National Botanic Garden of Wales

[apothecary]

This is excellent. You must be like a child in a sweet shop Kristina.

It certainly can seem like that on a glorious sunny day.  But my personal sweetshop has to be my collection of medicinal plants and all the wonderful knowledge in all my wonderful medicinal plant books.  You won't get me to take my nose out of them in a hurry.

[David Shaw]

I am really enjoying this, Kristina, thank you. I am unlikely to visit your garden (not until I catch a haggis called Pegasus, sorry!) but your description is the second best thing. In your own time, I am looking forward to you writing about your work with medicinal herbs.

[apothecary]

In your own time, I am looking forward to you writing about your work with medicinal herbs.

Oh I'll get to that.  What with all the snowdrops I'm currently sorting plus an endless list of other jobs, I've barely been in the Apothecaries' Gdn for a long time now.  Otherwise I'd be giving you updates on all the latest exciting little things. For the time being, here are some pics of the Trop' House I took today on a quick wander round. Still very young (it opened last August), but I think it looks promising.

I include, at the bottom, one of my personal requests when sourcing plants for the new house: Tacca chantrieri or 'Bat Plant'

[apothecary]

One the map:

6. Aqualab.  This is the 'Welsh Water' discovery centre, a series of small huts suspended over the edge of the lake where educational events are often held.  This isn't usually relevant to the normal visitor, but can be of great interest to children who might get involved with the 'pond dipping' activities often held here during the peak season.  Other courses sometimes held in this building include various adult-learning botany/conservation modules from Swansea University and a group of botanical artists who meet here several times a year for their botanical painting master classes.

7. Dipping Ponds.  This is the other and more important half of the children's pond dipping activity.  A set of small ponds in a circle allow children to collect jars of pond life which they then examine under a microscope in the aqualab.  Encouragingly popular.

8. Ice House.  I mentioned this before in relation to the history of the lakes.  This is another relic of the original estate.  It is possible to see the entrance and even walk up to it, but there are between 1 and 3 protected colonies of bats living inside so no-one but the experts have been allowed in there for years.  During the summer the NBGW occasionally hosts 'bat-walks' allowing people to hunt for different species of bat in this area and around other parts of the estate where they're known to nest and identify them by the frequency of their radar-zapper-sonar-thingies.

9.Scaladaqua Tonda.  This is a water-feature donated to the gdns by one William Pye and is commonly known amongst us callous horti staff as 'the urinals'.  It features a series of water-spouting bowls which empty into one another and curve gently round in a circle.  I won't describe too carefully.  It is said to produce a good echo though.

[apothecary]

10. Circle of Decision and the Rill. 
The Circle of Decision is the first real feature of the garden.  A winding rill of mosaic pebbles makes it's way down the length of the broadwalk and spirals into a pool at this point.  A simple fountain, the height of which must be varied according to the strength of the wind so as not to completely soak innocent passers-by, marks the centre.  This is where 4 different paths leading to totally different corners of the garden converge, hence the name.  It is quite common for small children, when they have slogged their way up the lower broadwalk and reached this point, to catch sight of the pool and rill and instantly strip off for a swim.  A supply of towels are kept in gatehouse because of the frequency of this scenario.  The number of toddlers who have been known to sit down in the rill in nappy and all suggests it might be wise for gatehouse to supply spare pampers too.

[apothecary]

11 & 12. Rock of Ages and Bluestone.

Not being a rock or geology enthusiast, I don't really know what to say about these.  The Rock of Ages section of the broadwalk displays a series of rocks (would you believe it?) dating back to different periods a long long long time ago.  They're in order and you can walk past them as though through the history of geology and read about the different rock types.  I did read it all once and it was surprisingly interesting, but alas, not so interesting that I can remember a word of it now.  Rock and soils science was never really my thing at college. 

The Bluestone has a more humourous story behind it.  A few years ago (2001) an experiment was done to try and move some preseli bluestones from the preseli mountain to stonehenge just as must have been done so many years before.  Unfortunately, the experiment failed in Milford Haven where the specially crafted boat sank with the huge stone on board.  Both were then brought to us as a reminder of just how incredible the building of stonehenge really is.  The stone is still there, but the boat (given it's decrepit condition after the experiment) continued to deteriorate and has been sent away for restoration.

