Spring 2015 | Issue 25 | £3

Invisible You – The Human MicrobiomePeople, plants, planet and PukkaThe Eden Degree Storytelling at Eden

Inside this issue...

Spring is sprung – in Cornwall at least. The primroses are providing a welcome flash of colour in the hedgerows and the daffodils are lolling about enthusiastically in the sunshine (and showers).

If that weren’t enough to inspire you to get outside, then in this issue you will find all sorts of excuses to – our horticulture highlights section has been revamped by Shirley Walker, who guides you through what to see and where to see it at Eden this spring, and we take a look at the astonishing range of places that communities have turned into thriving gardens and nature reserves. Our reviews section is bursting with books to inspire you to get outside and grow, visit gardens, and generally make the most of the great British landscape.

We also take a look at how Eden’s work with communities is flourishing. Pam Horton brings us up to date on the Big Lottery-funded Big Lunch Extras programme and Karen Dawkins describes how Eden has

been helping Par Bay transform itself through the Big Local.

If interiors are more your thing, then Celine Holman’s fascinating piece on the Human Microbiome explores another kind of flora – gut flora as she describes the process and pieces grown, extracted and expelled in the name of art for our forthcoming Human Microbiome exhibition supported by the Wellcome Trust.

On a similar theme, our partners Pukka explain their ethos, how modern diets have adversely affected our health and how herbs can help rebalance the equation.

We also find the point at which the two cultures truly blur, with a selection of images from the Wellcome Image Awards which are on display here at Eden – prepare to be amazed.

RobLowe Editor

Spring 2015 Issue 25

Front cover: Eden Eclipsed, Emily

Whitfield-Wicks.

Back cover: Rogan Brown's Cut Microbe from

the new Invisible You exhibit at Eden.

Eden Magazine is published by

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EdenProject,Bodelva,StAustell

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All profits from this magazine go to the charitable

work of the Eden Trust.

TheEdenTrust,

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Contact +44 (0)1726 811932

Editor

RobLowe

Assistant Editor

MikePetty

Design

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Printed locally by

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Pictured: Rogan Brown drafting the 'Cut Microbe'

Regulars

4 News

6 Horticulturalhighlights

27 TheEdenCrossword

28 Reviews

30 Diary

Features

8 InvisibleYou–TheHumanMicrobiomeCélineHolman

12 StorytellingatEdenDianaMullis

14 People,plants,planetandPukkaNeilFox

16 TheEdenDegreeCharlotteRussell

18 Inspiringpeople,changingplacesPamHorton

21 GrowingplacesRobLowe

24 CapturingthebreathtakingrichesofscienceRobLowe

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Hot on the heels of yet another successful Eden Marathon, Sunday 10 May will see the first riders take part in the Eden Classic sportive. Three different routes of 35 miles, 62 miles and 100 miles all give cyclists the chance to pedal past our world-famous biomes before ascending the steep hairpin bends of the Eden site. The longest route

Eden Classic sportive

www.edenproject.com/visit-us/whats-on/other-activities/eden-classic-sportive-cycling-event

Energy IslandCornwall is a windy southern peninsula with a backbone of granite. It’s blessed with some of the best renewable energy resources in the world. With solar, wind, biomass, marine and geothermal combined, we should be able to generate more than enough power for ourselves, and become a net exporter. These riches give us choices: how do we balance the interests of local and global investors, efficiency and

visual intrusion, and manage demand while keeping as many of the benefits as possible in the county? Along with our natural riches, Cornwall also has an enlightened council and Local Enterprise Partnership, and some £1bn to spend before 2020 on wealth creating projects and infrastructure. If we can’t build an energy system fit for purpose here, then we really are in trouble. In partnership with BuroHappold , and sponsored by Solarcentury and Rehau, 160 delegates explored these choices at a two-day invitation-only conference at Eden on 16th and 17th March. Using software especially built by BuroHappold for the conference, delegates built energy scenarios for the county that would keep the lights on, and then overnight analysis was carried out to see how effective our choices were. After drinks and a slap up dinner in the Rainforest Biome, sponsored by Solarcentury, delegates returned in the morning to bed their visions into reality, and to come up with some possible projects. The overwhelming conclusion of the conference was that we don’t need permission from anyone to get one with this, just leadership from within the county. Watch this space!

features over 2,433 metres of climbing and all routes will include a stop at Heligan. Delivered in partnership with Tempus Leisure, the sportive is set to become a fixture on the cycling calendar.

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Plans have been submitted to Cornwall council for a mid-range 115 bed hotel on the Eden Project site. The £6 million building has been designed to blend into the surrounding countryside and will feature high standards of accessibility, energy-efficiency and sustainability. The hotel, which would be funded by the private sector, is designed on simple lines. The timber-clad structure would be similar in style to Eden’s Foundation Building which sits outside of the main visitor area.

