Wales on the Web A flash movie about The National Botanic Garden Of Wales in Carmarthenshire, including Carmarthen, Towy Valley, William Paxton, Welsh Water Discovery Centre, Alfred Russell Wallace, Usk, Biological Diversity and more, part of the largest collection of movies on any culture anywhere on the Web.
Wales on the Web National Botanic Garden - wales flash movies The Garden of Wales owes much to Scotsman William Paxton whose Middleton Hall gardens and their re-discovered water features provided inspiration for what is becoming a major European botanical site. Located in the Towy valley, near Carmarthen, Paxton’s double-walled garden and ice house – now a bat sanctuary – form part of an amazingly pollution-free 568 acre estate where past and modern concepts combine to create a wide bio-diversity Entering the gardens through their round gatehouse, the “Broadwalk” leads visitors past the “Scaladaqua Tonda” – or “Curving water steps” sculpture. The Welsh Water Discovery Centre for aquatic and plant life study stands opposite; the main walk continuing to the well-named “Circle of Decision” - an ammonite-shaped area offering paths to all parts of the grounds. The Bog Garden and lakeside walks are nearby, as is the Double Walled Garden, many country houses possessed them, both to shelter plants and extend growing seasons. Here many beds were heated from underneath by piped hot air. Flanked by Europe’s longest herbaceous border providing yearlong colour, the pathway leads on past Mirror Pool to the “Great Glasshouse”, the garden’s climax. This huge elliptical structure, the world’s largest single span glasshouse, is 95 metres long and 55 wide, tilted 7 degrees to maximise sunlight. Steel beams support 785 sheets of plastic laminated glass – essential to conserve warmth. Viewed from within the 4,500 square metres of glass merge to become a sky over different but integrated landscapes. This is a sandstone, Mediterranean-climate, world, whose deep ravine and waterfall provide shade part of each day. Six different zones, climatically similar but distinct contain species from Europe, North Africa, the Canary Islands, Chile, Western Australia and Africa, some growing on rock face or scree. Warmth is provided by an eco-friendly biomass furnace; the winds natural to these regions provided by powerful fans. Evergreen oaks and shrubs thrive as do a wide variety of other plants and flowers that evolved to cope with this often-dry, climate. Beneath the building, huge tanks collect Welsh rainwater to irrigate this dry Mediterranean landscape. Nearby the Wallace garden, commemorates Usk-born Alfred Russell Wallace, who pre-empted Darwin’s Theory of Evolution. Millennium Square’s open space is flanked by galleries and exhibition spaces; there is a display explaining the ancient lore of medicinal plants and herbs, whose value is only now being rediscovered. Welsh stones play their part – slate waste is used for mulching, and the “Rocks of Ages”, gathered from all parts of Wales, explain our geological evolution. This is a delightful place whose developing woodlands, gardens and lakes encapsulate something of the earth’s amazing biological diversity.