A walled Scottish kitchen garden with raised vegetable beds and rolling hills beyond

North of the border

Growing in Scotland

Most gardening advice is written for the English lowlands and adjusted, if at all, at the edges. This section starts from Scotland: a shorter season, Atlantic weather, acidic upland soils, and frost that tracks altitude and distance from the sea far more than the map suggests.

The finding most people get wrongInverness is milder than Edinburgh

Met Office records show Inverness averaging fewer air-frost days a year than Edinburgh, the mildest mainland station we examined. The old rule that "the Highlands are coldest" costs Highland lowland gardeners weeks of season.

See the frost data →
The Scottish growing climateShorter summers, Atlantic weather and why altitude and distance from the sea matter more than latitude.Frost datesThe single most useful, and most misunderstood, number in Scottish growing. Includes a finding that surprises people.Polytunnel growingHow growing under cover changes the calendar, the crops that become possible, and the pests that concentrate.Scottish soil typesNaturally acidic uplands, heavy clays and peaty ground: what they mean for what you can grow.Allotments in ScotlandHow allotment provision works north of the border, and the rules that differ from the rest of the UK.

Growing by region

We group Scotland into six climate regions, each tied to a real Met Office station rather than a postcode line. Most also split into lowland and upland, because a garden at 250m is a different climate from the coast a few miles away.

Central BeltEH · G · PA1-PA19 …NortheastABHighlandsIV · PH · KWSouthwestDGBordersTDIslandsHS · ZE · KA27 …