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1 To the smelly garden
It is nice to get out of the greenhouses and look at the 'real' gardens. From this point I will walk to the left past the cafe and on to the smelly garden.
2 Have a smell
Here you can really interact with the plants without feeling guilty. You can look and smell the plants by just rubbing a leaf between your fingers. Best not to pick a leaf. A thousand people picking a leaf will soon rob the plant of all its leaves. Lots of these leaves are important in cooking and medicinal activities. You should investigate further. I like the braille signs.
3 The forest walk
This is the small forest walk. I make sure that I look up at the canopy of leaves above as I walk throgh this amazingly attractive area of the gardens. As you get to the bottom of this area you find yourself amongst the giant ferns. Look to the left and discover the badgers set. Yes real live badgers live there. I have yet to see them but the gardeners regularly report damage to plants in this area.
4 The grasses
I a great fan of grasses and this is a new area that is devoted to them. There are most of the food grasses from around the world. There are also some great bamboos.
5 The Gunnera
The Gunnera is somewhere around here. Gunnera is a genus of herbaceous flowering plants, some of them gigantic. I like seeing it change throughout the year. The massive leaves, the incredible flowers and the scene of destruction in the autumn. I especially like feeling the leaves.
6 The pond
This is the pond I fell in on one winters day. I was showing some teachers around the gardens on a cold winters day. It was so cold the fountain had frozen and there were thick layers of ice on the ponds. At least I thought they were thick! I stepped on the ice to illustrate how strong it was and , infront of an audience of ten teachers, slowly sunk and sunk and sunk. Its quite deep here, at least one and a half metres, much to my surprise.
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