The hotel will help Eden to sustain its business year-round. As David Harland, Eden Executive Director explained: ‘The proposed hotel is intended to support Eden’s activities, its educational aspirations, its existing and future conference events, weddings, and the annual Eden Sessions series of concerts.’ The hotel will also enable Eden’s on-site partners, the Building Research Establishment’s National Solar Centre and Cornwall Sustainable Building Trust’s Green Build Hub, to offer residential training courses.

Getting the year off to a promising start, Eden hosted UnLtd’s Appetite for Change awards in January. Twenty-three food related social enterprises based in the south west came to pitch for funds from UnLtd to support their projects. The award scheme offers three levels of funding depending on how far along the project is. Try Its offer up

Eden Hotel

An Appetite for Change to £500 to test the viability of the idea; Do Its offer up to £5000 to take it to the next level; while Build Its recognise that many social entrepreneurs already have day jobs, by helping to support them as their enterprise grows.

An incredible range of projects came to pitch – as Kate Braithwaite, UnLtd’s Operations director said, UnLtd is deliberately agnostic about the different models of social enterprise. As a result, everything from co-operative box schemes to micro-sized mushroom growers got the chance to show what they could do. The Do It rounds were pitched in the round, giving all the participants a chance to vote (you could also vote for your own project) when the time came. Inevitably there were losers as well as winners, but proving that social enterprises embody different values, when the fourteen Do Its winner were asked if they would donate 10% of their award to support another Do It – several did. The Build It round was held as a panel, and showed just how versatile and inventive social enterprises can be. Winners of the Build It round include Gro-Cycle, which uses coffee grounds – a waste product as far as coffee shops are concerned – to grow shitake mushrooms for local restaurants. Their long-term plans include a new form of social enterprise franchising and more immediately, an e-learning programme to share their knowledge.

UnLtd www.unltd.org.uk

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Horticultural Highlights Spring 2015 (April, May, June)

Cornwall has an international reputation for the beauty of its spring gardens, and Eden is no exception. Wander through the outdoor gardens on a fresh spring day and enjoy British wildflowers at their best in Wild Cornwall and Myth and Folklore. Bluebells, primroses, violets and campion, all vie for your attention, followed by majestic foxgloves and other wildflowers from May to June. Don’t miss the blossoming fruit trees and the beautiful ornamentals in the Japanese Swale behind the Core, and many other spring flowering shrubs across the gardens. In June, the strange but beautiful dragon arum, Dracunculus vulgaris, smells like rotting flesh, but you

can’t help being stopped in your tracks by these unique black and purple flowers.

Hot on the heels of our vibrant tulip display in the Mediterranean Biome come the exotic Persian buttercups, Ranunculus asiaticus – a stunning collection of showy blooms in shades of deepest pink, purple, red, yellow and orange, bred from wild forms found in the eastern Mediterranean and parts of Asia, and used as ornamentals and cut flowers. Our beautiful Madeira cranesbill, Geranium maderense also begins flowering this month, and if you have ever visited the Mediterranean region at this time of year, you will recognize the evocative scent of citrus blossom rising on the warm air. May sees the return of the bird of paradise flowers,

Dracunculus vulgaris Primroses Woad

Berberis darwinii

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Strelitzia reginae – always a great favourite with our visitors. The Romans are coming to the Mediterranean Biome from May onwards - step back in time more than 2000 years and learn the secrets of a Roman vegetable garden. You will find mixed, informal beds of plants used for food, medicines, dyes, perfumes and for religious shrines and ceremonies. Roman physician Diocorides, and Roman writer Pliny, will tell you more!

Venture into the steamy jungles of the Rainforest Biome in April and you will be well rewarded. Native to the tropical forests of the Philippines, the stunning jade vine, Strongylodon macrobotrys, is in bloom, with its pendant trusses of turquoise, claw-shaped flowers – a sight not to be missed! June is the month when the

rainforest literally goes ‘bananas’, with many exciting varieties coming into flower and fruit.

Finally, take a little time out this spring to explore the many pleasures of the outer estate, where the heady scents of blackthorn and hawthorn hang heavy in the air. In Wild Chile, the Berberis darwinii is ‘on fire’ with orange blooms, and new life is bursting forth all around you.

Shirley Walker

Wild Banana

Woad

Berberis darwinii Jade Vine

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The Human Microbiome is the term used to describe the community of microbes, comprising bacteria, fungi and viruses that live on and in every one of us. These trillions of creatures outnumber our cells 10:1, and in the main work together to keep us healthy – whether it’s the bacteria in the gut helping to digest our food or the microbes on our skin working to keep it soft.

