Gardens: Doctors’ Duddingston Village garden has healing properties

HERBS have a quiet yet potent force which has endured in the face of conventional medicine. It is fitting then, that they may be used to make medicine in a garden that owes its roots to two doctors.

The herbal or “physic” garden at Dr Neil’s honours a GP couple who practised in Edinburgh for many years and who, in their spare time, transformed a piece of waste ground on the shores of Duddingston Loch. The garden is named for Andrew and Nancy Neil. It was 
effectively a dumping ground to the rear of Duddingston’s ancient church and the couple had been looking for a place to garden after losing their allotment. With the help of volunteers, they worked for decades, eventually seeing the garden become a charitable trust. This year it celebrates its golden anniversary.

The secluded spot covers almost two acres, with woodland plants, alpines, rhododendrons and azaleas spread along terraces and around trees. In March, the primroses, hellebores and first daffodils are taking over from the aconites and snowdrops. Narcissus poeticus are the latest daffodils to flower and are usually still in the garden in May. The Neils developed shelter belts of conifers and the garden was formed into a base for species rhododendrons. The trees bring the benefit of obscuring the view of the loch at certain points, creating an air of magical mystery tour.

It is looked after by a full-time gardener, Claudia Pottier, and about a dozen volunteers. The popularity of Dr Neil’s with people who have been able to donate their time over the past five decades belies its occasional description as 
Edinburgh’s secret garden.

“You would be amazed at the number of people who write in after visiting and say they have lived in Edinburgh their whole lives but never knew the garden existed,” says Richard Kinnard, one of the volunteers, who found Dr Neil’s after retirement in 2011. Others are drawn to it for reasons other than gardening. He adds: “Once, a woman came to the garden having just lost her husband. He had known the garden well and she just wanted to sit in the peace.”

Claudia recently tackled the larch, oak and beech bonsai that had been Andrew’s pride and joy. They had burst their pots through not having their roots pruned, evident in the leaves growing too large. She enlisted Sally Sewell, a horticulture graduate who also volunteers, and the two of them took a deep breath and picked up the secateurs. They then repotted the plants and fed them water containing vitamin B, which promotes root growth. What’s good for patients is good for plants, it seems, and the natural 
extension of the Neils’ medical expertise into their garden is enduring.

The physic garden was planted last year. Claudia designed a layout of beds in a circle, with a path running through. The petals of the circle form pairs to make heart shapes, to remember the Neils as a couple as well as doctors. Within the beds are more than 50 herbs with 
medicinal functions. They are mostly grouped into the Neils’ specialities of ear, nose and throat, and gyno-urinary medicine. They include peppermint and apothecary’s rose, which can treat colds and sore throats, yarrow and white deadnettle, which were used to treat urinary infections, but also St John’s Wort for depression, and passion flower, to aid sleep. “The knot design is our memorial to the Neils,” says Claudia. It fits in with the aim to involve more people with health problems, and Claudia is hoping to work with a herbalist to bring the physic garden to practical use through workshops. She is also planning a new “golden” border to celebrate the anniversary, combining grasses and herbaceous perennials in yellows through to bronzes.

Petra Palkova, another volunteer, is a horticulture student at the Scottish Agricultural College who was looking for practical experience. “I came in one morning when there was no one about, and it seemed to have this magical feel. It’s not like an open garden; you walk about and suddenly discover new areas. From some parts of the garden you can’t see the loch, then you turn a corner and it opens out. It feels cosy.”

Sally, who graduated from the same college, sees volunteering as a valuable continuation of her training. “I can trade work for knowledge. If there is something I am unsure of, say about pruning, I can ask Claudia.”

Among past volunteers was Andrew’s brother, Murray, who came to the garden weekly until he died, aged 92. The Neils themselves died in 2005. “A lot of visitors say they knew the doctors, were their patients or were delivered by Andrew. The children of volunteers from the doctors’ time come in,” adds Claudia.

Despite the sheltered position of the terraces, allowing frost-sensitive plants such as phormiums to grow, the garden is not immune from storm weather. The lowest path gets waterlogged and Claudia would like to be able to raise money to pay for boardwalks.

“Last year was incredibly challenging with the weather,” recalls Richard. Sometimes damage is turned into an advantage: a eucalyptus tree was sitting inconveniently in the middle of the proposed physic garden when nature intervened and blew it down. Arborists dismantled it, but the stump, which the weight of the tree had levered out of the ground, posed a problem due to limited access. It now remains as a feature.

Quirkily named parts of the garden echo the Neils’ life, such as the Burma road – a path along the bottom that became extremely hot in the summer it was being laid. Thymes square is a homage to the herb, while a copse of mainly cypress trees was named Nerja after a town in Spain where the Neils spent holidays: they brought some young trees home. Now, towering above the shoreline, the souvenirs ensure the couple live on in their garden, from root to leaf to treetop. k

Dr Neil’s, Duddingston Village, Edinburgh, is open to the public and charges entry only on fund raising days (this year’s first are 15 and 16 June). Park in the church car park on Duddingston Road West. For more information see 
www.drneilsgarden.co.uk