Synopsis
Irene Thomson moved to Glassmount in the mid 1970s, with her mother, brother James and four young children. She wanted a bigger garden and though the house looked a bit spooky, she peeped over the wall into the garden and liked what she saw. For many years Irene just maintained the garden as it was but when she retired from running an antique shop in Edinburgh in 2003 she “started digging. After about seven years it was out of control, and ever since I’ve been trying to quell the mutiny”. Surrounded by wind-blown fields of arable crops, high above the Firth of Forth, a tree-lined drive leads to the house. Cross the gravel drive in front of the imposing house, push your way through the heavy metal panelled door into the walled garden and you enter another world, a place that calls to mind the enchanted gardens of children's literature. As well as a profusion of plants including a host of Himalayan lilies, the huge Cardinocrinum giganteum, there are several garden buildings including a teahouse on stilts and a rare Victorian Mackenzie and Moncur pagoda conservatory. Outside a mass of flowering plants, mostly grown from seed, makes a brilliant image against the neighbouring field.
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