13. Bog Garden.
At last, a garden to tell you about.  This is another of the few more ornamental features we have here and its position takes advantage of water draining from the Double Walled Garden towards the lakes.  It forms a small crater just near the circle of decision and a boardwalk takes you through it's centre and over the water.  I don't often get the chance to go through the bog garden, but when I do, I'm always very taken by the flourishing Gunneras and the sheer quantity of wildlife.  Nearly every year we have a mother water-bird of some sort nest in here with her chicks away from the first lake where all the big bully birds are (you said it - Canada Geese!). It's lovely to stand on the boardwalk and watch the little bundles of fluff going about their business with what look like little knitting needles where their wings should be.

This garden currently lacks a dedicated gardener, but there are hopes that in future it can be re-vamped and extended since the water levels can often be a little unpredictable at present making growing some plants difficult.

[SueG]

Kristina
I spoke with my contact who is researching walled gardens and she assured me that they were built that way, usually for a number of reasons

[SueG]

Sorry don't know what happened there
double walled gardens were built to provide more sheltered wall space than a single walled garden had - got the length of two lots of wall and if you got the distance between the walls right some very sheltered space.
They were also a chance for the owner to show off the wealth they had in that they could afford the two lots of materials, brick and/or stone required. Labour was inexpensive but the materials were not, so they were an equivalent of the ferrari on the drive or the trophey partner, making sure everyone knew just how much money you had!
Sue

[apothecary]

double walled gardens were built to provide more sheltered wall space than a single walled garden had...

Thanks for the info Sue.  It's always nice to get another person's take on things.  The reason we like to entertain a variety of theories as to the purpose of the second wall is because of it's later date.  It seems, from what evidence we have, that there was no master plan for a double walled garden to begin with and that the whole walled-garden complex, if I can call it that, developed pretty organically during Paxton's time.  Apart from the date difference, there are other clues such as the funny angles that parts of the outer wall travel at in order to avoid certain obstacles where the inner wall is far more uniform.  The finish of the inner wall was also very neat with somewhat ornamental capping whilst the outer wall appears to have been finished off much more roughly on top.  It's because of this lack of uniformity and continuity that we haven't really considered the outer wall to be a statement of wealth like the inner one appears to have been. 

We have looked into the micro climate and space/season extending theories and, as I said, the gardeners favour these theories as being more cunning and scientific.  We do believe very strongly however that there was an issue with the position of the original walled garden and that many renovations may have been an attempt to remedy this problem.  We have no idea what the temperature would be like inside in winter if the outer wall weren't there, but I imagine it would be colder still because it's possible to sense an atmospheric difference even near the entrance between the two walls and this must be brought about by the protection the outer wall offers.  As I mentioned before, the frost pocket which affects half the walled garden, some areas pretty severely, would have cause unnecessary problems for the gardeners trying to use the walled garden to produce food through the winter so I imagine that a lot would have been invested in trying to restore warmth.

As it happens, this post reminds me of a whole aspect of the Paxton history that I forgot to mention before in all my enthusiasm.  It has to do with the reason that we know so little about the estate, it's workings, it's people etc. and the disappearance of Paxton's Mansion:

Namely, the house burned down sometime in the 1930's or so.  Almost everything relating to the estate and it's history has been lost as a result and only an old set of deeds to the Peach house and a private collection of watercolours appear to remain.  Bizarrely, accounts tell us that the fire occurred about the time that the remaining Paxton family sold all their furniture and moved to South Africa.  It also happened the night after all the servants and staff were told to take the day off.  I'll leave any cynics to mull that one over.  Just for fun I'll throw in the fact that the family was in serious financial trouble at the time.

I have also just been informed that the fire engine which came to the rescue broke down in Porthyrhyd (Porth-uh-reed), a nearby village, and had to be towed the rest of the way by a tractor adding to the time substantially.  Apparently the remains of the house weren't pulled down until sometime in the 1960's-ish.  Many locals still tell all sorts of stories about the estate during and after Paxton's time.

[Casalima]

Fascinating reading, Kristina! What a pity I didn't visit the garden when I was in Wales last summer  I'm really looking forward to reading about the Apothecaries' Garden!!

Chloë

[apothecary]

I'm really looking forward to reading about the Apothecaries' Garden!!

I'm glad.  Once I've told you all everything I know about the rest of the garden that's all I'll have left to talk about.

On to the next section:

14. Japanese Garden.

This is a very popular little garden with many visitors but, to be honest, I really see it as a bit of an anomaly to the rest of what we do here.
The Japanese garden was a Chelsea medal winner which was brought here piece by piece after the show and is now settled as a permanent feature garden.  It is centered around a small Japanese tea house and the design incorporates a good deal of Japanese symbolism.  The most charming symbolic story is that of a small stone which represents a tortoise.  It is the only feature which was placed differently when the garden came to us.  The idea was that as the garden moved from the Chelsea Flower Show to us, so the tortoise made a slow journey through the Japanese garden.  It's new position in the garden marks it's final destination which must also be of some significance, but I don't know what it is.

