NATIONAL BOTANIC GARDEN OF WALES

Visit: Saturday 20 September

Built on an original 18-century Paxton landscape the Gardens house the Great Glasshouse, which is designed by Norman Foster and Partners. It is an elliptical torus 95m long and 55m wide, the planting reflecting amongst others the climates of Chile and Western Australia. For the plantsman the Apothecaries Garden and the Double Walled garden are a must.

A keystone of the Gardens philosophy is to demonstrate the sustainable systems, which allow the garden to function. The visitor has the chance to see the biomass furnace - heating the Great Glasshouse with wood and the living machine, a waste-recycling unit that provides the water for the Greenhouse site. Barrie Jones, the senior maintenance engineer gave a talk on the Great Glasshouse and Energy Zone.

We allowed four hours visiting time and there was a chance to see 'Explorations 2003' - a series of unique large-scale sculptures from 12 internationally renowned artists spread across the whole of the garden.

> back to archive 2003