The new permanent exhibition, supported by the Wellcome Trust, will form a comprehensive story of your inner microbial community, exploring what it is, what it does and what this means to your health. Eleven artists have been commissioned to highlight the compelling elements of this unfolding story. A totally new subject matter for Eden, this was an opportunity to pursue new methods of engagement whilst preserving Eden’s core values.

Eden has always used storytelling, theatre and poetry to engage its audience in sometimes complex topics. On site this manifests itself as interactive exhibits, witty signage and playful automata. Using humour and

participation, Eden approaches people with the familiar, making connections through commonality. It seeks to enthral all the senses, creating awe and inspiration. It was essential the commissioned artworks reflected this.

Rebecca D. Harris is an artist who works predominantly with textiles, exploring the body, in particular how it is perceived medically and socially. ‘Symbiosis’ is a hand-embroidered figure of a pregnant woman, where a multitude of coloured French knots depict the microbes that live on our skin. It will highlight how inside the womb the baby’s environment is sterile. It’s an incredibly tactile piece, demonstrating great craft and skill. It’s ubiquitous, domestic and approachable.

When you look at it closely, you can see the hours of painstaking work stitching thousands of individual knots. This sense of human endeavour

is also present in Rogan Brown’s paper sculpture ‘Cut Microbe’. Layer upon layer of hand-cut paper forms an intricate pattern to reveal the outlines of an E-coli. Escheria coli are the most studied single-celled bacteria. They are neither good nor bad and are present in the human gut. Rogan’s work explores the repeated motifs within organic forms whether large or small; from the microscopic to the macroscopic, his work seeks to reflect the immense complexity and intricacy of nature. Inspired by scientific drawings and models, he blurs the boundaries between observational study and artistic interpretation.

The extraordinary nature of the microbial world is sometimes hard to visualise. It is an intangible, unseen world where sometimes the truth really is stranger than fiction. Aimee Lax’s sculptures encapsulate this idea of ‘other-worldliness’, that sometimes reality is closer to science fiction! For ‘Invisible You’ Aimee has created close to a hundred handmade porcelain bacteriophages, depicted attacking an infectious cell made of acrylic glass. Imperceptible to the human eye, these tiny viruses resemble a cross between a spacecraft and an insect. Bacteriophages could,

Invisible You – The Human MicrobiomeCéline Holman, Project Manager

The Eden Project has previously explored all kinds of ecosystems, but until now one has been missing: the invisible community of the body to keep us healthy – whether it’s the bacteria in the gut helping to digest our food or the microbes on our skin working to keep it soft.

‘The oblique nature of an artwork can sometimes illuminate a deeply sensitive and difficult scientific topic.’ Lisa Jamieson, Head of Engaging Science at the Wellcome Trust

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in the future, be engineered as an alternative to antibiotics.

Owl’n’wolf’s animation ‘Bellyvision apparatus and the like’ uses the visual language and conventions of TV shows to explore a selection of stories from across our body’s microbial community. It uses familiar narratives to convey complex scientific notions. It depicts the microbial world that exists in (and on) our bodies as a microcosm of the

human world, comparing the complex and diverse communities and systems of our microbes, to our very own society. It’s mischievous, funny and sometimes irreverent.

Where Owl’n’wolf uses television as a metaphor, Paul Spooner represents the body as a complex machine. One of Eden’s favourite local automata artists, Paul Spooner has over the years created, many of our best-known exhibits. The ‘Plant Takeaway’ in the

visitor centre is one of Eden’s longest-standing exhibits and his beautifully handcrafted wooden puppets in the Core animate under bell jars. For this exhibition he presents a new interactive mechanical installation that explores stories from inside the mouth and the gut. It invites the viewer to choose a journey through the body, where teeth, stomach, guts and sphincters move and jolt. Paul’s work is theatrical, fusing storytelling, poetry, engineering and craftsmanship.

Eden’s love of the performing arts is also reflected in Bill Wroath’s ‘5e+16’. In collaboration with choreographer Jules Laville, he has created a mass participation dance that explores how bacteria move and communicate. A large community dance project, it involves up to 500 volunteers and culminates in a one-day-event where they all came together to dance and be filmed. Extremely ambitious and bold, it is a powerful piece, engaging a huge number of people across the local community. This participatory aspect is invaluable, as it touched those taking part on a personal level: they are part of the artwork, their bodies depicting their own internal, invisible mechanisms.

