Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
General Subjects => Travel / Places to Visit => Topic started by: apothecary on January 22, 2008, 04:48:10 PM
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After requests from some of the resident Galanthophiles, here are some pics of the place I work. I'm afraid drifts of snowdrops are out of the question unless the big sprinkler in the sky turns off sometime before they've all gone over.
For those who commented on disappointment at visits to the NBGW in the earliest days, I hope these help to allay the negative associations a little. It must surely be expected by anyone with an appreciation for plants and gardens that a whole Botanic Garden will not mature overnight.
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Nice eye, Kristina...
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Kristina, many thanks for starting this thread. Lovely to begin with some bright photos of better weather.... how wonderful the giant glasshouse is! I've only seen photos of it from the outside, which were pretty impressive but to see inside is super. You are most welcome to make regular posts here to show what is happening at the Gardens, what projects you have in train etc... and Good Luck with your work!
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It looks stunning!
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Super posting Kristina, looking forward to you keeping us up to date through the year. Thanks :D
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Thank you Kristina. I have been to the NBGW once and it was at the time that it's future was by no means certain. At that time it was, I have to say, a bit of a shambles but it looks much better now. I shall go again during the Summer.
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I have been to the NBGW once and it was at the time that it's future was by no means certain. At that time it was, I have to say, a bit of a shambles...
Yes it was. During the crisis, would you believe, they only kept on 4 gardeners who I think did brilliantly considering. When we all came back the following spring we had waist high brambles to deal with across all peripheral areas of the garden and around lakes etc. It took nearly 2 years just to get back to where we'd left off. Finally we're progressing and developing new areas of the garden although we're still desperately short staffed.
The photos above are all just bits I pulled off the system today. I'm sure I have some decent ones of my own of other areas of the garden too. Must hunt.
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Today we've had the Sun!!!!!!! 8) ;D
I'd forgotten what it looked like. It feels so good to finally have some vitamin D through our veins.
So this would have been a bleak mid-winter pic, except that the sky turned blue for a nice change.
I'll also include a drift of those much beloved snowdrops, although I think they look a bit measly really.
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Nice sunny pictures.
Do you work in the science centre, and is it open to the public?
The viewpoint looks to be from up that side.
With your username I expected you to be in the Physicians of Myddfai building
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Physicians of Myddfai
Goodness... are you allowed to say that? ::) ;) :o
Are the Druids in the old house we see in the middle distance, then?
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Do you work in the science centre, and is it open to the public?
The viewpoint looks to be from up that side.
With your username I expected you to be in the Physicians of Myddfai building
I'm based in the horti building (I'm a gardener) which is a bit further down the hill from the science centre, behind the Apothecaries' Garden in fact which is where I usually work.
The science centre isn't open to the public. It's basically just laboratories and conference rooms currently being hired by a science company for plant-based research. We do have our new conservation botanist based up there too though, maybe she has plans for more interactive visitor type things in the future.
The 'Physicians of Myddfai' building (why is it wrong to say that ???) is open to the public and includes a couple of exhibitions on medicinal plants. We are however looking into the possibility of completely refurbishing and extending it to make better use of the wonderful resources here and the many stories we have to tell about the Physicians of Myddfai.
Physicians of Myddfai
Are the Druids in the old house we see in the middle distance, then?
There's just the one old druid in that house - the head of education (it's the education department).
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The 'Physicians of Myddfai' (why is it wrong to say that )
No idea at all what "Myddfai " might mean, so just joking that it might be rude! ::)
Glad to hear you're not over-run with Durids, I hear they make a frightful mess ::) :P :-X ;) ;D
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No idea at all what "Myddfai " might mean, so just joking that it might be rude! ::)
Ah ha. Well that would be because it's Welsh. In fact, they are correctly referred to as Meddygon Myddfai (pronounced a bit like meh-tha-gonn muth-vie), which I think sounds quite nice and soft (much Welsh can sound so much ruder).
They are the famous family of physicians who lived in a small village by the name of Myddfai from about C13th to C18th. Myddfai is just about 12 miles north-east-ish of the NBGW and, although not much more than a bend in the road, marks the home of the earliest records of medical/herbal practice in this country.
The Physicians were ordered by the regent of Dyfed to write down everything they knew and so the 'Red book of Hergest' began from what was previously an oral tradition. The book can now be found in Jesus College, Oxford. It's the best record of herbal history in the UK and tells us a lot about the transfer of herbal knowledge (and plants) from the likes of Dioscorides and Galen in the rest of Europe/Asia. It also tells us a lot about how advanced medical thinking was in this area at that time (one of the 3 best centres of medicine in Europe according to some), and I'm sure we could learn a lot from the Meddygon about good living today.
