As someone who loves gardening, it may seem a bit of a
busman’s holiday to visit gardens when I go on holiday but I enjoy nothing more
than walking around someone else’s hard work, appreciating the beauty of human
orchestrated nature. There are many beautiful gardens all over the Britain but
some of my favourite can be found in Cornwall so a Cornish break this Easter
holiday was the ideal time to re-visit them. In this blog post and the ones to follow, I review 6 very different ones. If you too love beautiful gardens
you may like to consider a holiday in Cornwall in order to pay them a visit. If
so, then some of the best can be found within easy driving distance of St
Austell.
Located very close to St Austell, The Eden Project is almost
a garden theme park, with the layout, appearance and crowd management feel
similar to other theme-park attractions, and very much a man-made tourist
hotspot. Created during the late 1990s and opened in the early 21st century, it is a relatively new garden yet now looks
well established, if somewhat lacking in genuine historical interest.
In the spring the
parking isn’t too bad but driving past acres of parking spaces gives you some
appreciation of how busy this place gets in the summer holidays. Indeed, the
first time I visited this place was a year or two after it had first opened
when it wasn’t as famous or as popular as it is now, and we spent about an hour
and half queuing in the car just to get into the car park. I can only hope that
they have improved the car parking organisation since then but even so it is
something worth considering. I would question too whether there is much more to
be gained from the garden itself by visiting in the height of summer when the
main feature of the place is two climatically controlled greenhouses that are
somewhat removed of seasons anyway.
On this visit we set off on an unpromising, foggy and
drizzly day which again may have helped to keep the visitor numbers down. We
reasoned that, with spending most of our time inside the greenhouses, it
wouldn’t much matter what the weather outside was doing. However, we were
fortunate in that the weather improved shortly after our arrival and I have to
confess that brighter, drier conditions made for better photography and a more
pleasant day out.
It is expensive to get into The Eden Project, costing £68
for a family of 4 if you pay on the gate. You can get that down to £57 if you
book online in advance or if you pick up a discount voucher leaflet from a
tourist information office or stand. The gift shop and food and drink places
have top end prices too. The Eden Project is a charity and you have to bear
that in mind but it does feel like a money spinning enterprise and a tourist
attraction for the well-off. On the plus side, the entrance fee gets you a
year’s membership and you can revisit the place as many times as you like
within the next year without paying again. Probably quite handy if you leave nearby.
The Eden Project has close ties to The Lost Gardens of Heligan so if you are
planning to also visit the Lost Gardens of Heligan then look out for a leaflet
at the Eden Project ticket desks that entitles you to 25% of your Heligan
entrance fee. Also, on your way out of the gift shop, browse the leaflet stand
and see if you can find one on Cornwall’s Greatest Gardens as you can gain a
reduction in the entrance fee to other gardens by getting this leaflet stamped.
The famous points of interest at The Eden Project are of
course the two enormous multi-domed greenhouses, looking like they have been
constructed out of some weird sort of bubblewrap. The right hand one is set for
temperate, or Mediterranean, climatic conditions and the, larger, left hand one
is a tropical zone. Both are accessed via a central link, which also contains
toilets and several food serving areas.
The temperate greenhouse is set out in a series of different
countries so as you walk round you can be visiting California one minute and
effortlessly stroll into north Africa a moment later without even a hint of
jetlag. I’m, of course, particularly interested in the edible crops they grow
and enjoyed seeing oranges, agave, figs, and chillies. I particularly liked
their chilli trolley, providing information on the heat of each variety of
chilli.
Having said that, the flowers are delightful too and particularly
attractive to photograph. The trickiest part of this is trying to get a decent
photograph without a person in the way or an annoying plant label. In April the
tulip planting is particularly spectacular and you may like to make a note
(from one of those annoying plant labels!) of you favourite so you can see
about growing your own.
The tropical greenhouse is hot and humid and this hits you
from the moment you walk through the door and it just keeps getting hotter the
further you walk in. There are several water fountains dotted about and a cool
room near the top should you be feeling particularly desperate but expect to
feel sweaty by the time you are done and extremely grateful to get back out
into the good old British weather! Again, I enjoyed seeing the edible plants
and the tropical crops that we are so used to eating but not so used to seeing
growing. There is also an impressive
array of beautiful leaves and it all comes together into a jungle of
mind-blowing proportions considering it is all grown inside in an ex-quarry in
Cornwall. By the time you get to the top walkway you are able to look down on
the canopy in a way that most people would otherwise never experience.
Although the greenhouses are definitely the main feature,
there is an outside garden worth strolling round too. In April the daffodils
were looking particularly impressive but this garden I guess changes
considerably with time of year.
What wouldn’t change so quickly are the quirky
works of art dotted around the site; an enormous bee, an interesting fence, a
man, the “industrial plant”, the global warming greenhouse, and the maiden with
the disco ball face, as my daughter called her. Having explored thoroughly by
foot, why not take the land train back up the sides of what once was a china
clay quarry to the gift shop before trekking back to your car.
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