Lest We Forget

This is a special time of year when we all need to remember those brave men and women who lost their lives during the World Wars, and continue to do so in so many more wars. The poppy is a great symbol that we all recognise as being so important for the Armistice and for all our Ceremonies of Remembrance and it is also, obviously, a flower, so we feel it is very fitting that our gardening group put together a special display in honour. Many people in and around Duns have knitted and crocheted lovely poppies which we have draped around the War Memorial in our park plus the group got together to make a colourful display using old plastic flower pots – a great re-use of non-recyclable pots, which we all have piled up in our greenhouses and sheds, plus a fun afternoon of crafting. We also need to remember all the animals who lost their lives during those dreadful times and a purple poppy is a good way to highlight the plight of all of them from horses to pigeons, so many millions were slaughtered.

Let us all wear our poppies with pride – Lest we Forget.

KDBM 10th Anniversary

It’s hard to believe but our little band of volunteers, under the title of ‘Keeping Duns Blooming Marvellous’ has reached it’s 10th Anniversary. Back in October 2015, I contacted Scottish Borders Council to ask why the large flower bed in the Public Park was empty and, by the end of the conversation, had taken on the daunting task of cultivating it!

Fast forward 10 years and we now have 13 large flower beds, 45 planters of various sizes, a wild flower bed and a giant pile of tyres softened with planting to create a colourful show all year round. It’s a daunting task to keep on top of all of that but, with a fantastic bunch of fun folk ready to take on all sorts of challenges, we manage it all. Always with a laugh and always ready to take on new projects we crack on from Feb to Dec then hibernate for the harshest of the winter months.

Hot drinks and ice cream at the end of each gardening session are always enjoyed and we love when the locals honk horns or wave at us in the passing – great encouragement! Our ‘Flowerbed Trail’ is well supported by locals and visitors and we hope that people do spend time on the website learning about all the different beds and flowers we have planted. There is also a fantastic section for children of all ages to encourage all sorts of activities in gardening. Perfectly suited for schools and youth groups such as Nurseries and Guiding.
It’s a lot of work, but we love it and hope that you do too.

Park Bed 2016 before sustainability legislation
Park Bed 2025
Scotland’s Garden Scheme Duns July 2025

What a lovely day we had on Sunday at our ‘Scotland’s Gardens Scheme’(SGS) open day in Duns.   All gardeners love their own private space, usually hidden behind their houses, and we were all extremely privileged to be given free access to these perfect sanctuaries during the afternoon of Sunday 20th July.   Spoilt rotten to have 16 of these wonderful spaces to explore, I can only show a very small selection on this blog, which is such a shame.   IF we do this again in 2026, PLEASE free up your calendar and come along, you most certainly won’t be disappointed.   A footfall of over 150 people from as far afield as the Isle of Skye had a fantastic time in lovely sunshine, culminating in refreshments in our cosy Market Square and at the Volunteer Hall, where the tickets and maps were on sale.   The Plant Sale was a roaring success and the three tables of produce soon disappeared – as did all the cakes inside the hall!   Thank you to our generous garden owners for their hard work and our volunteers for all the invaluable help on the day.  Also to SGS for their support and guidance.  All proceeds from the day go to SGS and our two chosen local charities – Duns First Responders and Duns Paramedics (BASICS).

Plant Sale 27th April 2025

Another hugely successful day at the Volunteer Hall with our annual fund- raising plant sale.  It got so busy we didn’t have time to take pictures but you can see from the early pictures we certainly weren’t short of plants on the day!  We are always so well supported by local folks that we have trays of, mostly perennial plants, being dropped off all week prior to the big day!   We even had an outside stand for trees, larger plants and garden-alia and our volunteer Dominique soon shifted all the lovely terracotta pots.   The refreshments team were set up early and did a roaring trade with sausage and mash or veg soup with a great variety of cakes and biscuits.   At the end of the day a huge amount of money was made, ensuring we are able, once again, to Keep Duns Looking Blooming Marvellous all year.   Thank you to all our volunteers and to the lovely residents of Duns and District.

See you next year!

Litter Pick

Keep Scotland Beautiful held their annual Community Clean Up between 21st March and 21st April and KDBM decided to take part over the weekend of 28th, 29th & 30th March. What a lot of rubbish- literally!! So many people stepped up to help clean up or lovely town and neighboring roads. A special thanks to our Community Policeman Kriss MacLeod, Duns & District Rotary, Duns Primary school, Berwickshire High School, Scottish Borders Council and all the good folk of Duns including, of course, our own KDBM volunteers. We even had our local MSP Rachael Hamilton and our own MP John Lamont join us. Everyone played a part in making a difference, however, I just wish I could say that’s it done for ever now. No chance!! Until things change and more education is given to the next generation plus a huge reducing of the use of plastics, we will be back again with our litter pickers clearing up after silly people who flout the law.

Back in Business!