Can you tell that I'm on more familiar territory with this? I shall jump back off the herbal soapbox now. ;D
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That is fascinating! I'm so glad I made those comments or you might never have told us all that! I have heard of the Red book of Hergest... but had no notion of this history and connection... really interesting to learn that. I believe a lot of us are keen to learn this sort of thing. Thank you Kristina! 8)
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Well believe me, if people want to know, I'm more than happy to share (and my partner would probably be more than happy for me to find someone else to share with for a change). And if I don't know the answer, I'm liable to spend a good deal of time and energy finding out. There's just a tad of herbal Aspergers in me so long as I don't have to delve too far into historical context. My real interest is practical Western herbal medicine, and although the history side is interesting, it's certainly not a talent of mine.
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Actually, I was just wondering if this was really a relevant topic for your club (rock gardens?) and then it occurred to me that my entire Apothecaries' Garden here is covered in slate and boulders (much to my dismay most of the time) so I suppose I have the perfect excuse to talk about it endlessly. You'll wish you'd never asked!!! !!! :P
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Kristina the garden looks marvellous so its now on the list of places to visit. Also very interested to hear about the local history and yourself
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Kristina, this seems to be a very interesting new topic that is unfolding. Yes, please tell us more.
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How about I do a sort of journal of a bit of the garden at a time, when I have time...
To begin with, the history of the estate. Everything I now write is subject to change (and I take no responsibility for any inaccuracies) since much of what we know about the estate has been pieced together from a mixture of reliable and not so reliable sources. A lot of history has been sadly lost.
Middleton
The old name for the estate is Middleton Hall after a family who lived there in C15th-ish, that's why the NBGW is sometimes referred to as Middleton and why Middleton still appears on some maps. I know almost nothing about the Middleton family however. Only that their 'Hall' was positioned in the centre of the estate where there is now a field. It is possible to just about make out the scars of the old road, bridleways and foundations of some of their buildings, but only if you really know what you're looking for and much of it is speculation anyway. There are two small hillocks which it is thought marks the position of two formal fish ponds they are said to have had. Otherwise, all is gone.
The original estate was about 600acres and included a place called Middleton Cottage (a huge house) which now sits outside the NBGW and is privately owned. Consequently, I've only seen old pictures of it.
Most of what interests us now about the estate dates back to Sir William Paxton (C18th) who was responsible for some of the buildings which still stand today.
William Paxton
Paxton's wealth is also a bit of a mystery. He was the son of the clerk for an Edinburgh wine merchant and was very much a self-made man. It is said that he worked as a cabin boy travelling to and from India on the trade ships. It is also said that in this capacity he became good friends with Lord Nelson. He certainly advertised himself as having had such a friendship in later life although many wonder if Nelson himself was aware of the friendship.
It seems Paxton made quite a bit of money over in India. Apparently trading silk and the like. Many of us here in horti wonder if there mightn't have been a few opium plants to blame for his wealth too. Suffice to say, he brought his money back to the UK, set himself up as loan-shark extraordinaire to all his mates and promptly became something like the 6th richest man in Britain.
Paxton then decided he needed to display his wealth. He bought the Middleton estate and set about designing and building what was to become a very impressive water-park, productive gardens big enough to feed around 30 people throughout the year, mansion, servants house and stables amongst other things.
I'll go into them later.
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How about I do a sort of journal of a bit of the garden at a time, when I have time...
This is a terrific idea, Kristina, and one we welcome 8)
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Paxton's Estate
When Paxton bought the Middleton estate he had all-new building and landscaping done. The Mansion he had built no longer exists although, what little I know of it, it was huge and pretentious. For those of you who have visited the NBGW before I can describe it as having sat on the top of the viewing mound (where a scaled-down version of the foundations is now marked) overlooking the entire valley. It was much larger than the viewing mound though and went back as far as where the Great Glasshouse stands today.
Old water-colours from a private collection show an avenue of what might be poplars framing the view of the valley from the mansion on one side, whilst records suggest that a series of formal parterres fanned out from the mansion and down the hill on the other side towards the NBGW entrance.
On the left of the mansion was the servants quarters and it still stands today. It's the yellow building (Principality House) on the hill that you can see in pics earlier in this thread and it now houses the education department and a number of conference rooms. I think the servants house goes to show the kind of money Paxton had. No attic dorms for his staff!
Outside Principality House, on the opposite side to where the mansion stood, is a small walled garden called the Wallace Garden. This was the original laundry yard, but today it's our genetics garden.
If we continue to walk down from the Wallace Gdn we come to the Stable Block. This is where we house our restaurant, shop, offices etc. but it was once a huge stables with courtyard in the middle. Apparently Paxton was a real horse enthusiast and it's said that the mansion, servants quarters and stables were all lined up in this way so that he could ask for all the doors in each building to be thrown wide open and then be able to see what the horses were up to from the comfort of his mansion. In reality, I'm not convinced that this would have been possible. The distance seems too great and the angle of the hill would interfere.
