The season of abundance is underway and across the country carefully-tended vegetable gardens are currently overflowing with ripening produce. 

Scotland has an array of fine kitchen gardens that are both beautiful and productive, many of them occupying traditional walled gardens that have been brought back to life. True to their 18th and 19th century roots, these gardens are once again growing a huge range of fresh and healthy fruit and vegetables but now without the same reliance on chemicals.

Today, holistic growing methods are producing healthy fruit and vegetables at the same time as  creating environments where nature can also flourish.

These beautiful gardens are also filled with inspirational design ideas that mix contemporary and traditional lay-outs, often combining flowers and produce in surprising ways.

August is the best time to explore these amazing spaces and to savour the flavour of food as it should taste, so here are some gardens that are worth visiting while tomatoes are ripening, carrots are being picked daily and raspberries, fresh from the canes, are begging to be smothered in cream.

Gordon Castle Walled Garden

With assistance from world-renowned garden designer, Arne Maynard, this eight-acre historic garden has been transformed into one of the most glamorous kitchen gardens in the country. It has huge perennial borders filled with blooms, an orchard, a cutting garden and vegetable beds that supply the adjacent cafe with fresh produce.

Visitors can purchase fruit and vegetables in season, including freshly-picked apricots, gooseberries, courgettes and carrots.

The herb garden provides botanicals for Gordon Castle’s range of gin and luxury bath and body produce, with an on-site still distilling natural essences from the thousands of stems and petals that are harvested during the summer, while the long lavender hedges are a magnet for bees.

The Moray Firth, where the garden is situated, benefits from a unique microclimate and this, combined with the protective walls, allows peaches, cherries, figs and other fruits to ripen that would otherwise struggle in this northerly climate. It also provides the perfect conditions for growing soft fruit and in August currants and gooseberries are in plentiful supply

Gordon Castle Walled Garden, Fochabers, Morayshire IV32 7PQ
www.gordoncastle.co.uk

Raasay Walled Garden

When you live off the beaten track it makes sense to be as self-sufficient as possible and Raasay House Garden, which can be reached via a 25-minute ferry journey from Skye, grows fresh produce for islanders and for guests at Raasay House. The soil is fertilised by seaweed from the nearby beaches and any spare fruit and vegetables are sold from the Veg Shack at the entrance to the garden.

Raasay Walled Garden, Isle of Raasay IV40 8PB
www.raasay.com

Geilston Garden

Geilston is typical of the small estates that sprung up along the Clyde during the 18th century as their owners grew rich on shipping and trade. As well as flower borders, climbing roses, a giant Wellingtonia and a secret glade with a sparkling stream ,there is also a huge kitchen garden surrounded by a high beech hedge.

The soil here has been cultivated for more than two centuries, so is deep and rich, providing the perfect growing conditions for carrots, cabbages, lettuces and a whole range of vegetables.

Part of the garden is occupied by a large collection of rhubarb varieties and there is also an  orchard.

At the very centre of the garden is a dipping pond that supplies water for the crops and throughout the summer ripe produce is sold from a stall at the entrance gate.

Geilston Garden, Main Road, Cardross Argyll G82 5HD
http://www.nts.org

Archerfield  Walled Garden

Across this intensively-gardened acre, set within the protective walls of a Victorian kitchen garden, flowers are blooming, fruit is swelling and all kinds of delicious vegetables are starting to ripen.

The garden is part of the Archerfield Estate, which alongside a popular cafe and shop, has acres of open space to explore. The garden itself, which had lain unused for many years, was restored eight years ago and includes a rose garden, orchard, wildlife garden, a meadow and productive polytunnel. A new Water Saving Garden has recently been opened featuring plants that can cope with extreme conditions.

This month sees the opening of a Kitchen Garden, with raised beds, pear trees and a border filled with strawberries. Pumpkins have been planted in old tyres and already 26 bags of potatoes, including Jazzy and Pink Fir Apple, have been harvested.

Meanwhile broad beans, leeks, garlic, angelica, artichokes and many different kind of herbs are already flourishing in the ‘no-dig’ potager, while inside the polytunnels, aubergines, peppers, cucumber, beetroot and 11 different varieties of tomato are being harvested daily for use in the cafe.

Archerfield Walled Garden, Archerfield Estate, Dirleton EH39 5HQ
http://www.archerfieldwalledgarden.com

The Torridon

This kitchen garden in the far north west grows food for one of Scotland’s best restaurants. It sits on the southern shore of Loch Torridon, set against the spectacular scenery of Wester Ross, and the garden is  surrounded by high yew hedges where herbs and vegetables grow amongst fruit trees and flowers. Peas and beans scramble up wigwams and  currants and gooseberries ripen during the short but accelerated growing season.

From the grapes in the greenhouse to the salads and brassicas that are produced year-round in the polytunnel, all the food grown in this two-acre garden is destined to end up on the plates of diners who travel from around the world to experience the hospitality of The Torridon.

The produce includes apples, soft fruit and berries, root vegetables and oriental greens. Herbs such as lovage, rosemary and dill are essential ingredients for the chefs, while a gin garden showcases the botanical ingredients, including blaeberry, rowan and Scots lovage, which are used in the making of The Torridon’s Arcturus Gin.

The Torridon By Achnasheen, Wester Ross IV22 2EY, Phone 01445 79242
http://www.thetorridon.com/

Floors Castle

This impressive castle in the Scottish Borders has been home to the Dukes of Roxburghe for more than 300 years. Since 1857 the four-acre walled garden has been supplying the castle with produce and cut flowers and that practice continue,  however today the garden also provides seasonal fruit and vegetables for the two cafes on the estate and visitors can also buy freshly-picked berries, root vegetables and salads from the Apple Shed Pantry.

Since 2016 a new Tapestry Garden within the walled garden has given visitors access to the glasshouses, with their grape vines, and to the fruit garden, meanwhile within the flower garden the fiery reds of the hot borders are beginning to ignite.

Floors Castle, Kelso, Roxburghshire TD5 7RL