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The Garden of Eden
Who knew the gates of paradise lay so close to London? By Gregory Katz
 ENGLAND HAS LONG
been a magnet for garden lovers -- with the impressive Royal Botanical
Gardens in Kew, the many stately home grounds open to the public, and
the grand London parks that are easily explored. But nothing matches
the colossal success of the Eden Project, an ambitious, almost utopian
idea that started with the reclamation of an abandoned clay pit in
Cornwall that is now, a decade later, filled with the world’s two
largest conservatories, iconic domes jammed with plants from around the
world.
It sounds like a do-gooder recipe for financial failure.
Imagine the first meeting with financiers who had to be convinced of
the viability of a theme-park-size attraction with no rides, no
computer games, no multimedia explosions; only plants, plants, and more
plants. But Eden, funded initially with some government help, has been
a smash hit since it opened seven years ago, drawing more and more
people to its idyllic corner of Cornwall, on the southwest coast of
England. Somehow the founders have made plants hip -- a James Bond
movie was filmed on the premises, pop music’s biggest names play summer
concerts at Eden, and a portion of the global Live 8 for Africa
broadcast in 2005 was staged here.
This is English ingenuity at
its best: Take an old, abandoned piece of land that wasn’t doing
anybody any good and turn it into a showcase that has generated jobs,
revenue, and enthusiasm for an entire region. No one is laughing at
chief executive Tim Smit now, even if his idea was ridiculed at first.
Smit is too superstitious to boast, but he is apparently bowled over by
the public’s embrace of Eden, an educational charity that has played a
key role in revitalizing the surrounding towns, which had been in
decline.
“We’re up to 9.5 million visitors in seven years,” says
Smit. “It’s fantastic. The general public seems to love it, and that’s
what we wanted. The first thing I want is for people to enjoy
themselves, and second, I want them to be open to thinking. The
overwhelming sense I want to give them is one of optimism about the
capacity of humans to do good things and to adapt to change.”
ALTHOUGH SMIT AND
his colleagues do worry about the impact of climate change, there is
nothing downbeat or preachy about Eden. It emphasizes nature’s
incredible bounty and seems to suggest that solutions are in sight. It
can be a joyous experience to visit Eden, where whimsy is the order of
the day. The domes sprout from the landscape like futuristic mushrooms.
One almost expects to see the Wizard of Oz inside. But this isn’t a
city of make-believe; rather, it is a place where more than a million
plants are flourishing.
When you enter the Rain Forest Biome,
you are immediately transported into the warmth of a lush, tropical
environment. Just the moisture in the air makes you breathe a mental
sigh of relief. The dome is more than 150 feet high, and a waterfall
courses through it from top to bottom, giving it the sense of movement
and the welcome sound of rushing water. You quickly succumb to the
illusion that you are outside, hearing tropical birds, breathing
tropical air, and admiring the soaring palm trees and plants. Only when
you look more carefully do you see the telltale hexagons that make up
the dome and realize you are, technically, still inside. The architects
have done an impressive job of using vegetation to conceal the struts,
piping, and scaffolding that make the domes possible. So you often see
only the clear blue sky above, which enhances the illusion that you are
in the wild. No space is wasted.
 There are exhibits about a
variety of topics: tropical islands, Malaysia, West Africa, South
America, various crops, cola, chewing gum, rubber, cocoa, chocolate,
mangoes, bananas, and more, as well as displays on how to regrow the
forest. There is plenty to learn here, but none of it is packaged in a
way that makes it feel like a lesson. On the food-story trail, a bend
in the path leads you through the many ways bananas are used in the
tropics; the plants provide not only food but also shelter and
employment. Comments from Uganda and other faraway places are also on
display. If you tried to pay kids at school to read a book about banana
cultivation, they would probably run away. But this interactive display
with a spinning globe and radio buttons draws their attention and
engages them until their parents have to pull them away.
As you
leave the Rain Forest Biome, the message is clear: Your wallet is your
weapon, and by carefully consuming fair-trade items and other properly
produced goods, you can help people in poorer countries and still enjoy
the bananas, mangoes, cocoa, and coffee that are, literally, the spice
of life. But the message is not heavy-handed or glum.
The
Mediterranean Biome has a far different, more open, cooler, and more
orderly feel. It looks more like Europe and California and less like
Brazil. Inside, the air is clear, refreshing, and fragrant. It is
redolent of summer plants. You feel you should be seeing the Aegean Sea
in the distance, not the walls of the quarry.
This dome hosts
more than 1,000 species of plants and has exhibits about the
Mediterranean, South Africa, California, fruit, peppers, citrus,
grapevines, olives, cut flowers, and perfume. Among the plants on
display is a small grove of silvery olive trees. No wonder it smells so
sweet and fresh in here. There are red and white grapes and even a
wacky sculpture garden that celebrates Dionysus, the Greek god of wine.
A VISIT TO EDEN
fuels your wanderlust -- it makes you want to leave the city behind and
experience the wilds of Africa and South America firsthand.
The
outdoor gardens, with 1,890 different species, are gorgeous and filled
with temperate crops that provide food and medicine. They are a riot of
color for much of the year and home to a skating rink that gives Eden a
festive feel even in the drab winter months. Already, one major new
building filled with interactive educational exhibits has been added,
and plans for more are being drawn up. Some old farmhouses on the site
are also being renovated for use as a small center for meetings on
pressing environmental issues.
With so much going on, it is no
surprise that most local residents are thrilled with the way the
enterprise turned out, says Peter Clemens, a 57-year-old local farmer
who comes to Eden several times a year to see how the plants are doing.
“The
first time I came was when they laid the foundation stone, before any
of this was here, and it was just a hole in the ground,” says Clemens,
sounding somewhat amazed at the transformation. “The local people used
to come watch this place being built. This place has meant jobs, an
awful lot of jobs -- about 600, 700 jobs -- and that’s just in the
immediate area. Then you have all the people who come down to stay in
hotels and campgrounds. It fills the restaurants; it helps the farms
because we produce the food. It’s done an awful lot for Cornwall.”
GREGORY KATZ is a contributing editor to American Way. His work has also appeared in Esquire and GQ.
If You Go
It
takes four to five hours to reach the Eden Project in St. Austell,
Cornwall, by car or train from London’s Heathrow Airport. There is
ample parking available, and it is easy to get from the train station
at St. Austell to the project. To learn more, go to www.edenproject.com.
It
is also worth taking the time to visit some of the small cities and
towns in the surrounding area. Cornwall has one of England’s loveliest
coastlines, and there is a wide variety of hotels, resorts, and
guesthouses to choose from.
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