NO MATTER what size of garden you have, there will be something at Gardening Scotland 2010 this weekend to help improve your very own ‘great outdoors’.

The national celebration of gardening and outdoor living takes place from Friday, June 4, to Sunday, June 6, at The Royal Highland Centre, Edinburgh, and it will feature top designers, newly-introduced plants and all the latest garden accessories.

Twenty inspirational show gardens will showcase all the major gardening trends, from ‘Good Life’ plots to contemporary courtyards and environmentally-friendly swathes of meadow grass, studded with indigenous wild flowers.

If you really are serious about self-sufficiency then don’t miss the Back Yard chickens where you could be seriously tempted to take home a hen.

And if you have any budding gardeners in the family, then check out the Dobbies Little Seedlings Club for the kids.

If you are passionate about plants then The Dobbies Floral Hall is unmissable. This is the biggest plant sale in Scotland - it features specialist nurseries from across the UK. The plants sold here have been carefully nurtured by the people who are selling them, including Sue and Bleddyn Wynn-Jones of Crug Farm Plants who are amongst the world’s most intrepid plant hunters.

There will be loads of great advice for beginners and for knowledgeable gardeners too, in The BBC Scotland Beechgrove Theatre, where TV’s top gardening team will be running workshops.

More than 300 exhibitors take part in Gardening Scotland, selling everything from hoes to hot tubs and lots of them offer special deals to visitors, so you could find patio sets, containers and all sorts of equipment at unbeatable prices.

The show also includes a Craft Marque filled with hand-made treasures, a Food Fair where top producers from Scotland and further afield sell mouthwatering produce.

Opening times are: Friday 10am-7pm; Saturday, 10am-6pm; Sunday, 10am –5pm.

Tickets cost £15 (Fri); £13 (Sat/Sun). Children under 16 go free.

www.gardeningscotland.com