Gardening Group visit the National Botanical Garden

Gardening Group

On the morning of 10 September 40 members of the group to include 3 from Narberth U3A boarded a coach bound for The National Botanical Gardens of Wales, the last time we undertook such a trip was in January 2014.  It was decided to make this trip following a talk given by the curator Mr Simon Goodenough who indicated September was his favourite time in the garden and we could certainly see why.

Immediately, we were struck by the changes that had been made particularly to the long boarder leading up to the dome, rather than the random herbaceous plants with a multitude of colours this has now been replaced by a softer colour planting ranging  from the soft pinks of the geraniums and phlox to lavender, and on to the deeper shades of the many asters (we tend to call Michaelmas daisies) and finally tall purple verbena the feature of many dried flower arrangements a plant that appears frequently in the areas leading up to the dome.  A pathway has been laid adjacent to the boarder which takes the visitor to the rear of the plants an excellent addition.

The dome, of course, is amazing and one wonders at the feat of engineering in the construction in addition to the variety of plant is houses which we could not see unless we travelled to the far corners of the world,

The vegetable garden was spectacular with red and yellow stemmed chard, rows of runner beans, the unmistakeable tops of beetroot, turnips, swedes, wonderful red cabbages to name but a few.  Another new addition is a potager plot which combines both flowers and vegetables my particular favourite.

The sun shone all day and as we left the garden it was agreed it had been a fantastic trip

Penny Thomas  10 September 2015