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 he Cowbridge Physic Garden is laid out as a 'parterre' with formal beds and paths. This is the traditional form which allows for specific beds for each type of plant
 he design of the garden was entrusted to Anthony Jellard, a well-known landscape designer who has worked on the walled garden at Middleton and Hampton Court, Hereford
he Physic Garden project was envisaged as providing a unique amenity for the town of Cowbridge and the wider Vale of Glamorgan, a historical re-creation with contemporary relevance which would also be a tourist attraction. It would have an educational value by increasing awareness of the curative properties of plants and of the great debt owed by modem pharmaceutical medicine to the plant world.
 s an extension of the present-day Old Hall grounds the Physic Garden would be freely accessible to the public from the existing entrances and from a new entrance on Church Street
 ork began on the site on August 1st 2005. The immediate task for the contractors, Landcraft Projects, was to demolish a portion of the east wall to enable the diggers and other machinery to gain access to the site, remove tree stumps and other debris remaining from the initial site clearance and begin work on landscaping. A security fence was erected along the open, west end of the site. It is known that this end of the site was walled in the nineteenth century, and as part of the project a new wall would be built to enclose the site. lias limestone, the stone in the surviving three walls and in the wider historic local landscape, would be used. The pattern of pathways was established, as is the overall layout of the garden. It was really is exciting to see plans being realised.
 he final design of the garden shows some modifications from the original concept. Where it had been envisaged that there would be a central sunken area and a raised 'viewing mount', financial and practical considerations for future maintenance dictated that the garden would be laid-out on one level. Over the years the garden would, inevitably and appropriately evolve as some plants flourish and others fail, and while the essential design will not change the possibility remains that at some future date a viewing platform could be introduced without affecting that design.
 nterest in the project among the residents of Cowbridge has been stimulated by the activity on site since the beginning of August 2005 and by publicity in the local press. Members of Cowbridge Camera Club are compiling a photographic record of progress on site, and pupils from Cowbridge Comprehensive School volunteered to paint a mural/display panel on the perimeter of the site to give passers-by an artist's impression of the garden.
 he Trust's Planting Committee drew up preliminary planting lists and these are in process of being finalised prior to placing orders with specialist firms. The garden would be a recreation of an eighteenth-century physic garden and plants would be limited to those in cultivation in this country before 1800 ... a date which does cause a few headaches when choosing, for example, box which can be vulnerable to disease, or roses which may have a long pedigree and a glorious scent but which succumb readily to blight and wilt. Advice is being sought from experts.
 he first phase of the work was completed by November 2005 and phase II by October 2006 when the garden was opened to the general public. The permanent planting, by volunteers funded by a Heritage Lottery Fund grant, started then and continues. Benches, pergolas, fountain etc all sponsored by local supporters of the garden, were incorporated into the design
 ublicity and fund raising are, and will remain, matters of priority for the Trust Committee as, even after the planting is completed, money will be needed for regular maintenance and services
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