There are a few other old buildings on site: a collection of farms which we hope to develop one day and the 'Plants for Health' barn (Physicians of Myddfai). This barn seems to be a slightly later addition and we don't know much about it.
The other main architectural feature is the Double Walled Garden.
Double Walled Garden
There are a variety of theories as to why we have a double-walled garden here since it is believed to be the only one outside Ireland and the borders to Scotland. It is thought that Paxton may have taken the idea from Scotland since he came from Edinburgh, but we're not quite sure how it came about. The inner wall is built of brick and is both taller and earlier. We believe that Paxton had this built initially as a single walled garden to produce food for the estate. The second wall is stone and it's a fair bit shorter. It follows the inner wall closely on three sides and then extends itself to include the area outside the fourth side where the orchard would originally have been. This has led to suggestions that it was built to keep out thieves, but then, why so much shorter?
Another theory (our favourite) is that with two walls, the spaces between the walls (slip gardens) become a microclimate. With one wall of brick (heats up fast) and one of stone (retains the heat for longer) it's possible to extend the growing season and bring on soft fruit in a way that wouldn't have been possible otherwise. We know that other places have embraced this theory and although we like it best, we think there's probably more of a shoddy DIY answer to the whole thing.
Our final theory is that a mistake was made and the original single-walled garden was poorly located. There's a hill behind one of the walls which we believe they might have thought would protect the crops from our harsh winds. In fact, it provides a truly stunning frost pocket all down two sides of our walled garden in winter (ironically it's worst just over the bed where we grow half-hardy bananas). In summer the double-walled garden is one degree warmer than the rest of the garden and in winter it can be two degrees colder. We think they built the second wall to try and remedy this problem, but we'll never know how much it helped.
Finally, the walled garden also included two glasshouses and a small bothy down the back. Where we now have our new tropical house, the whitewashing on the original wall showed us that there was once before a glasshouse, probably a productive one for the gardener to propagate in. We have no idea what it looked like. On the same wall and to the right there are three open arches in the brick. These mark the position of what we call the Peach House (referred to as such in old deeds) and we think this was more of a display house for the Paxton family to use as a conservatory since making arches in the insulating wall is hardly conducive to high yield. This part of the wall was never restored when the NBGW was built because the intricacies of it require far more thought and we have yet to decide what to do with it. A series of flues run through the brick and over the arches and the big hole in the ground next to the arches shows us the remains of an old underfloor heating system. We believe it may have been upgraded several times, initially heating by manure and eventually by coal.
Behind the Peach House in an area still not open to visitors sits the remains of a small stone bothy. It has been suggested that this was the head gardeners house (too small to live in) or a place to sleep for whoever was responsible for stoking the Peach House boiler (too posh - pretty Gothic arch over the window). Again, we believe this was part of the family quarters, a place to sit away from the workers.
As I mentioned, there was also an orchard outside the double walled garden. Almost all of it is gone now, but one pear tree remains. This sits exactly where part of the original inner wall should be and for some reason the pear was deemed important enough that the wall around it shouldn't be properly restored. The pear produces tiny, bullet shaped fruit that taste like unripe tomatoes. Either this species was for making perry or it is a seeded reversion and not worth keeping as far as the gardeners are concerned. The hole in the wall made for it serves only to let all the rabbits in to eat the veg.
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On to the rest of the original estate.
At some point Paxton employed Samuel Lapidge (understudy to Capability Brown) to help landscape the estate and it may well be that Lapidge was instrumental in the building of the double-walled garden. His primary feat here however was the construction of the lakes.
The estate was originally circled through 180degrees by a chain of 6 or 7 artificially constructed lakes. As you come in through the modern-day Gatehouse (entrance) you will find an area of marshy field on your left and a small lake on your right. The marshy field is where the first lake would likely have been (as evidenced by the entrance to the old ice-house visible in the hill on the far side). At the moment we have only restored three of the lakes and so the one on the right of the Gatehouse marks the first today. This is followed by the other two lakes and they make up one side of the cultivated gardens area. Beyond these sits the estate's farm.
Originally another two or three lakes would have continued from the last one of ours and stretched as far as the very end point of the estate - a place called 'Pont Felin Gat' where the public road outside the garden crosses a small stone bridge. This network of lakes were the basis of Paxtons 'waterpark' and old paintings show that there were once flower gardens, gazebos and boating houses down in Pont Felin Gat. At the moment this area isn't open to visitors for health and safety reasons, but it is possible to visit from outside the gardens (many locals walk their dogs there) and remnants of the old waterpark can still be seen (including bricked channels, steps, bridges a small monkeys head set into an old fountain and a waterfall). Besides a few clues as to it's history, Pont Felin Gat has been almost entirely re-claimed by nature and a forest of trees now grow where it is just possible to make out the margins of the old lakes.
