Visiting the Achiltibuie Garden

If you've visited us before 2008, please note that we now have a new location within Achiltibuie. The old building which housed the Hydroponicum and its café is closed; our new growing house is situated nearby, whilst our office is in the township of Altandhu.

If you need directions for getting to us, please click here.

Opening times from Easter until the end of September 2010:

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday   12 to 5pm

If you can't make the above days, it may be possible to arrange an alternative time to visit, so please contact us

Our growing house and outdoor garden are open to the public and as the year progresses, we hope that you'll see construction work starting on the building which will house our café and shop, scheduled to open in 2011.

Inside the Keder growing house, you'll see hydroponics systems and soil-filled raised beds used to grow a wide range of vegetables, herbs, salads and edible flowers. Our salad bags and seasonal fresh produce are available to buy directly from us, as well as in the local shops, Achiltibuie Stores and Polbain Stores.

Power for the Keder growing house is supplied by a micro wind turbine which runs the pumps via a bank of batteries. All the hydroponics systems are supplied with water from our harvested rainwater store. If you want to find out how it all works, with over 20 years experience in using hydroponics we're happy to help or advise on the most suitable system for you. We keep a small stock of hydroponic kits at the growing house if you are inspired to have a go yourself.

Outdoors, you can see how our vegetable garden is coming along with lots of different veg planted. It is also the temporary home for some shrubs and perennials which will be used for our ornamental garden. Work on this will start once the visitor centre is built and we plan to lay out the garden so that it looks good all year.

You're welcome to explore the croft with its abundance of interesting flora and fauna - take a stroll down to the shore and you can have a look at our new orchard as well as seeing how our shelter belt trees are progressing. You might even come across our flock of domestic geese. It can be a bit muddy on the croft if it's been raining, so don't forget your wellies!

We don't charge for visiting the growing house and garden areas, but if you'd like to make a donation towards the upkeep of the Garden, please feel free to do so.

The office in Altandhu is open from 10am - 4pm Monday to Friday and visitors are welcome to call in. Most of our stock is stored there, although we carry a limited number of hydroponic growing kits and supplies at The Garden site in Achiltibuie. If you have a shopping list, you may find it more convenient to call the office and order in advance. Items can be collected from either the office in Altandhu where you can pay by credit card, cash or cheque or from The Garden in Achiltibuie where we can accept cash or cheque. From either location, you can also arrange to have your order sent to your home address - a great idea if you're short of space in the car!

We look forward to meeting you!