Gardens: Teasses, Fife

To the south a herd of Highland cattle grazes in an open field. At the heart of the garden the castellated Victorian mansion overlooks a formal terraced garden that opens up onto lawns where beech hedges and a chestnut avenue frame southerly vistas towards the Firth of Forth and Edinburgh.

The 60 acres of grounds are so well maintained and the woodland so well cared for that it is impossible to imagine that just 15 years ago the estate was in need of rejuvenation and the woodland garden was just a collection of mature trees.

Head gardener, Bob Bilson, who has worked here for 11 years explains: "When Sir Fraser bought the estate the greenhouses were neglected as were the potting sheds, and horses grazed in the walled garden."

It took two years to restore the house before work could start on the garden, in a multi-themed project planned by Lancashire-based garden and landscape designer David Redmore. Bob and his team of three gardeners have continued to develop the garden with regular input from Sir Fraser and his wife Lady Morrison.

Topiary shapes punctuate the terrace garden outlined with box-edged beds for year-round interest. The design is based on a central axis that lifts the eye towards a generously proportioned wooden bridge over a ravine.

Known as the Ravine Garden, this space was created from the field that stretched across the park towards the walled garden. Here the borders and steep edges of the ravine are planted with swathes of agapanthus, hydrangea, fuchsia, nepeta and penstemon and backed with tall Stipa Gigantica that filter the low winter sun.

Grass paths lead to an amphitheatre excavated from a natural dip in the field.

Further east Sir Fraser's garden sits in a circular hollow with banks planted with lacy Hydrangea Paniculata, acers, cornus, rhododendrons, magnolia, Cardiocrinum Giganteum and Parottia Persica. "We've planted a quarter of a million bulbs in the last ten years," Bob says.

A short walk east and you come to a cream-painted wooden lodge and a Japanese-themed water garden, where informal ponds backed with herbaceous plants create a tranquil atmosphere. The drive then leads past the grandchildren's domain, a gabled treehouse snugly set within the branches of a pine tree.

When Bob first walked into the oval-shaped walled garden enclosed to the north with a curved wall finished with intriguing scalloped edges he knew immediately he wanted to work at Teasses. A former electronics engineer with "a background on my own allotment" he completed an RHS course later applying to Teasses as assistant gardener. Six years later he became head gardener.

It's easy to see why he was so enthused. Newly restored greenhouses preside over a central symmetrical layout of box-edged beds flanked by fruit trees and vegetables before giving way to a grassy area planted with birch, acers and Prunus Serrula; while a natural barrier of rhododendrons and trees form the southern boundary.

Although there were no records or photographs to help recreate the layout, Bob's sensational find of a Neolithic meat scraper indicates that this ancient site has been cultivated for 5,000 or 6,000 years.

The Millennium woodland garden, he explains, has evolved round opportunities created by storm damage to the woodlands.

"In 2002 we lost 150 trees in a few minutes," he says. "Some were nearly 200 years old so when they blew down they left large open spaces." Most of these have been developed into distinctive gardens.

Directly behind the house an open, south-facing swathe has been planted with an array of species and hybrid rhododendrons, ferns, primula, crinodendron and meconopsis.

"We've planted over 1,000 shrubs in the last ten years including tender species such as winter scented Daphne Bholua and 'Jacqueline Postill'. These survived last winter, which was very severe."

Teasses gardens recycles all its green waste and produces 80 tons of compost and leaf mould each year which is used to mulch and feed the whole garden.

Driving the estate John Deere "Gator" down the wide grass paths that thread the garden Bill stops at the wrought iron gate which leads into a serpentine yew garden with undulating hedges. Here there are views over the Pentland Hills, and if you go higher up you can make out Perthshire, the Lomond Hills and St Andrews. Tucked in a sheltered dell a bed of hellebores and ferns is centered around a metal brazier; a nearby pile of logs provides fuel for family barbecues.

The most recent woodland project, but by no means the last, is a newly created spring garden for Lady Morrison. The one-acre site sits at the tip of the woodland with views over the field of Highland cattle. There is a seated area, surrounded by a dry-stone wall, using recycled stone from the larger estate and Bob has planted rhododendrons and a magnolia garden.

Driving back to the house Bob points out that the garden creates a perfect natural habitat for wildlife. "There are red squirrels, badgers, foxes, and woodpeckers who take advantage of hollow trees; barn owls and colonies of Pipistrelle bats," says Bob who credits the hard work of his support team of gardeners. "We all enjoy what we do. It's not bad for 11 years' work."

The garden at Teasses Estate, By Ceres, Fife is open by appointment under Scotland's Gardens Scheme, www.gardensofscotland.org

This article was first published in The Scotsman, 16 October, 2010