The reason for the state of the lakes is that, during the war, enemy planes would apparently use the reflection from the lakes to navigate. Consequently, they were all intentionally filled in.
There is another interesting feature relating to water. Paxton was revolutionary in his thinking about clean water. Apparently he was very much involved in the installation of many of the mains water and sewage channels of London to help improve public hygiene. Likewise, he ensured clean water was available on his estate in all areas. When archaeologists studied the remains of the double-walled garden, they found very little of interest because the area had been used for nothing but grazing cattle for 40 years. They could find no evidence of the original path layout or any clues as to what was grown. The only find was the remains of the old dipping pond in the centre which would have been used to water the plants. This pond was spring fed and when they traced the clay pipes back to the source, they found Paxton's Well (as it's now called) half way up a hill on the other side of the chain of lakes. Another set of pipes took water from the same source all the way to the main house. It seems Paxton actually had Lapidge lay the pipes for the water system before installing the lakes on top. I dread to think what would have happened if they had sprung a leak under there.
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This is turning into a really good read, Kristina.
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Kristina, this is a most interesting thread, thank you so much for taking the time and trouble to share this with us. :-*
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Hi Kristina
just like to add my thanks to you for taking the time to pass on all this information. I like the sound of the double walled garden. One of my friends is studying walled gardens and I hope to see her tonight. she may now something about why they were built, if so I'll pass it on.
Sue
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A bit more about Paxton:
Details are wishy-washy, and we keep hearing contradictions, but here are some interesting anecdotes.
At his prime, Paxton ran in the local elections and promised, if he won, to build a bridge over the river Towy. He invested a huge amount of money in his campaign and included the purchase of a few thousand hot dinners and a good deal of beer to win some favour. Amazingly, he didn't win and it was soon after this that he had Paxton's Tower (also known as Nelson's Tower) built nearby.
Paxton's Tower is a smallish three sided, 3 floored banqueting house which sits prominently at the top of the tallest hill of the old estate. Paxton used it to entertain guests and also had a secret (trapdoor access only) top floor which he used as something like a big-boys playroom.
There are mixed theories about his reason for building Paxton's Tower. One is that, with rumours of this insolvency after failing the elections, he decided to display the extent of his wealth in a way which couldn't be ignored for miles around, and which didn't involve building the promised bridge for the local community.
Another is that it was to commemorate his "good friend" Lord Nelson after his death. This theory is supported by the stained glass window depicting Nelson which once belonged in the top floor of the tower , but which can now be seen at Carmarthen Museum.
Whatever the reason, A restored Paxton's tower (was hit by lightening some years ago) still stands today and the views from the 1st floor across the valley are magnificent. It is now a free-to-enter National Trust (I think) property.
Paxton's estate is said to have been able to produce enough food to feed 30 people throughout the year. It also grew some pretty exotic crops. There are stories about a pineapple once grown on the estate which was rented out (as was common then) for £200 as a party display piece. At some point on its journey, probably to London, it was stolen and all sorts of commotion ensued.
Principality house, the old servants quarters, is believed to be haunted by many at the gardens today. Several members of the cleaning staff have left because they didn't like to clean the building on their own. It has to be said that the electrics in the building do get up to some pretty incredible things. If anyone's interested, the accounts of these experiences might be the subject of another thread - being a skeptic myself, I shant include it unless it's considered worthwhile info.
There are other ghost related stories about the site too. It is said that Paxton once had a child when he was in India. This child died in India, was embalmed and shipped back to him for the funeral. The stories say he opened the coffin, took one look at the baby and announced it wasn't his before throwing it into one of the lakes. The reason for his doubt is apparently because it's skin was all blackened. It is thought that this may be either because it was half Indian or because the embalming process went wrong. Either way, he is thought to have felt remorse some years later and so built a small black marble bridge across one of the lakes in memory of the baby. No evidence of this bridge has been found to date, but the ghost of the blackened baby is said to remain near the lakes.
Until next time...
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Glad this thread proves interesting. I think it's about time though that I moved on to the present day. To start off, I'll attach our site map because I'm finding orientation through text unnecessarily complicated.
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I wonder how much can be seen of the NBGW on Google Earth? Must go and have a look. Probably not much, as it's so rural.
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This is excellent. :) You must be like a child in a sweet shop Kristina. ;D
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And now to go through the numbers in order:
1. The Gatehouse. This is where you, the visitor, have the opportunity to subsidise my income. For this reason I'm obviously quite fond of it although it was always intended to be a semi temporary building and could do with a facelift.
