Fiona MacDonald, who owns The Potting Shed and specialises in house plants, has won a silver gilt medal at the Dundee Flower and Food Festival for her display. The festival, which took place last weekend, covered everything from plants to Scotch Broth.
Fiona said: “The judges were very complimentary and suggested that I would’ve won gold if I’d had labels on the plants and hidden some boxes from view.”
Fiona, who leaves near Newmachar, has been running The Potting Shed since April, although she had been thinking about it for some time while she was studying for her Royal Horticultural Society certification. Although this has been put to one side for now, she still loves plants inside and out and would like to encourage more people to have houseplants.
“They are good for our mental health,” she said.
“They clean the air, and our weather means that gardening inside is good.”
With a well deserved second place in Dundee, Fiona, 45, has now been invited to display at Gardening Scotland next year by one of the Dundee Flower and Food Festival judges, Jim Jermyn. Gardening Scotland takes place in June 2017 when the Royal Highland Centre in Edinburgh is transformed for three days into a gardeners paradise.
“My moss chair, and display in general, got loads of attention. So I’m pretty chuffed,” said Fiona.
You can read Fiona’s advice on how to spruce up your home here:Â