As Curator of Logan Botanic Garden Richard has been responsible for managing and developing the garden over the last 14 years, considerably enhancing its national and international reputation. Recent developments have included improving the plantings in the Walled Garden, expanding and relocating the service area and glasshouses away from the middle of the garden and in its place constructing a new Conservatory which is open to visitors, the development of new areas of the garden in the southern and western woodland garden with new wild collected plant material, particularly from Chile and Vietnam. Prior to becoming Curator at Logan, he was Section Head for Forestry, Horticulture, Environment & Schools at the Barony College, Dumfries and with this interest and knowledge of horticultural education he has developed an intern programme at Logan which has provided invaluable practical ‘hands on’ experience to a large number of horticultural students both from the UK and Europe which can only be to the wider benefit of horticulture in Scotland, the UK and Europe.
Sustainability has been integral to many of the developments at Logan – the Conservatory was the first ‘all green’ public conservatory in the U.K heated by renewable energy and among the first garden in Scotland to install electric vehicle charging points. All these initiatives have helped Logan become the first garden in Scotland to gain a gold Green Business Tourism award.
All this hard work has been reflected in increasing the annual visitor numbers from 18,000 10 years ago to over 30 000 in 2021 and Logan being awarded 5-star status as a Visitor attraction by Visit Scotland, the ‘Best Family Venue’ by the Scottish Hospitality Awards in 2018 and a ‘Tourism Champion 2017’ by Dumfries & Galloway Life’ and being voted ‘Best Garden in the U.K. 2021’ by Which.