2. The Broadwalk. This is the spine of the site and takes the visitor from the Gatehouse all the way up to the top and past all the core features of the garden. It is lined on one or both sides by what was once the longest herbaceous border in the world although I think we've lost that title now. The orginal planting theme was based on colour and the length of the broadwalk was intended to walk the visitor through the entire spectrum. Over the years this has been compromised a little in favour of a few good contrasts and of course there were always few anomalous beds here and there. My favourite section is the bed half-way up the broadwalk which sits underneath a large copper beech. It's a true spring/woodland bed, all in delightful pale greens with the odd touch of colour. The whole patch is swathed in Galium odoratum with a variety of ferns and hellebores coming through. There's also a good number of Galanthus nivalis/G. nivalis 'Flore Pleno' in this area. At it's peak on a sunny day, the smell of springtime chlorophyll in this area is gorgeous. The broadwalk is one of the few area of the garden dedicated to the display of ornamental plants without all the horrible scientific strings attached that we botanical gardeners are so fond of. It's very popular with our general visitor.
3, 4 & 5. The lakes. I've already told you about the history of these and there isn't that much more to say. Only that these are the 3 which have been restored for the time being and, being left relatively untouched, they are an absolute haven for wildlife. We have our resident heron, Eric, who likes to observe the life of the garden from an ageing tree near the second lake and a variety of other birds including a number of kingfisher sightings. I'm useless at birds so can't really tell you of anything more interesting than that. Some have also seen otters down on the 2nd or 3rd lake at times and on the far side live deer (except when they wander over to our side for breakfast in the Walled Garden) and muntjac. Someone once claimed to have seen a large puma-like black cat stalking the far side of the lake too.
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This is excellent. :) You must be like a child in a sweet shop Kristina. ;D
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. :)
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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.
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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'
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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! :)
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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!
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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.
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WOW! see this report: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/7230639.stm
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Mmmmm. Reading between the lines, it sounds like good news in the short term, but in the longer term they're relying on the NBGW attracting private investment to keep it going. And of course that always works well for public institutions.
Sorry, of course it's excellent news in the short term and I expect Kristina and the rest of the staff will be pretty pleased.
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At least there is a relief of the debt burden..... I can think of a few folk who would welcome that! ::)
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Me too!! I didn't mean to diminish the impact. I'm sure it'll be very welcome. It's just that there always seems a reluctance these days by government (central or local) to give an open ended total commitment to worthy causes. The aid always comes with a big financial 'but'.
For example, the environmental charity Ivi works for (the only local organization doing environmental projects in and around the town) has just issued warnings of possible redundancy to all staff because the maze that is the charitable grant system and local government funding system is just such a haphazard, chaotic gamble and a constant hand-to-mouth existence that they may be insolvent soon. Ivi has funding for her projects, but there's a shortage of 'core funding' for the organisation itself that means even though she has grant money to do her work, she may not be able to carry it out. Madness!
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Grant funding is a minefield......sometimes there is money available.... but only for "capital" projects.....when you're looking to pay the staff .... or vice versa when the roof is falling in..... life's a bitch and then you die.
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Thanks for your congratulations etc. It has been a long haul and we're all very pleased that it finally seems to be over. I don't have TV so can't comment on what the press have said, but I'll outline what we've been told over the last few weeks (obviously, we've known for a while but weren't allowed to say anything).
The current funding will apparently pay off our rather substantial overdraft for the first time ever and we will also receive £550,000/year for the first 3 years. The funding is on a rolling contract so, after 2 years, discussions will begin to decide future funding. The idea is that the funding should be regularly adjusted to match what we require. In theory, the Welsh Assembly would look very bad if they then chose to withdraw the basic £550,000 after 3 years and the amount of funding should only increase with time.
Carmarthenshire County Council is also in talks over whether is should write off a loan it made to us and there was also a bit of extra funding being promised from them at one point, but we don't know if that will come through at present.
At any rate, this isn't the heady heights of the £25million offered to Kew each year or the £7-8mill given to Edinburgh, but it will make a huge difference to us for the time being.
We are actually being promised new gardeners, we may receive a decent living wage for the first time ever and they're even installing an organisational structure in the horti dept. (so far we've all been on the same level regardless of whether we mow the lawns or curate a collection because there wasn't the money to differentiate between us).
Money will still be tight, but so many of the ongoing problems can now begin to be solved so that we can progress more easily.
We are all looking forward to what the future holds.
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16. Springwoods
This is the area that prompted me to join this forum. It's also the hillside apparently responsible for the frost pocket in the Double Walled Garden.
Springwoods is a relatively small patch of woodland which was part of the original estate. It isn't an entirely natural woodland and some planting has been done in there in the past, including a selection of hazel cultivars and, of course, up to 46 different varieties of snowdrop all planted in small clumps along the edges of some of the paths. There is also a significant population of G. nivalis in drifts here and there as well as a large quantity of bluebells. Hence the name 'Springwoods'.
