Islanders to open up gardens for charity

THE windswept Shetland islands, famed for their rugged beauty, are joining Scotland's Gardens Scheme for the first time this year.

A dozen islanders are opening their gardens to the public to raise money for charities as part of the prestigious annual scheme set up in 1931 to raise money to train Queen's Nurses - known as district nurses - in the pre-NHS era.

Celebrating its 80th anniversary this year, the initiative, endorsed by King George who invited the public into his grounds at Balmoral Castle, has grown to include the grandest estates right down to the smallest pocket handkerchief-sized private gardens, offering visitors tea and biscuits for a small charge.

But this year one of the most unusual and ambitious of the 550 entries in the famous Gardens of Scotland "Yellow Book" is the listing for Unst - Scotland's most northerly island, found at 60 degrees latitude and seven degrees from the Arctic Circle.

Hacked out of rough virgin soil by four determined local residents, the three-acre garden at Baltasound, which grows an ambitious variety of produce under polytunnels, including grapes and kiwi fruit, aims to make the entire Shetland islands self-sufficient in fruit and vegetables.