Garden OF THE WEEK
Despite its location just minutes from a busy motorway, this Scottish garden is an oasis of calm
The garden at Claremont is a verdant, tranquil and relaxing oasis, created by Trevor and Faye Yerbury more or less from scratch. And yet it’s hard to believe it’s only two minutes from Junction 4 of the busy M8 motorway that runs between Glasgow and Edinburgh.
“Our garden is a place of peace and sanctuary,” says Trevor. “We’d lived in Edinburgh for most of our lives and this is a complete change to the hubbub experienced in a city garden. The surrounding trees and other foliage filter out any outside noise, including the motorway.” Both Trevor and Faye are renowned and highly respected photographers, having travelled the world creating superb images for both public and private collections. They’ve been showered with accolades over the years, including Masters of Photography, 15 Kodak European Gold Awards and Fellows of the Royal Photographic Society – a rare honour. Occasionally, the garden is used for inspiration for their images, but otherwise it’s purely for their leisure and personal enjoyment.
When the couple moved there, most areas were laid to lawn, with large dead or almost dead trees and a few rhododendrons. Everywhere else was covered in weed-suppressant fabric and large pebbles which, 20 years later, they are still discovering according to Trevor. Afemale (“we know she’s a she”) monkey puzzle tree was retained and is now a magnificent 6m (or so) high specimen that creates a major focal point in the garden.
Around six years ago, the Yerburys added a dawn redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides), which is already a stately 6m high beauty, and several lovely silver birches have also been added to the tree quota. “When we first moved here, two friends from Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh visited and the one comment they made after looking all around was ‘very council planting’!”
Every year the amount of lawn diminishes as Trevor and Faye increase the size and number of borders; a new herbaceous border was created earlier this year, for example. “I hate grass,” says Trevor, his dismissive word for lawn. “I hate cutting grass – it
