The National Botanic Gardens of Wales

 

The National Botanic Garden of Wales was established in 2000 and is charity run and supported by the Welsh Government. The site consists of a number of themed gardens and overall contains 8000 different plant varieties. They state that 'Our mission to inspire, educate and conserve has not only made us a beautiful place to visit but a fascinating and relevant one too'.

Unfortunately when we attended the Botanic Gardens it was raining and we were only there for a short amount of time, however we were able to visit the indoor area which contained a number of exotic plants. Looking around we were able to come up with a number of ideas for our podcast such as plants and medicines and plants in different climates. The gardens also offered a number of interactive options and there were signs situated next to the plants with details of what they were and where they were from. It was easy to see how taking a class there could encourage learning as it was very interesting to walk around.

As can be seen from the map above the gardens were huge and not only contained plants but fish and insects, there is also a lot of focus on geology, with there being an area dedicated to rocks from different eras. We came away from this trip buzzing with ideas and it was very useful with our research. However we did not feel like we had been able to take full advantage of everything they had to offer due to the weather and time available. Also as an outdoor classroom I think it would only work if the weather was dry as there is not much of an indoor selection.

The Welsh Botanic Garden of Wales., 2010. About us. [Online] Available at: http://www.gardenofwales.org.uk/about-2/welcome-to-nbgw/ [Accessed +]