Laurence Gale MSc meets Mark Hargreaves, Team Leader of Horticulture and Botany at Chester Zoo, and finds that ...


It’s a ju W


“The lawns are one of my biggest challenges as they form some of the main pedestrian routes to the attractions”


Mark Hargreaves, Team Leader of Botany and Horticulture, Chester Zoo


hen a press release titled “Specialist turf for zoo” landed in our editor’s email inbox he was off on a ‘wild animal chase’, before you could say “boo to a zebra” to find out more. The zoo in question was Chester, one of the UK’s most popular attractions, with over 7,000 animals made up of 400 different species, including some of the most endangered on the planet. Over one million visitors pour through their gates each year. But, the zoo isn’t just an amazing collection of animals, it also has award winning gardens. The Andes Garden, as its name implies, shows the terrain and range of plants from the Andes Mountains in South America, whilst colourful planting schemes can be seen everywhere.


On the site of the former Rose Garden a new


garden has been created which highlights the beauty, usefulness and diversity of the grass (Graminae) family. The garden, which is 70 metres long and 30 metres wide, is divided into five main sections, each of which features a selection of grass species that are of major importance to humans. These are the economic crops, bamboo, sand dune grasses, ornamental grasses and, perhaps surprisingly for a


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