for building purposes. If so, I’ll be lying down in front of a bulldozer!
I hope you enjoyed your armchair trip to the St Andrews Botanic Garden.
Thanks for the pictures. Are you still living in that general region? I thought you went a wee bit WEST.
Notice the “wee”..that’s your influence.
Lorraine,
I felt as if I went a wee bit west but not according to the map! We only moved 8 miles away from the old house and are actually closer to St Andrews than we were before.
Those ‘wees’ seem to be spreading across the world!
I love Botanic Gardens and these are beautiful photos. We have a great botanic garden here in Santa Barbara, and there was a very nice one in Birmingham (Alabama), probably still is.
TracyK,
I love them too, so I hope this ones manages to keep going. It’s nice to know that there are Botanic Gardens in your neck of the woods too.
I didn’t know St Andrews had a Botanic Garden, but now that I do, I am sure I’ll be visiting it. It looks lovely, especially from the bench you chose for your picnic! Great photos!
Evee,
The St Andrews Botanics deserves to be better known, we almost had the whole place to ourselves, which was lovely for us but I’m sure they would like more visitors. It’s only £1.50 to get in or £2 if you are not ‘concession’ – it’s a bargain!
What would we do without botanic gardens? They’re so peaceful and they give us the opportunity to see plants and trees and landscapes we might not otherwise see.
But that the gardens may disappear to build more houses or golf courses – what unforgivable crimes we humans commit against nature.
Joan,
And these gardens seem to run classes for people wanting to learn more. We are going to get a season ticket and try to support them in the future, if need be.
Beautiful! May be headed there for the Open next year…husband’s a golf fan. I’m sure I’ll find something to do…
Pearl,
I usually avoid St Andrews when the Open is there but if you find yourself at a loose end I’ll pop along and we can have a coffee somewhere! There are nice beaches to walk on too but you’ll be well used to even better ones I’m sure!
So gorgeous! I love the alpine garden – that is perfection to me. We have a Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix that is amazing and one of my favorite places in my area.
Anbolyn,
I should have taken some photos of the desert and cacti plants at the botanics, I love them but of course they are kept in glasshouses in Scotland otherwise they would never survive the winters. I’ll take photos of them next time. I’m so glad you have a great botanic garden near you too.
I enjoyed that armchair trip immensely! Thank you! It would be great fun to put a mini rockery in your new garden! I am glad the garden was saved from closing for now. What a shame that anyone would even consider bulldozing such a treasure.
Stefanie,
I was thinking exactly the same thing – and I think I know where I’m going to put it. That grass just keeps getting smaller and smaller, Jack is so pleased as he is the one mowing it!
What lovely photos–I would love to visit. Just my kind of place, especially the wildflower meadow.
JaneGS,
I must admit that Fife isn’t the most scenic part of Scotland but it has some good points. Wildflower meadows are popping up everywhere now, especially along the road verges. Hopefully they will help out the bees who haven’t been doing too well in recent years.