Gardens to visit in spring and summer – Eden Project

It’s quite astonishing to think that The Eden Project, already one of Britain’s classic tourist sites, only opened in March 2001. In just a few years, the site has gone from futuristic brain child to major attraction.

The brain in which it was conceived is that of Tim Smit, now the chief executive of Eden. In 1995 he and local architect, Jonathan Ball started what was to evolve into an £86 million project. The idea was simple enough - to create a world-class tourist destination that would tell the story of humankind's relationship with plants

A deep clay pit near St. Austell became the location for the project - both because it provided protection from the wind and because it had a large south-facing cliff, ideal for catching maximum sunlight. The distinctive domes are actually called biomes and each one delivers a different range of growing conditions

What will you see? Well, a literally dazzling range of plants are on display. Known medicinal uses for the plants are listed alongside them because a major feature of the Eden Project is serious environmental and educational study. The curators want us to help safeguard our planet and we can help prevent mankind destroying the benefits provided by nature if we understand the interdependence of plants and people.

Look out also for Eden practicising what it preaches. It is a deeply environmentally aware venue, which recycles as much as possible, for example. The massive amounts of water required to create the humid conditions of the Tropical Biome, as well as to serve the toilet facilities, are actually not fresh, but come from sanitized rain water that would otherwise collect at the bottom of the quarry. In fact the only mains water used is for hand washing and for cooking.

Eden Project photograph by pudstah, used under a creative commons attribution licence

 

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