Horticulture

Pictured above: looking across the heather collection

Horticulture plays a big part in making Perth a beautiful place to live, work and visit. Gardening, even on a small scale, makes a big difference to our local environment and quality of life. 

We do horticultural work in gardens, beds and containers across Perth, chiefly using sustainable and pollinator plants to create displays that are colourful and attractive for people and beneficial for wildlife. 

In Riverside Park, our volunteers undertake planting, weeding, tidying and general maintenance across the gardens. Access to the park is free and it is open every day of the year. Riverside Park includes lovely walks along the Tay stretching from Bridgend, through the Norie-Miller Walk and the Rodney Gardens to Bellwood Park and beyond. The Park forms part of a beautiful circular walk around the City, through the North and South Inches, along Tay Street and over the main bridges across the river. We work closely with Perth & Kinross Council on major improvements to the Park. Pedestrians can access the Park from Queen's Bridge, from Dundee Road and by crossing over the railway bridge from Tay Street. For vehicles there are nearby car parks (parking charges apply). 

Heather Garden- we have created and maintain a unique, beautiful and extensive Heather Collection in the Bellwood area of Riverside Park. There are 15 heather beds surrounding the car park and flowing down to the banks of the Tay, containing over 16,000 heather plants from more than 600 varieties. The heathers provide colour all year round. You can read more about the collection in our leaflet and watch our video on YouTube. 

National Heather Collection
In 2022 we created a collection of the heather Erica Carnea, and it was awarded National Collection status by Plant Heritage. Read more here. 

Rodney Gardens - we have 'adopted' several of the beds in these beautiful gardens working on maintaining and improving the displays. In recent years budgetery restraints have led to our colleagues at Perth & Kinross Council reducing their input, hence our greater involvement, but we do still rely on and welcome their assistance. In 2016, thanks to a generous grant from the Gannochy Trust, we restored several of the beds in front of the Rodney Pavilion. In 2023 we began the major undertakiing of restoring the large bed which surrounds the roundels and this major project is ongoing.

Compassionate Friends Garden - With support from Perth & Kinross Council, we worked in partnership with Compassionate Friends, a charitable organisation of bereaved parents, siblings and grandparents, to create a contemplative garden within Riverside Park. In the garden you will see a rowan tree below which, in 2017, the Compassionate Friends group installed a small marker stone at its foot. Then in 2018 the group held its annual gathering in Perth when they joined us in the garden to unveil a new bench and at the entrance to the garden, a beautiful carved commemorative stone. The garden is now maintained entirely by our volunteers. 

Pictured below (from left): maintenance at Riverside Park car park; planting containers at Oakbank corner; Rodney Gardens; the Compassionate Friends Garden in Riverside Park.