It's quite pleasant in spite of it's small size and it offers a view over the double walled garden. At some point this woodland may be incorporated into the native Welsh habitats project that is currently in the pipeline. If it does, all cultivated plants will be removed and other traditional woodland plants may be introduced. At the moment the area is managed at only the most basic level, but one day it might become quite a sophisticated conservation project.
Unfortunately, Springwoods only enables limited access to those with impaired mobility because of the steep hill and winding paths, but there are plans for better access to other wooded areas across the estate in future.
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17. Auricula Theatre
The Auricula Theatre is another volunteer effort, but this one is likely to be only semi-permanent until the area is properly developed.
Two local volunteers who have their own substantial Primula auricula collection built this little theater in a section of the slip gardens.
Such theatres were apparently a common feature of large estates like this in the 18th century so we hope this is reviving another connection with William Paxton.
Auriculas are displayed here in early spring (I don't think they've gone in quite yet), in clay pots lined up on the shelves to make viewing them far easier than in a garden setting. During the rest of the year the volunteers responsible, Pat and Robin, display a variety of species from other genera such as Hedera and Ilex amongst others.
Around the theatre Pat and Robin have planted a small parterre with box hedging to be in keeping with tradition.
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18. Double Walled Garden
Oh excitement. Finally a major garden feature to tell you about. I've already covered the history of the double walled garden as we know it, so this will be about what we're doing in there today.
First of all, it's worth me pointing out that when archeologists went into the walled garden in the early days of the NBGW they found virtually nothing. The walls had fallen almost to the ground in many places and the central area was just a patch of scrub that had been used to graze cattle for 40 yrs. Apart from evidence of two glasshouses and the central dipping pool and cross paths, we have no idea what the original garden would have been like. We don't know the path layout or what crops were grown. Many would have seen this as a disadvantage, but I think the NBGW grasped at this opportunity in a way that isn't often seen. Unusually, we have not restored the walled garden and instead, the planting inside is entirely modern and original. I personally believe it to be one of the best walled gardens in the country, and I say that from a totally impartial perspective of course.
So, briefly we have:
The original walls restored using traditional lime mortar
The main cross paths and dipping pool restored (It is possible to see the stones of the original ground level about 2-3 feet below the water level in the dipping pool today)
The remains of the Peach House still to be dealt with
The new Tropical House - I'll get to that later
The Colour Corridors which line the main paths that divide the Walled Garden into 4 quadrants
The 4 quadrants each with their own theme
The beds lining the walls around the outer edges of the Walled Garden
A big hole in the wall left for the blasted pear tree that I believe I mentioned before
I will explain most of these in turn, but right now I'm off to get a cup of tea.
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First of all, let me post a rather poor diagram of the walled garden below to make orientation easier. And then I'll go through the parts in turn.
A. These are the 'slip gardens', the narrow spaces between the walls around 3 sides of the walled garden. Originally likely to have been used for fruit trees, these are not currently developed. At the moment the spaces are used for temporary/semi-permanent features like the Auricula Theatre and the occasional sculpture trail, but it is hoped that we can do something really exciting with this space one day.
It's very difficult to decide what to do here. There have been so many ideas for themes (time-line of plant evolution; colour wheel of plants; plants collected by different explorers etc etc) and also for design (glass the whole thing in; create a shady woodland walk secret garden style; erect a walkway along the top of the wall allowing a birds eye view of the inner walled garden etc etc) that it's hard to know where to start.
Ideally it should link strongly with the themes of the inner walled garden which I'll tell you about in a bit.
B. Old Peach House.
I went into the history of this before so I will only go so far as to say that this bit is in dire need of TLC. So far the funding hasn't been available and it would be a huge project to deal with this in a sensitive manner. The structure is currently very unstable and again, we don't know what to do with it. It's tempting to follow convention and restore this house, but it's easier said than done. Evidence shows that the building was probably updated and renovated several times during it's prime, so what to restore it to? Another glasshouse, particularly one restored to an original design, is also likely to be pretty unsustainable. One of the most interesting features of the remains of this house is the heating system - but if we restored that we'd find ourselves burning an unforgivable amount of coal. It's funny how many outside the garden think doing this would be a good idea. It would seem there are many arguments against restoration but, with these beautiful arches and fascinating brickwork, what should be done?
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C. Kitchen Garden
This is the only quadrant of the walled garden that celebrates the original use of the space and it's also a bit of an anomaly to the rest of the themes.
The area is landscaped with traditional red brick criss-crossing paths in a geometric layout. It feels very intimate and friendly and I personally like the way you are forced to walk a bit further round corners etc to make your way around although we find that children (and a surprising number of grown adults) just shortcut across the flowerbeds.
In the centre of this quadrant is a cosy square nook of oak garden chairs surrounded by a bay hedge and a small selection of culinary herbs - it's the favourite spot of nearby gardeners for their tea breaks.
