Visitor numbers at Middleton have fallen well below expectations

Trustees' chairman Alan Hayward said conditions attached to the council's money were unacceptable, and the money to keep the garden going could run out by next week.

Middleton, at Llanarthne, in Carmarthenshire, is being kept open by emergency handouts from the Welsh Assembly Government, the council and the Millennium Commission, because low visitors numbers have left it unable to balance the books.

Earlier this month the garden was on the brink of closing when it emerged it had reached the end of its �2m overdraft.

Mr Hayward said the procedure to begin liquidation could begin around 3-4 November, although the process could take some time.

It had been hoped the money from the local authority would fund its survival into mid-December.

Alternative partners

But Mr Hayward said he intended to go ahead with a plan to bring Tim Smit, founder of the Eden Project in Cornwall, to the garden on 11 November.

A number of other visits from interested parties have been or are due to take place but Mr Hayward said this would be futile if Middleton's money ran out next month.

Mr Hayward said more time was needed to explore alternative partners.

He did not believe Carmarthenshire council had its own list of developers who were ready to propose viable alternatives.

But Carmarthenshire council's director for strategic projects, Robert Sully, has told BBC News Online that there were several parties interested in taking over the attraction.