Garden Gnomes - Glasgow Southside

Status:	Active, open to new members
Leader:	Garden Gnomes
When:	On Mondays 10:30 First Monday of the month. Garden visits may happen on other days and extend into the afternoon
Venue:	Various
Cost:	Entry charge for gardens visited, usually. Lunch/tea/coffee break. Fuel costs for car sharing.

Shrinking violet or thrusting teasel, you can pick up gardening tips and enjoy visits to green spaces.

The group has evolved into a (mainly) garden visiting group, to a combination of gardens open to the public via National Trust Scotland, RBGE, Scotland’s Gardens Scheme and other open gardens, our first visit (one per month) being in August 2023. Outings are usually “in season”, on the first Monday of the month but we do sometimes, to accommodate gardens which are open only on selected days, have to shift things round. See our photo gallery below.

We also have talks delivered by an expert and plan to visit garden centres and nurseries.

Communication is by WhatsApp and occasional secure emails.

Coming Up - 2026

On Sunday 5th July we will be visiting a selection of gardens in Lanark, open under Scotland’s Gardens Scheme

Previous Visits

There have been two trips by the Gardening Gnomes since May’s newsletter. We were across the water to Benmore Garden, north of Dunoon. The weather was kind, and the eight of us made an impression on the 120 acres in the time available, still allowing time for a bite or two to eat afterwards. It was very obviously Rhododendron time, but with many other highlights too, including the “Handkerchief” tree.

Despite a poor weather forecast, we set off for Moffat to view the celebrated “Himalayan” garden at Craigieburn, visited by Robert Burns. More recently, the garden has been cultivated from scratch and populated with an exotic selection of Nepalese flora, expertly tended by Dawa Sherpa and overseen by the owner, Janet McGowan. Despite this garden being only six acres compared to the 120 acres at Benmore, it was a fairly astounding visit to experience the unusual greenery on show. Fortunately, the weather behaved until we were safely inside the Rumbling Tum for our lunchtime bite.

Aprils trip was to Kilbryde Castle near Doune/Dunblane, an impressive and ancient dwelling overlooking woodland and water. The garden was slightly underwhelming being “in-between” seasons with many spring flowers still to show. Hopefully, better luck at Ben More.

March’s outings to Castlemilk Park and Greenbank Garden were blessed with weather reasonable enough not to complain about. Snowdrops were in profusion at Castlemilk, where we also explored the remaining vestiges of the grand old estate there - the restored stables. Greenbank had the first Spring shoots showing plus a couple of early bees (can you spot one in the photos?).

The Gnomes headed eastwards in October in two carloads to savour the autumnal delights of the Japanese Garden at Cowden, near Dollar. It came as no surprise that the delights were on full display for us, again boxing clever with the weather. Acers and other woodlands were a multitude of colours. But as for the serenity of the setting; that is something you have to be there to experience.