THE BOTANICAL GARDENS
Although we’re lucky to live in an amazing area it is still nice to get out and explore and enjoy nearby attractions. Recently Lyn and I, on her birthday, along with our 6 year old grandson James visited the botanical gardens. Set in the beautiful Carmarthenshire countryside, the Garden is a fascinating blend of the modern and historic.
We were lucky the weather was pretty good, dry with a nip in the air. James was taken with a whole series of rocks that were accompanied by plaques detailing their ages, where they were found and what was living at that time. I find it difficult to imagine 500,000 years ago, what it means to a six year old I shudder to think!
It really is a beautiful setting. We next made our way over to the glass house, this impressive construction is the world’s largest single-span glasshouse.
I was expecting it to be hot inside but it was in fact fairly cool. The climate it replicates is of a Mediterranean climate zone, so the plants displayed come from, South Africa, Chile, the Canary Islands and Australia in the main. They really have an incredibly diverse range of plants in excellent condition and even though it was January there was still an impressive array of colour.
As you can imagine you tend to get round things pretty quickly when you’re accompanied by a six year old although, in fairness, he was suitably taken with a lot of the plants.
In all they have an amazing collection of over 8000 different plant varieties, spread across 560 acres of beautiful countryside. And they have developed a stunning range of themed gardens that appeal to those who just love the sights and smells to those who want to know about plant evolution, the use of medicinal plants or our scientific research.
The old pharmacy is a must visit. With a whole array of remedies from the past with detailed descriptions of what different plants were used for various ailments. It really was an eye opener.
The grounds themselves are awesome. Work has been undertaken to recreate/reestablish the water features that used to adorn the estate centuries ago. We took a walk down to one of the lakes. On the way, though, we stopped to look at some old tree trunks. Again the accompanying plaques made for interesting reading.
One of the trees, twigs were used for cleaning teeth, another for making coffins and another had a fascinating story of how it refused to be taken until a ceremony was held. And again on the way to the lake we came across an impressive work of art, ‘Tarw’ the Welsh Black bull, by Sally Matthews.
This sculpture is beautiful and it’s difficult to think of a better setting for it. We eventually reached the lake! It’s a wonderfully tranquil setting and if it wasn’t for a six year old we could have relaxed there for some time.By this time we were all getting peckish so we made our way up to the courtyard and the restaurant.
The food was good quality and reasonably priced. Having refueled our grandson, we explored the walled gardens and the Japanese gardens. There’s something almost spiritual about japanese gardens. Water features are always included and there’s something about trickling water, somewhere to sit and beautiful plants, time just fades away!
By this time we had to head home, We didn’t cover half of the gardens even at the speed of a six year old. We’ll return and perhaps visit the British bird of Prey Centre and the Butterfly house With a living collection of around 6000 different types of plant, the Garden offers their visitors an incredible feast of botanical choice.
The Garden has an amazing diversity of wild plant and animal life – some of it familiar and some very rare Across their mosaic of lakes, streams, marsh, semi-natural woodland, meadows and formal gardens we provide a home to thousands of wild species. These include,over 100 types of butterfly and moth,over 500 native plant species, more than 50 varieties of birds,thousands of frogs, toads and palmate newts, common lizards, grass snakes and slow worms,twenty species of mammals including dormice, otters and bats.
The gardens really are a magical place for old and young alike. They’re easy to get to and are continually changing both through new developments and those brought about by the seasons. They have plenty of exhibitions and events so it’s well worth checking their web page before planning your visit – enjoy
