Lios Mhairi/Mairi’s Hebridean Garden

Mairi has made some changes in the garden and she introduces her new indoor growing space. She visits island gardener Murdo Macdonald who has created a beautiful and productive garden from scratch, and former colleague Louise Galloway who gives her a tour of the research glasshouses at the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh.

Mairi plants out vegetables and flowers and visits growers at a thriving community garden in Cranhill, Glasgow. She finds out more about herbology from Catherine Conway-Payne at the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh and visits Sue Blair who transformed a neglected piece of ground into a lovely mature garden on the west side of Lewis.

In this episode, Mairi makes collars for her brassicas using materials she has to hand and visits two experienced island gardeners, Angus Macdonald and David Murdo Mackay. Angus has a flourishing vegetable and fruit garden and David has created a woodland in an exposed coastal location on the west side of the island. Mairi also travels to a specialist organic herb nursery in the Black Isle.

Summer gales damage the garden but undeterred, she visits Chrissie Macleod’s beautiful flower garden on the Isle of Lewis and learns more about botanical illustration from accomplished artist Jacqui Pestell.

Mairi gets some help with building a path to her crub and harvests her veg. She meets Robin Reid, who has created a woodland in the rocky Bays of Harris, and John Hamilton, who has established a market garden on the Isle of Lewis.