Kew Gardens, London

March 2011. Dave Barnes, Head of Horticulture Support (24 years there) gave us a guided tour. Kew is 252 years old, has 14,000 species of trees and acts as a Palimpsest (different layers of history) of horticultural trends. The oldest tree is a 300 year old sweet chestnut. Kew costs £50 million a year to run, with £25m coming from the government and the rest is raised, some from the annual 1.5 million visitors. The site is a Thames flood plain and is completely flat, apart from where construction excavations have been carried out and the soil used for banking. In general, the soil is poor, sandy and free draining. The lakes are managed by an upper and lower level of pipes to the Thames, bringing water in through the upper and out through the lower. They were last drained in 2005, dredged, the Sackler crossing was installed and stones were placed on all the edges to hinder erosion.

No comments:

Post a Comment