We visited Saughton Park Gardens in Edinburgh for the first time a few weeks back.
The park has a hot house, which although small, is really nice and its free to enter. I really like hot houses - and we were the only ones there.
It was only about a year or so ago that I realised that there was a hot house in this park. There is also the Botanical Gardens in Edinburgh which are a lot larger - but I just hadnt heard of this other hot house.
It also had a display of some Indian culture in amongst the flowers which was really nice and fitted in really well.
The display included this lovely bust of the great Mahatma Gandhi.
The hot house also had the obligatory pond with gold fish !
Up the other side of the hot house was this chilling/cafe area where you could take a seat. The smell from the flowers in this area was just incredible - I'm not quite sure which flower it was, but it was fantastic.
There are also a lot of gardens outside as well.
This part was over favourite and it was a community maintained herb garden, with the herbs grouped by medical use !
Each area had a specific application, with the one above being 'respiratory & Ear, Nose and Throat'. The sign at bottom left says 'Bramble - young leaves have a high tannin content - good for sore throat and bleeding gums. Berries high in vitamin C & K'.
It really was excellent and so informative !
There were also some lovely cultivated bushes.
These were quite impressive indeed.
And at the centre of the park was this lovely old Victorian style band stand !
I have to say we were really impressed with the gardens and hot house (which are powered by a small green energy scheme in the river). Its fairly close to where we live, and I'm sure we will be back again to visit !
