Landscape

Trees are now well established in front of the building.

The areas around the Wellcome Trust Millennium Building have been landscaped to provide a seamless link between Bethlehem Wood and the Oaks.   These plantings are now becoming well established and present a maturing treescape. 

Material of local provenance, which is best adapted to the site conditions, was obtained for the initial hedge and shaw plantings from local sources.  Tree seed was also collected from the Wakehurst Place estate and grown in the nursery then planted in the landscape.  This included ash, hornbeam, hazel, field maple, wild cherry and oak.  Italian alder and silver birch were planted to support the early growth of the larger trees and will be thinned out as these plantings mature.  

Original landscape plan

 

 

From the initial days of the project the grass areas were mown and then early in 2006 a flock of Southdown sheep was introduced to Wakehurst Place.  This flock was allowed to graze before the meadow flowers began to grow.  Early in the project native herbaceous plant seed was harvested from Hanging Meadow in the Loder Valley Nature Reserve and stored in the Seed Bank.  These collections have now been sown to increase the diversity of the meadow plantings.

These meadows are now managed using sheep grazing as part of the regime.