I used to work in the Japanese Garden quite a lot when I first came to the NBGW and I was really quite fond if it in spite of my reservations about it's relevance.  However, I have to admit that I am far more inclined towards the karesansui (dry water) style of Japanese garden with the patterns of raked pebbles and carefully placed rocks etc.  This Japanese garden is certainly not of that ilk.

I'm writing these descriptions completely honestly and so I have to say that the Japanese Garden is not currently at its best.  The staff who look after it are stretched across an incredibly large area (2 horti members Daryll and Angela are currently responsible for the Japanese Gdn, Broadwalk, Carpark, Boulder Gdn, Top Circle, Playground and one of them also looks after half of all our trees) although I feel they do an amazing maintenance job.  The tea house itself is in need of quite a bit of TLC and the original designer has quoted us for its repair.  At the moment it isn't possible to carry out any of the necessary improvements because of the sheer cost of having everything to do with the tea house built using traditional materials and according to traditional design.

But one day, I'm sure this area will get the resources it needs.

[apothecary]

15. Apiary

Now this is a lovely little patch and one which has the potential for strong links with my Apothecaries' Garden so I'm obviously particularly fond.

The apiary is a relatively new part of the garden and has been almost entirely constructed by volunteers.  Our beekeeper, Chris Adam, is also a volunteer who is extremely enthusiastic about the science of beekeeping and related subjects.

Chris has installed and maintains the apiary entirely according to his own vision and with the help of other volunteers when necessary.

The apiary sits in a nook created by the walls of the double walled garden and is enclosed on 4 sides to prevent speeding honey bees from running headlong into any of our visitors.  Visitors can view the activity of the bees from the safety of a small hut featuring a wall of windows onto the bee garden.
The bee garden itself consists of a small hillock planted like a scree with an example of almost anything Chris finds that the bees enjoy collecting from (you can imagine the number of plants he's pinched from me given the love of bees for Lamiaceae plants which are also so often medicinal).  The hives are arranged in a semi-circle around this hillock and I believe there are a couple of cameras now up a running which film the bees as they enter the hives with their pollen so that they can be viewed more clearly from inside the hut.

Chris is very keen to learn more about his bees and constantly experiments with new plants.  If he finds the bees going for something around the rest of the garden in a particular season he will often place a temporary potted specimen in his area so that visitors can enjoy the activity (eg. he nabbed one of my Mahonias this winter).  Chris is also very concerned about the decline of British honey bees as a result of the various threats they now face.  He continues to experiment on this front by, for example, placing plants containing antiviral essential oils (eg. thyme) below the hives to see if it has any effect.  So far he hasn't made any breakthroughs and sadly our bees, like so many others, are currently under quarantine although that has no effect on the visitors opportunity to watch them.

The bees appear to be very happy in the garden in general.  They have their lovely private garden just outside the hive, but they also have free reign of all other areas.  The Japanese Garden next door provides a ready source of fresh trickling water and the Double Walled Garden provides no end of choice from nearly every plant family in the world.  The presence of the high walls around the apiary forces the bees up and over and so their flight path is higher than they might otherwise be.  This was intentional since this species of bee can apparently be aggressive when frightened but, after two years, we haven't experienced any run-ins between bee and human species.

By far the most enjoyable part of having so many bees living within the garden is the sheer noise they make in the Nepeta bushes across the site.  For someone who isn't familiar with the noise, it can take several minutes to work out where the deep droning is emanating from.

The photo below is from the Apiary when it was still very new.  There are far more plants there now.

[Martin Baxendale]

Kristina, I just heard on the Welsh news (our digital signal comes from Cardiff!) that the NBGW just got a huge and much-needed grant from the Welsh Assembly. I hope this goes some way to solving some of the garden's problems. Congratulations to you all!   

[Maggi Young]

I just heard on the Welsh news (our digital signal comes from Cardiff!) that the NBGW just got a huge and much-needed grant from the Welsh Assembly. I hope this goes some way to solving some of the garden's problems. Congratulations to you all!

Now that IS good news! Excellent!
                      

[Martin Baxendale]

I only caught the very end of the item, Maggi, but I think I heard millions mentioned (but then it would need that - I just hope it's not a one-off but a continuing financial commitment).

I expect Kristina will give us the details.