Malcolm, who looks after this section, tries to manage it as organically as possible. He's even had quite a bit of success growing his veg biodynamically although he has yet to develop a series of controlled trials to verify his experiences.
This kitchen garden aims to produce a great variety in the smallest space possible. The idea is to inspire visitors with things they can do in their own small gardens and allotments so there is a lot of focus on things like step-over apples that produce high yield with a minimum of space.
Malcolm also tries to include a whole range of heritage varieties each year and a couple of years ago I think he achieved a crop of around 25 different varieties of lettuce.
Amongst his regulars are the lettuces, brassicas, beans, onions, potatoes, currants, raspberries, chards, artichokes, asparagus, carrots, parsnips, courgettes etc etc.
A portion of the produce goes to the NBGW restaurant (whatever they can fit into their menu), the rest becomes a perk of the gardeners. There is also a range of cut flowers grown along the front of the Peach House wall each year and these, along with sweetpeas from the hazel arches in the centre, are used by volunteers for decoration around the site.
As I mentioned, this lovely area is a bit of an anomaly at the moment so at some point it may be moved to a larger space elsewhere.
Some pics below of the kitchen garden. The bearded chap in one is Ivor Stokes who was Director of Horticulture at the beginning and now works for the NBGW on a consultancy basis occasionally.
The giant onions were brought in and grown according to a tried and tested method by a volunteer veggy show fanatic.
The children are part of an annual scheme which allows children to propagate veg at school and bring them to the gardens to plant in the schools plots next to the Peach House. They also erect an incredible array of scarecrows made from recylced materials which are then entered into a competition.
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I always suspected that those growers of giant veggies featherbedded their plants... now I see it is true!Great onions, what?
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I always suspected that those growers of giant veggies featherbedded their plants... now I see it is true! Great onions, what?
Yes, amazing onions, but do they actually taste of anything when they get that big?
Apologies for not having written for a while. Life has been somewhat hectic the last couple of weeks, but now I shall proceed with a description of the sections marked 'D, E & F' on the map above.
These are the three quadrants that comprise our angiosperm (flowering plants) order beds. Unlike traditional botanic gardens that categorise their plants according to the Linnaean system, our order beds are based on the latest studies using genetic fingerprinting to determine the relationships between plants. Most of the info our beds have been based on comes from Professor Dianne Edwards of Cardiff University who was, until recently, one of our trustees and who still involves herself quite a lot in the scientific aspects of the NBGW.
So, a brief lesson in angiosperm phylogeny for anyone who isn’t familiar with the way plants are now being classified (a helpful tree diagram is available at http://www.mobot.org/mobot/research/apweb/welcome.html - click on the 'TREES' link at the top):
All angiosperms are thought to have evolved from a small group of basal angiosperms known as the ANITA group because it includes the:
Amborella, Nymphaeales, Illiciales, Trimeniaceae, and Austrobaileya, the earliest living flowering plants although I have a feeling some of these groups may since have been removed.
Descended from these we have the monocotyledons (plants with one seed leaf) and dicotyledons (plants with two seed leaves). The Dicots can then be further divided into the Asterids and the Rosids as the two largest groups although, in all of this, there will undoubtedly be anomalies.
I would describe some of the differences between Asterids and Rosids but the facts seem to elude me. I can only say that the Asterids do of course include the massive Asteraceae family as well as many other common ornamental groups of herbaceous perennials/ smaller shrubs. In contrast, The Rosids include much more in the way of trees (birch, walnut, fruit trees of all kinds etc), the obvious Rosaceae and such families as the peas (Fabaceae, Papilionaceae or whatever they’ve decided to name them this week)
That is all I can say with certainty, the facts keep changing as more studies are done and although it fascinates me, I just can’t keep up with the jargon.
So, our order beds aim to represent something of every plant family from each of these groups that we can possibly grow in South-West Wales.
The story begins in the centre of the DWG where a series of slate tanks circle the dipping pool. These contain Waterlilies, the closest living relatives of the earliest ever flowering plants. The idea is then to walk from the slate tanks out towards the corners of the DWG so that you, in effect, walk through the evolutionary tree of flowering plants.
The first quadrant (‘D’) is the monocot quarter, but some of the anomalous groups are displayed here too. As you walk from the slate tanks through this quadrant you are greeted first by a small collection of plants belonging to the ANITA group mentioned earlier. Star Anise is one of these plants, but I can’t remember the others.
From here, the left bed contains the Laurales (ancient smelly plants evolved to be pollinated by flies and other insects such as Laurus, Aristolochia, Houttouniya, Asarum etc). On the right is a bed containing the Magnoliids, a collection I don’t quite understand because it is diverse enough to include all Magnolias, but also Arisaemas, Arums and Dracunculus. It’s an interesting collection and the absolute favourite of Martin, the gardener in charge of the monocot section who has something of an Arisaema fetish (but then, who doesn’t?).
