Garden of Eden (Eden Project (Cornwall))

Member Name: Whizz11

Product:	Eden Project (Cornwall)
Date:	10/06/09 (105 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great exhibits, sustanability

Disadvantages: None

The Eden Project is a global garden located in St Austell, Cornwall. It was established as one of the Landmark Millennium Projects to mark the year 2000 and has been opened since 2001.

I think the main aim and focus of The Eden Project is to develop an area that focuses on sustainability, creating gardens that can teach and educate and to learn new ways of doing things. In that way it's so much more than just a garden, it's a project or as they say, "a living theatre of plants and people."

The garden have been built in an old clay pit which shows that degraded environments can be fixed. The site really is huge and you do need quite a few hours to walk around it and see it properly. The clay pit is the area of 35 football pitches and needed over 83,000 tons of soil to fill it which was all made from recycled waste.

The Eden Project describe themselves as this:

"If you believe there should be a place that explores what a great future might look like, that celebrates life and puts champagne in the veins, that's all about education with mud between your toes, to hold conversation that might just go somewhere, where research is experience to be shared with everyone, for all those who think the future belongs to us all, then welcome to the Eden Project...home of the Eden Trust. That's why we built this place and that's where the money goes."

When you have parked your car you are taken by shuttle bus to the admissions hall. An adults entrance ticket costs £15 and a childs ticket costs £5. When we paid our admission we had the option to donate it to gift aid which we did which also gave us a free years pass. As I don't live anywhere near Cornwall this is no good for me but it's definitely good for local residents. The entrance hall is quite big and has a few exhibitions in it. It was quite busy and took us a few minutes to get into the entrance and I can imagine it's like this everyday. Once you have paid you then go outside and can walk around the area. The gardens all roll into one another so it's like wandering around a huge garden. Outside there are alotment areas growing all types of foods and plants, an orchard, a beer and brewing section and there are also lots of interesting statues to look at.

Probably the most interesting parts of the Eden Project are the Biomes, big huge domes which have a different climate temperature inside to show you how plants grown in different parts of the world. One of the biomes is the Mediterranean Biome which has a mediterranean climate (warm temperature, hot dry summers, and cool, wet winters, generally located 30-40 degrees N or S latitude on the western sides of the continent, for example California. Inside you can see Olives growing, tobacco, and all the type of plants and greens you associate with this area.

The second biome is the Rainforest Biome. It was extremely hot in here as it has a very humid feel to it, the average temperature is 25 degrees c all year round but has over 90% humidity. I found this biome very interesting but it was very tiring walking around as it is so hot. They do have a slightly shorter trail you can take around this biome if you can't stand the heat! In here you will find information about cola, chewing gum, rubber, bananas, etc. I found this the most interesting biome.

There is a large seating area which is outside but under cover so you can sit out and have a picnic if you want. There are not really any other places to sit around the gardens which I thought was a shame because I thought it would have been good if you could sit in various places and have a picnic. They also have a large cafeteria where you can buy various different types of foods to really suit everyone. There are pasties, sandwiches, hot food and cold food all quite reasonably priced. They also have a large gift shop which sells everything and anything, gifts, crafts, clothes, plants etc.

In closing I found the Eden Project a really interesting day out and well worth a visit for the whole family.

Summary: The Eden Project