Dirt Divas: Wales' Botanicals

July 8, 2007

By Sally Koppenberg

I have taken roughly 1,100 photos in the last two weeks! You may well suppose that at least a thousand of them are of plants and gardens, so please close your eyes as you read on. Idyllic pastures, rolling green as far as the eye can see, breath taking hydrangeas on every rock wall. Lovely little sheep peering out at you from the heather. Clematis crawling everywhere. The lavender is heavenly- the gardens are lovely- robust and wonderfully green. The trees at Kew are rich, old and well planted in layers of color, texture and character.

But too much is too much.

I don't mean to disappoint but I'm afraid most of these pictures are of rocks. Yes, rocks! And in a country of stonework, no where else, in person or in book, I have seen stones used in the same way they are at the National Botanical Garden of Wales.

This garden is, by European standards, a baby, but with this newness it is a garden of freedom. Freedom from the trappings of history and centuries of rebirth, freedom from gardening stigma and tradition, freedom to make its own mark on the world and I found it to be absolutely delightful! Fresh and original in both design and purpose, this 500 acre garden captured my heart.

It was cloudy when we stepped through the gates and we were immediately drawn to a lovely bog garden to commune with ducks, snails, slugs and water lilies. Stone work was everywhere, but here the stones are fresh, imaginative and open to the viewing. Not in a way that interferes or mocks the tight cobbled byways or the ancestry of its surroundings, but in a more fundamental sort of way that cries out, &#8220come visit us, sit on us - we are the soul of your earth - understand us.”

The stones are the bones of the garden while the broadwalk, which they border, is the spin of the garden. There is nothing superfluous about the choice of these rocks or their placement along this wide walkway. They have been donated from all over Wales to form a sequence from oldest to youngest, dated in millions of years. They reminded me of the importance of geology in creating the shape or our landscape and the soils under our feet. For stone lovers these rocks are compelling, telling their tales in color and form as they lead uphill, forming the structure of the longest border garden in Britain. The broadwalk and the borders lead up a long gradual hill at the garden's center to another impressive site.

The Great Glasshouse is a two level bio-dome, which is the largest single span glass house in the world with over 870 tons of glass in the roof. It sits on top the hill looking, from far reaches of the garden, a bit like a giant dew drop in the garden's center. It was designed to house and conserve some of the most endangered plants on the planet, all collected from the six Mediterranean climates across the globe. Impressive, I will admit, and there were some lovely specimens here, but the outdoors had my heart. So, back out I went. Back to the clouds and the rain to follow a fabulous little rill that weaves its way down the broadwalk, descending the slope; echoing the meanderings of the River Tywi which flows through a nearby valley.

No more than a cobbled dip in the walkway, this rill is ingeniously designed. It flows in and out of little bubbling bogs and ponds along the way, always wandering back onto the main walk until it ultimately circles round and round into a center pinwheel referred to as the circle of decision. Telling of the importance of water in our lives, this circle forces decisions to be made - which direction to go? To the double walled garden (a formal affair with wonderful corner benches); the knot garden, bog gardens, a Japanese garden, the bee garden, the plentiful woods, one of only two Auricula theatres in Britain, or long walks along waterways filled with lilies, reed, rushes and water fowl?

I visited Kew Gardens and was interested. I visited this garden and fell in love. Kew is lost in an identity crisis with some confusion if it's a collection site, a historical landmark, a national treasure or a theme park. This Welsh garden has no such crisis. It knows it's mind and stamps it well into your mind. It is worth your time and rewards well in memories and inspiration.

Sally Koppenberg is a garden and food designer and the owner of Stonehill Gardens, a nursery & nature conservatory specializing in Alaska grown trees, shrubs, perennials and native plants.