All the following beds are part of the monocot collection proper and develop from the Cordyline and Yucca bed towards the centre, all the way out to the economic grass bed and Banana bed at the far end. It is interesting to note that the grasses are so recent and that, in spite of their all pervading presence today, they apparently didn’t actually exist at the time of the dinosaurs.
So that’s the monocot quarter. I’ve added some pics below and I’ll do the same for the other two soon.
1. Waterlilies in the slate tanks.
2. Camassias & Hyacinths under a Cordyline in one of the earlier (more central) beds.
3. A visitor enjoying the Alliaceae & co bed in front and the Liliaceae & co bed behind.
4. The banana (Musa basjoo) and canna bed in year two or three. The bananas reach the height of the top of the wall now and this summer they actually flowered. Our Strelitzia does well here too.
5. The bananas dress up warm for the winter. Here they're just getting ready to celebrate St. Davids day. Unfortunately, there isn't time to dress them up like this anymore.
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Nice to hear from you again, Kristina. Although I'm getting flashbacks to A-level biology lessons. I'm half expecting your next post to start with "Baxendale! Stop staring out of the window! What's an asterid?!! No, not an asteroid you idiot!! Detention!"
Fascinating stuff though. Keep it coming.
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Right, well pay attention now and stop staring out of the window Baxendale! I have some more pics for you.
Unfortunately, our catalogue appears to be almost completely devoid of photos specifically of the Rosids quarter, possibly because the dicot half of the garden is only a couple of years old and what with so many Rosids being trees, it'll be a few years before much of it is worth looking at. There again, I dread to think what they're going to do when the Rosid forest begins to reach any kind of size. There can't be that many walled gardens sporting a whole bed of walnut and birch trees.
Anyway, the same theme applies to the Rosids as did to the monocots, but I'm not so familiar with it yet because it's so young. We start again in the centre with the waterlilies. Then as we move outwards we pass beds containing, amongst other things, Ranunculaceae and Hamamelidaceae; followed by a huge section of Papilionaceae spanning two beds and several million years I imagine; a couple of mid sections for the Brassicaceae and Betulaceae (but at opposite sides of the evolutionary tree); and at the very far corner (a mere 60 million years old or something?) we have families including the Rosaceae and the Urticaceae (an interesting combination I thought: I didn't realise that species of plant bent upon mortally wounding their caring gardeners were so closely related).
Because I have only one pic of the Rosid section I've also included an aerial shot of the whole DWG from last summer with the new tropical house installed. To orientate, the tropic house quadrant contains the monocots, the red pathed section above is the kitchen garden. The other side contains the dicots with Asterids above and Rosids below.
The second pic shows the still quite young Rosids quarter. In the foreground a part of the ornamental 'colour corridors' is visible. In the quadrant itself, the nearest bed contains Begonias and gourds, the bed behind that shows some of the Papilionaceae (brooms and lupins mainly).
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Luckily, the Asterids are far more photogenic and I just can't decide which pics to load for this one.
Again, the theme is the same here. Start at the centre and work your way out passing first the Ericaceae and Cornaceae, then the Aquifoliaceae, Gentianaceae and Lamiaceae before meeting groups like the Apiaceae, Solanaceae, Scrophulariaceae, Verbenaceae etc etc and finally, most flamboyant of all, the Asteraceae are right out towards one edge.
I probably ought to point out that in all this, the design of the quadrants wasn't done with the exact family relationships in mind. Groups are only placed roughly according to the evolutionary timeline and the sizes of the beds are only proportionate to the families they display in the vaguest sense.
Here are a couple of pics of the Asterid quarter, I may be forced to add more later.
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I just can't decide which pics to load for this one
When in doubt load them all 8)
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When in doubt load them all 8)
All right then! :D I've spent a bit more time resizing them all because they were huge!
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Thanks Kristina you are a star, I am sure we will all make a beeline for the garden when we are next in the area. :-*
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Apologies for not having written for a while.
And it has been even longer now !
Just been reading this thread and found it very interesting. Any more updates Kristina?
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Sadly the National Botanic Garden of Wales has had various struggles over recent years with funding restraints etc - now the retiring Director voices yet more concerns -
"Departing Botanic Garden director fears the national asset is being overlooked amid 'exhausting' funding struggle -
Dr Rosie Plummer has spoken out regarding her fears surrounding the attraction's funding shortfall "
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/departing-botanic-garden-director-fears-10701679 (http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/departing-botanic-garden-director-fears-10701679)
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been twice and although it was very interesting for an avid gardener - its a bit out of the way to be honest
we went when it had just opened and again a couple of years ago when they were obviously really struggling for visitors - there were only about 3 cars in the car park
a lot of the plants in the big glasshouse are good but it was the building that interested me more
I think its biggest problem is where it is situated and all those roads with 'Arif' written on them...........