The beautiful gardens of a rural Mearns community will open to the public next weekend.
Auchenblae’s Gardens Open event will mark for its 10th year by stretching its boundaries to include two “exceptional” plots.
The event will kick-start at the village’s hall, where directions will be given on the routes to take.
This year Gardens Open will raise money for flood lights to illuminate the Pictish stones within Auchenblae’s church.
The gardens of Auchenblae homes Crann-Tara, Glensaugh Lodge and Bridgend will be opened up to the public.
Margaret Pitt and Roy Vobes spent three years creating Crann-Tara, which was originally built as an accommodation block for the Camphill Schools based at Glenfarquhar Lodge.
Attendees will be allowed to wander around the courtyard, explore the paths leading through the former paddocks and take a circular walk around the house itself.
Glensaugh Lodge, in the Glen of Drumtochty, is the home of Donald and Sue Barrie – who spent some 10 years restoring the once neglected garden.
Bridgend is the home of Jenny and Alistair Colbeck, whose garden of dry stone dykes slopes deeply towards a roadside.
Auchenblae Gardens Open organiser, Jenny Thomson, said: “We are well supported, people come out from Banchory and from down south for it.
“Auchenblae has been doing it for 10 years. It is quite an unusual thing for a little village.
“I am incredibly grateful to the people who are doing it because the gardens are amazing and a tremendous amount of work goes into them.”
The gardens will be open across Saturday, July 16 to Sunday, July 17 from 1pm to 4.30pm.
Visits can be spread across two days for the same £7.50 cost -which includes strawberry teas served in the hall during the afternoon. There will also be savoury produce, plant and book stalls in the hall.
