Home / Environment / Eden Project Founder's Bold Plan: Rip Up Asphalt for Veggie Gardens
Eden Project Founder's Bold Plan: Rip Up Asphalt for Veggie Gardens
17 May
Summary
- Urging councils to replace asphalt with community gardens for youth.
- Chelsea Flower Show garden to inspire home growing and council templates.
- Focus on heritage fruit and vegetable varieties nearing extinction.
Tim Smit, a co-founder of the Eden Project, is advocating for local councils to create community gardens by removing asphalt from urban areas, enabling young people to grow vegetables. Smit has designed an "edimental" garden for the Chelsea Flower Show, intended to inspire individuals to cultivate their own fruits and vegetables and to provide a template for councils.
His initiative also highlights the importance of preserving heritage plant varieties, many of which are now on the verge of extinction due to a focus on high-yield crops. Smit, who previously revitalized Cornwall's Lost Gardens of Heligan, believes these gardens are fundamental and life-changing, not merely a lifestyle choice.
The "edimental" garden will later be permanently relocated to the Eden Project Morecambe, becoming part of a community learning space. Smit hopes to counter the perception of gardening as 'twee' and inspire a new generation to connect with the outdoors and plant cultivation, addressing the difficulty young people face in accessing land.
