Eri Mackenzie Gardens

Eri Mackenzie Gardens Garden Designer, living in Balquhidder and working within central Scotland & can travel further. Trained at The Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh.

As a self-employed Gardener and Designer with over a decade of experience, I am passionate about creatively enhancing outdoor spaces. For the past 10 years, I have worked on a Private Estate, developing the surrounding gardens and restoring life to their walled garden. In that time I also qualified in Garden Design from the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh, refining my expertise in creating invitin

g outdoor spaces. I aim to create outdoor environments that offer individuals the best sensory experience from the natural space around them. By bringing together my client’s needs and the existing environment, I strive to create design objectives that not only benefit the client but also the surrounding nature. Whether you wish a cosy retreat nestled into the countryside and hills or to introduce nature in a space where it is sparse, my goal is to bring the beauty of the outdoors closer to home.

Every garden has its heroes and each week something different seems to pop out. As we are now in November and the winte...
16/11/2025

Every garden has its heroes and each week something different seems to pop out. As we are now in November and the winter weather is rapidly approaching. Our gardens are beginning to take on their winter form. This week I noticed some blooms that were still hanging in there and providing a bit of colour and to the borders whilst some were now providing the winter structure.

This Knautia macedonica and Astrantia 'Shaggy' were both planted in the early summer, finishing off the final third of the herbaceous border in the walled garden. They are always a winning combination. Although both look delicate and light, I have found them to be long flowering, tough and reliable. The walled garden keeps them nicely protected but the conditions are very wet and the soil is clay.

This Eryngium zabelii 'Big Blue' is a great vibrant blue structural plant during the summer, its winter form is arguably even better. Add a bit of frost and it's stunning. Again another tough, reliable plant which I use a lot.

And my third hero is this Nigella damascena (love-in-a-mist) which was part of an annual wild flower seed mix which I used as a quick solution to treat an area of a holiday let garden that needed some life to it . A traditional cottage garden annual, which I'm hoping might now self seed and be a regular feature in this garden.







It was good to be back in the garden today after the half term break. It was feeling nice and Autumnal, time to start th...
28/10/2025

It was good to be back in the garden today after the half term break.
It was feeling nice and Autumnal, time to start thinking about getting it ready for winter.

October for me…1. Amazing Acapanthus2. Autumn inspiration3. New plants…for MY garden! 4. Inspiring views5. Inspiration f...
01/11/2024

October for me…
1. Amazing Acapanthus
2. Autumn inspiration
3. New plants…for MY garden!
4. Inspiring views
5. Inspiration from Sr Terry Wahls
6. Very dodgy baking attempts
7. Sunrises
8. Sunsets
9. Bulbs planted
10. Seeds collected last year, sown this year…time will tell!

I had a beautiful and inspiring walk around Logie Garden yesterday. The colours were beautiful and the planting combinat...
19/10/2024

I had a beautiful and inspiring walk around Logie Garden yesterday. The colours were beautiful and the planting combinations with both colour, shapes and textures were inspiring for this time of year. Followed by tea and cake! I love Autumn.

Thank you to everyone who supported us in raising a fantastic amount for MS. We are really grateful.
02/06/2024

Thank you to everyone who supported us in raising a fantastic amount for MS. We are really grateful.

The mown paths are looking good this morning. They are helping define the space and it also helps me plan what to do wit...
01/06/2024

The mown paths are looking good this morning. They are helping define the space and it also helps me plan what to do with it! Plus my latest purchase has arrived in time for weekend reading and inspiration.

Some highlights from the walled garden recently.
30/08/2023

Some highlights from the walled garden recently.

Clearing the Artichoke bed in the walled garden, which has been truly unremarkable this year. I need to do a bit of rese...
30/08/2023

Clearing the Artichoke bed in the walled garden, which has been truly unremarkable this year. I need to do a bit of research on growing them because apparently the garden use to have them in abundance!? 🤔

We built this garden in Comrie, with in November 2022 and finished the planting this week. So now we just have to wait...
26/01/2023

We built this garden in Comrie, with in November 2022 and finished the planting this week. So now we just have to wait for it to come to life!

I started working with my client a while ago, initially helping to enhance the long border and then later redesigning the top lawn. It has been a lovely collaboration working with her, as she had clear ideas
and as this was the family home she knew it well.

We created a paved terrace wrapped by soft, delicate planting and a low wall with steps leading up in to the lawn.
Next to the terrace is a small kitchen garden with accessible raised beds, near the back door and courtyard, framed with Ilex crenata hedging to separate it from the main garden.

Paths lead out to another terrace which overlooks the river and the lower garden. There is a path alongside the long border leading you from the back gate down the garden, the path morphs in to stepping stones at the far end for subtlety.

With the planting we have created sense of enclosure and passing from one aspect of the garden to another whilst maintaining unity throughout. The borders are edged in Cor-Ten to give a understated but contemporary feel to the design.

The intense green form of the Yew Hedge hides the river beyond, so there is a lovely reveal as you go down to the lower garden and river. The lawn is softened with areas of wildflowers and the large box balls create punctuation points and a contrasting structure against the wildflowers.

I am really looking forward to seeing how this space develops.

.mackenzie.gardens


Here are a few winter jobs I’ve been up to this week. .mackenzie.gardens
14/01/2023

Here are a few winter jobs I’ve been up to this week. .mackenzie.gardens

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Balquhidder
FK198NZ

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