Our Garden in July 🪻🪻🪻

July is a time to harvest the lavender we use for our Lavender Gin. But there are plenty of other jobs we are doing in the garden for producing our award-winning gins, for our Distillery Tours or just for our Garden visitors.

Erika, our Head Gardner, writes:

We gardeners scan the weather forecast religiously this month, and every dry day we harvest as much as possible. The drying rooms are full of rose petals, lavender, hollyhock petals, violas and winter savoury.

Our roses are suffering a little bit with rose powdery mildew this year, so we have to pay extra attention when harvesting to make sure we get the highest quality petals. Once the roses have finished flowering, which will be in a few weeks time, we’ll arm ourselves with secateurs and give the bushes a good prune. This will allow airflow between the plants, which minimises the spread of the mildew. With a bit of TLC, they should be happier and healthier next year.

As the peonies, foxgloves, elderflower and aquilegia are going to seed, the lavender, roses, mallows, sweet peas, oregano and thyme are providing colour to the garden. The fruits on the apricot and fig trees in the glasshouse are ripening and the grapes are swelling. The grapes won’t be ready to harvest until September, but it is starting to look like a promising crop for next years Pinot Noir and Chardonnay Gins not to mention our newest products:  Vermouth Rosso and Blanco (a proper Scottish vermouth!!!).

The lavender harvest has just started. We dry only the flowers and pick the ones that are just about to open. We also make sure to always leave enough flowers on the plants to keep our bees and other pollinators happy.

Despite the rainy summer, the garden is abundant and colourful. And on those dreary days, the drying rooms are a welcome refuge with 30+ degrees Celsius and a gentle breeze that smells of roses and lavender. If you close your eyes, you can imagine that you’re in the Mediterranean!