Mill Garden Centre Armadale

Shrubs, Acers, Conifers, Trees, Heathers, Bedding Plants, Sundries, Display Gardens

• Overview
• History
• Display Gardens

About us - Display Gardens

Over time we have created a number of individual gardens of differing styles around the site, to help customers envisage plants in their proper setting and to provide a more relaxed experience overall.

Gravel Garden

Often referred to as a dry garden because of the use of gravel as a backdrop to the plants, this is a garden constructed in the modern style to take account of those who do not wish to spend too much time maintaining a garden. Many of the plants used here are "structure" plants e.g. Euphorbia, ornamental grasses (golden oats etc.), Japanese Acers, bamboos, pines and many unusual herbaceous plants. Ideally plants used in this type of design should complement the hard landscaping such as decking, patios and paved areas and be relatively slow-growing so not to completely hide the gravel. This garden was constructed in 1999 for the Millenium.

Dell Garden

This first small "Dell garden" was constructed by ourselves 15 years ago to show what could be achieved with a difficult sloping site facing the "wrong way" i.e. North. It was designed in front of an old disused byre which was part of the mill farm built around 1651 and restored by us at the same time as the garden was built. The plants used were mainly dwarf conifers, Japanese maples, ericaceous plants such as Pieris, rhododendrons, heathers etc. As you can see from the pictures this mix of planting gave all year round interest to the garden.

As with all gardens, some of the original plants had outgrown the space giving us an ideal opportunity to consider some new ideas for the site. This area has now been cleared and replanted.

Owner's Garden

Our own private garden, which fronts the house at Barbauchlaw Mill was laid out 35 years ago and has a more traditional feel to it with its extensive use of sweeping lawns and structured shrub beds backed by a series of evergreen wind breaks.The garden also contains a number of semi-mature trees which have been planted for structural interest or as features in a particular season, e.g. Betula Jacquemontii, Cedrus Deodara Aurea Pendula, Chamaecyparis Nootkatensis Pendula and Sorbus Aria Aurea.The pictures below will be changed on a regular basis to show you the development of this garden over the last 30 years and different plants through the seasons.