The horticultural interest at this one-and-a-half-acre tourist attraction is what lies between the six model villages: a miniature landscape of farms, fields, woods, lakes and rolling hills planted with more than 3,000 shrubs and trees.
A recent government report documents five types of degradation: soil; trees; shrubs; grasslands and water sources.
Knoll Gardens demonstrates how a high percentage of grasses can be planted beneath a canopy of trees and shrubs, with just a few late-flowering perennials to add hints of colour and bring rhythm to the planting.
Other trees and shrubs echo the colours of the heraldic Drummond family crest.
We walked out of the town, up steep narrow alleys, shaded by trees and flowering shrubs, and blessedly free from motorised vehicles, to the ruined Villa Jovis which the Emperor Tiberius built as his retreat on the edge of a precipitous cliff from which those who offended him were hurled to their deaths.
A backdrop of trees and shrubs with autumn colour or ornamental bark ensures that the scene is constantly changing from one day to the next.
According to the Garden Bridge trust, the new crossing would feature not only shrubs, trees, plants, benches and even "intimate walkways", but would also serve as a direct link between the South Bank and Covent Garden and Soho.
And the Harvest Vehicle HV-100, otherwise known as Harvey, built by Harvest Automation, a firm based in Massachusetts, is designed to move potted shrubs and trees around in plant nurseries.
Hedges of flowering shrubs to which inhabitants were much attached were cut down, presumably to stop potential terrorists using them as cover.Anti-western propaganda has become ever more strident in the state-controlled media, and the western press is routinely accused of fomenting a "fifth column".
In the Arctic, for example, which is warming faster than any other large environment on earth, new shrubs and plants are invading formerly inhospitable areas.
The softening of the soil and the consequent release of nutrients is likely to encourage the growth of shrubs on land that is now dominated by grass, moss and lichens.
