The Eden Project
Cornwall, The first architect involved was Cornishman Jonathan
Ball, who worked with Tim as co-founder of the Project to bring
the idea to physical reality, and then passed the baton to Nicholas
– now Sir Nicholas – Grimshaw.
photo: The
Eden Project
*please click the image above to access
a photo slideshow of our visit to the Eden Project
Two construction
companies, Sir Robert and Alfred McAlpine, worked for 18 months
without payment or contract (something neither had done in their
respective 175-year histories) and then, for good measure, agreed
to loan Eden a significant sum only to be repaid if the Project
was successful.
Eden's Visitor Centre
opened to the public in May 2000 and the full site in March
2001. Since then we have seen nearly seven million visitors
come through the doors and have witnessed the opening of The
Core, our new education centre that Tim Smit called "the
finest modern building in the world".
Eden has played host
to huge, world-renowned events such as Live 8 Africa Calling
and the Eden Sessions (outdoor summer gigs featuring acts as
a diverse as Moby, Keane, Basement Jaxx and Brian Wilson) and
wows audiences with its themed seasons such as Bulb Mania in
the spring, A Time of Gifts in the winter and Jungle Nights
in the summer.
Eden, however, like
its plants, is always growing and will continue to develop and
change. Next in the pipeline is The Edge, but plenty more is
planned.
link: www.edenproject.com/
The Lost Gardens
of Heligan, These gardens,
near Mevagissy in Cornwall, have been restored and well marketed
by Tim Smit. They have had a four part TV series on channel
4 in 1997, there is a best selling book on the "Heligan
story", and there have been countless newspaper articles.
Heligan, seat of
the Tremayne family for more than 400 years, is one of the most
mysterious estates in England. At the end of the nineteenth
century its thousand acres were at their zenith, but only a
few years later bramble and ivy were already drawing a green
veil over this "Sleeping Beauty". After decades of
neglect, the devastating hurricane of 1990 should have consigned
the Lost Gardens of Heligan to a footnote in history.
photo:
The Lost Gardens of Heligan
*please click the image above to access a photo slideshow of
our visit to the Lost Gardens of Heligan
Instead, events conspired
to bring us here and the romance of their decay took a hold
on our imaginations. Our discovery of a tiny room, buried under
fallen masonry in the corner of one of the walled gardens, was
to unlock the secret of their demise. A motto etched into the
limestone walls in barely legible pencil still reads "Don’t
come here to sleep or slumber" with the names of those
who worked there signed under the date - August 1914. We were
fired by a magnificent obsession to bring these once glorious
gardens back to life in every sense and to tell, for the first
time, not tales of lords and ladies but of those "ordinary"
people who had made these gardens great, before departing for
the Great War.
Heligan has now established
a large working team with its own vision for our second decade.
The award-winning garden restoration is already internationally
acclaimed; but our lease now extends into well over 100 acres
of the wider estate, leaving the project far from complete.
We intend Heligan to remain a living and working example of
the best of past practice, offering public access into the heart
of what we do.
link: www.heligan.com
Trebah the garden of dreams: is a garden for all seasons,
with year round colour and scent. It has something for everyone
with children's activities, special events, The Gallery Shop,
Planters Café, and Garden Shops.
Photo: Trebah
the garden of dreams
*please click the image above to access
a photo slideshow of our visit to Trebah the garden of
dreams
One of the 'Great Gardens of
Cornwall' and part of the 'Eden Trail' is rated among the
80 most beautiful gardens in the world. This lovely wild sub-tropical
ravine paradise winds through huge plantations of 100 year
old giant tree ferns, rhododendrons, magnolias, camellias,
palms and 2 acres of massed hydrangeas to the private beach
on the Helford River.
The Gardens: The steeply
wooded ravine garden falls 200 feet to the Helford River.
A stream cascades over waterfalls through colourful water
gardens and ponds of Koi Carp, and winds through two acres
of blue and white hydrangears before spilling out over the
private beach. Glades of huge subtropical tree ferns, palms
and 18 foot high Gunnera mingle with a multitude of trees,
shrubs and 100 year old rhododendrons to give Trebah vistas
of ever changing year-round colour and scent.
History of The Gardens:
The garden was planted in the 1840's by Charles Fox. By the
1930's it had acquired a unique collection of the rarest and
most exotic plants gathered from all over the world.
In 1939 the estate was sold
and suffered from 40 years of neglect. The Hibbert family
bought Trebah in 1980, and began a massive restoration and
replanting programme. They opened it to the public in 1987,
and in 1990 donated it to the Trebah Garden Trust, a registered
charity, to ensure that it will remain open for everyone forever.
link: www.trebah-garden.co.uk
Mevagissey: (Cornish: Lannvorek) is a village and fishing
port situated six miles south of St Austell in Cornwall. In
recent years tourism has passed fishing as the dominant industry
in the village.
photo: Mevagissey
harbour
*please click the image above to
access a photo slideshow of our visit to Mevagissey
The village nestles in a small
valley near the centre of east-facing Mevagissey Bay. The
inner and outer harbours are busy with a mixture of pleasure
vessels and working fishing boats, the remains of a once major
industry. The old centre consists of very narrow, picturesque
streets with a wide choice of places to eat and shops aimed
at the tourist trade. The outer, newer parts are mostly residential
and built on the steep slopes of the surrounding hillsides.
link: www.mevagisseyonline.co.uk
12th May 2007:
Visit to Malvern Flower Show SATURDAY
photo: Malvern
Spring Gardening Show
*please click the image above to access
a photo slideshow of our visit to Malvern
Flower Show
The finest and friendliest
gardening event of the year!
In its beautiful setting at the foot of the scenic Malvern Hills,
this truly inspirational show enjoys a national reputation as
the finest and friendliest gardening event of the year.
A joint venture of
the Three Counties Agricultural Society and the Royal Horticultural
Society, the event attracted 100,000 visitors in 2006, from
all over Britain and beyond, and has a demographic profile of
84% ABC1.
Those who know the
Show and its wonderful location will understand what makes it
such a favourite with gardeners of all ages and expertise. It
is widely acknowledged as one of the top big events on the horticultural
calendar, renowned for the quality of its exhibits and high
numbers of RHS Gold Medal honours!
link: Malvern
Spring Gardening Show
14th June 2007:
Visit to RHS Gardens Rosemoor
photo: The colourful Rosemoor
woods
*please click the image above to access
a photo slideshow of our visit to Rosemoor Gardens
The story of the
RHS Garden Rosemoor begins for us in 1959 when Lady Anne Berry
(Lady Anne Palmer) caught measles from her children and, while
recuperating in Spain, met the noted plantsman Collingwood Ingram.
He invited her to visit his garden on her return to England
and encouraged her to return to Rosemoor with a few of his plants
to start a garden of her own.
Lady Anne's Garden,
as the original garden of Rosemoor is now known, is a plantsman's
garden and is of great horticultural and botanical interest.
Inspired by the enthusiasm of plantsman Collingwood Ingram,
the garden development continued with the planting of specimens
collected by Lady Anne on her travels all over Europe, Australia,
New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Japan, the USA and temperate
South America. All the new introductions have been carefully
labelled and their origin documented to provide the collection
with its fascinating history.
link: Royal
Horticultural Society/Rosemoor
12th July 2007:
Visit to Snowshill Manor and Snowshill Lavender Farm
photo: Snowshill
Manor
*please click the image above to access
a photo slideshow of our visit to Snowshill Manor and Snowshill
Lavender Farm
