The new plants for health trail opened on Saturday

Middleton is aiming to make itself more visitor friendly as efforts are stepped-up to reverse a decline in the number of people coming through the gates.

New trails and a double wall garden will all be ready for the summer season at the �43m project at Llanarthne in Carmarthenshire.

The new Plants for Health Trail opened this weekend.

It shows how ancient Welsh healers used plants to cure ills and also charts the success of today's medicines derived from plants.

It's fascinating to see how modern medicines depend on plants and how natural remedies have been used for hundreds of years Marketing executive Judith Davies

Visitors will learn, for example, how the Common Foxglove, which is displayed in Middleton's Apothecaries Garden, is used in the treatment of heart disease.

The trail also explains how the Yew tree is at the forefront of the fight against cancer.

Official opening

It is the second in a new series and follows the launch of a Heritage Trail, which takes the visitor on a journey through two hundred years of the estate's history.

A plants and water trail will be introduced in July to incorporate Middleton's extensive water features.

Marketing executive Judith Davies said: "It's fascinating to see how modern medicines depend on plants and how natural remedies have been used for hundreds of years."

Judith Davies at the exhibition that is part of the Plants for Health trail

Another, called Plant Hunters, will recall the exploits of the great 18th century explorers who braved terrible conditions in their quest to discover new species.

The official opening of the new inner garden will take place on Saturday 14 June.

Three themes are displayed within the high walls, which provide shelter and create microclimates allowing for a much longer growing season.

The first involves three and a half metre deep borders either side of the cross paths.

Ms Davies added: "These are immediately apparent when you enter the Double Walled Garden and see the flow of colour along its four quadrants with a dipping pool at the centre.

"Another theme is the changing kitchen garden, which allows us to grow modern, as well as the much-loved older varieties of fruit, vegetables and flowers.

Harvest

"The plantings will change on a yearly basis in order to fully display the wide varieties available.

"The third theme will exhibit the blooming families of flowering plants."

An area has also been set aside for schools to develop their own plots.

Pupils will be able to grow seeds provided by Middleton, monitor their growth throughout the season and eventually harvest the fruits of their labour in the autumn.

The millennium project recently adopted the title of Middleton from the 18th Century mansion house and park in which it is set.

Evelyn Thurlby has been recruited as chief operating officer from the successful Eden project in Cornwall to help with the new visitor drive.