That’s us back in business for the 2025 season – choosing, for some reason, a freezing Feb morning with flurries of snow to accompany us. Cleared out the old bedding from some planters in the Market Square then headed to the start of the Flowerbed Trail with no1 bed ‘Rotary Welcome’. Much scraping of leaves and debris, which revealed a beautiful purple Hellebore which really pinged out in front of the bronze leaf Cordyline. Then off to No 2 ‘Castle St’ and No 3 ‘Clouds Corner’ to lift more piles of leaves, which were completely squishing other plants. Always good to leave a covering of old leaves to protect the new growth and give the wee bugs and beasties a hotel for the winter, but there is a limit! A Hedgehog could have overwintered in that mound 😬. Had to give in after just over an hour as we were frozen, so headed off for a much welcome hot drink in our lovely Market Square. Roll on Spring!

One of our regular maintenance tours.

One of the nice things about being in the garden is having a poke about and seeing what can be found hidden away. During the last group garden session around our Flowerbed Trail we came across a Large Yellow Underwing moth, Red Admirals, Bees and lots of snails. I know the snails are a bit of a pest chomping their way through the prize Hosta but they are quite intriguing to watch when they are on the prowl. Unfortunately, we haven’t had a lot of butterflies this year no doubt due to the cold start to the summer although I have seen a lot of cabbage whites! I’ve also only come across one Ladybird and it was sunning itself on my laundry basket! I managed to transfer it on to a plant and hope it found some pesky Aphids to munch on. Also worth stopping at the Barn End to see how well the Green Man is weathering and settling in to his guardian roll of new growth and nature. Take a moment to read the story, on the neighbouring plaque, of how our Green Man and Gruffalo came about.

Plants galore at KDBM plant sale

What a fantastic day we had at our 2024 annual plant sale on Sunday!   An unbelievable response with plants donated and a HUGE crowd waiting at the door.  Honestly, Harrod’s eat your heart out! – come to Duns if you want to see a sale crowd 🙂.  The atmosphere was brilliant, food yummy, raffle over flowing with goodies and everyone seemed to be going out with smiles on their faces and arms full of plants.   We apologise to anyone who couldn’t quite get to the tables, we were somewhat overwhelmed with the numbers but we did our best.  More and more tables were added to accommodate the plants and the number of happy people wanting a cuppa, cake or something more substantial.  Sausage and Mash or Soup options went down extremely well and the cakes all disappeared.  I just managed to grab a slice of Lemon Drizzle before it all went.   All the money raised will be spent on our town and we have lots of ideas for the town beds plus we are adding new circular planters on the railings around the trees in the Market Square.  Have to confirm the date for the 2025 sale but it will hopefully be the first Sunday after PlayFest so…..probably 11th May TBC.   A huge thank you to all the volunteers who helped out before and after the event, preparing and tidying up.  And an even bigger one for the gang who were on duty on the day – whew, did we all need that glass of something chilled at the end!  But mostly, thank you to all the people who visited and supported our work.


Back to work at KDBM

Well, that’s us fully in to the swing of 2024 gardening in Duns!  After almost three months of rest and relaxation (as if…) Spring has Sprung and it’s back to the hard, but extremely enjoyable, work tidying, pruning, removing and (unfortunately) litter and dog poo picking.   Most of our plants seem to have survived the frost and rain but there are a few inevitable casualties.  However, that’s gardening for you – it’s a moveable feast and that’s part of the enjoyment.  It’s lovely to see a flowerbed morph from one year to the next.  Sometimes it’s a particular shrub or flower that takes centre stage, then, the following year it is a completely different one which has matured in to a delight and outshines everything else.   We do hope many of the residents of Duns and all our visitors take time to walk around, maybe following the ‘Duns Flowerbed Trail’, and chose a favourite plant.   We’d love to hear your comments and maybe even recommendations!

We have a new bed for 2024 – The Beacon Bed.  The Beacon was situated on top of Duns Law and was installed for the late Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations.   Our Community Council and Festival Committee felt this beautiful hand crafted monument should be in a place where more people could admire it so it has been relocated, with the help of our Borders Council team, to the Public Park and now has pride of place by the Boston Court gates.  We have prepared the soil and a good number of plants have been bought which will go in once the weather is suitable.  We are hoping to have a ‘fire’ theme for the planting with plants showing varieties of red and gold flowers, foliage and stems.  However, as I’ve said – this could well morph in to something totally different as time goes on!    Thank you to Pearsons and Duns Community Council for support with the buying of the plants – it really does all make a difference as plants and compost are anything but cheap. 

We hope you enjoy Duns flowers this summer and for many more to come.’

Daffodil planting on Castle Street

Saturday saw some of the Blooming Marvellous volunteers joining up with the good residents of Upper Castle St to plant 1800 daffodil bulbs along the edge of the grass by the wall at Tinkers Field. The lead up to Duns Castle Estate is going to look fab in the Spring of 2024, and for ever after, giving the residents a lovely bright outlook from their houses and our townspeople and visitors a bright cheerful walk up to the Castle entrance to explore the permitted walks on the estate. Thanks to Will Allison for organising it all and to everyone who turned up on the day to help. A true Community Event!