Victoria Shennan’s commissioned piece ‘Anthropocene’ is a sound installation created in collaboration with composer Jack Hurst and researcher Dr Linda Long. They have translated both our microbial worlds and the vital enzymes and proteins they produce into sound compositions, mapping this invisible world into an unseen symphony. These musical compositions explore the performances of the body and processes of life at a micro scale, illustrating the rhythms of nature that underpin our existence. A multi-sensory experience, this

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bellybuttons and grown their samples on agar jelly in petri dishes. The resulting photographs represent each individual bellybutton microbiome, each one unique. It questions our notions of identity and challenges our perceptions of being singular and self-contained, purely human.

It has been very exciting to commission artists encompassing such a broad range of media and to explore the scientific content through varying perspectives – personal, aesthetic and conceptual. This selection of ideas and approaches reflects the diversity of Eden’s audience and literally brings a complex subject to life. As Lisa Jamieson, Head of Engaging Science at the Wellcome Trust explains:

‘The oblique nature of an artwork can sometimes illuminate a deeply sensitive and difficult scientific topic.’

Invisible You - the Human Microbiome will be on show from 22 May, in the Core at the Eden Project. www.edenproject.com/human-microbiome

piece seeks to engage audiences both intellectually and emotionally, using music and projection.

Appealing to more than one sense, Anna Dumitriu and Alex May’s digital installation ‘The Human SuperOrganism’ invites viewers to place their hands on a virtual petri dish to reveal the microbes found on the skin. This exhibit uses digital technologies and human interaction to reveal the invisible world that lives on our bodies. Using high-definition video footage, it doesn’t just illustrate the microbial world, but actually presents it to the visitors as seen under the microscope.

There is a growing movement of artists working with real bacteria. They work on the fringes of art and science, finding the crossovers

between both disciplines. For many years, Anna Dumitriu has developed techniques to work with bacteria. Fascinated by microbes, she works in the lab alongside scientists and her pieces feature species such as MRSA and tuberculosis. For this commission, she has created a sculpture whilst in residency with Healthcare Associated Infection Research Group at the University of Leeds. ‘Don’t try this at home’ explores the complex topic of faecal microbiota transplants, a

treatment of long-term infections caused by the superbug Clostridium difficile. An enigmatic piece, it uses real bacteria trapped on to textiles, fragments of calico embedded in agar and inoculated with the gut bacteria.

‘What fascinates me about microbiology is that it’s this strange

invisible world, it’s a sublime world. I think it’s related to aesthetics and to viscerally how we feel,’ says Anna.

It was essential for Eden to present these microorganisms as real living creatures. Mellissa Fisher’s sculptures are made from casts of her own face. The microbes of her skin, caught on the agar, start growing, making the invisible visible. A living sculpture, it evolves over time, more and more organisms growing, finally taking over the sculpture completely. It not only helps to visualise the unseen, but also reflects upon the cycles of life.

Are we what we think we are? What is our self? For her series ‘The Bellybutton Portraits’, Joana Ricou has swabbed 12 individual

Left: Symbosis, Rebecca D. Harris. Right: The Bellybutton Portraits, César / Nuno, Joana RicouPrevious page: Microbiological Portrait, Mellissa Fisher

‘They’re not blemishes on our skin, they’re actually embellishments, they’re something beautiful and they are something positive.’ Rebecca D. Harris, Artist

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Storytelling, not quite the oldest profession in the world but almost, weaves itself like a magical thread helping us make sense of our world. Everyone has a story to tell, everyone is a storyteller.

As I write this, I understand that my words are born of my own perception, of my own interpretation, and that is the most mesmerising aspect of storytelling: no two people will interpret a story in the same way. How wonderful to have something in our grasp that gives us that much freedom, that much spontaneity.

My Eden story began when I was invited 13 years ago to inhabit part of the developing landscape we know as ‘Myth and Folklore’. I came as a freelance storyteller and folklorist and my first few days were spent with Richard Good, then a member of the Performance Team. Richard and I met as storytellers often do, recognising the power our craft has to explore how people see and feel about their lives and their place in our world. Wearing timeless costumes that depicted the very ‘Once Upon a Time’ we wanted to create, we told stories to visitors who left ‘Myth and Folklore’ not knowing why they felt different but just knowing that they did. I know this because they wanted to talk about it afterwards.

A great number of visitors never experience the wonder of sitting and listening to a storyteller. Why? Because they think it is something children do. Storytelling is for children! Of course, for many children, not all, this is where the imagination develops. But throughout my work I have stood beside adults from the corporate world, managers,

executives, leaders and seen the sudden realisation that storytelling reconnects them with a time and place that has been lying dormant but which needs to be remembered to enable them to embrace their own truths.

For me, some of the most poignant moments came during my work with Great Day Out, an Eden programme which offered adults who, for whatever reason, had been expelled from and rejected by society, the chance to spend a day at Eden. Offenders, addicts, homeless folk who, believe me, had the most heartfelt and moving stories to tell. Initially presenting attitudes ranging from complacency to aggressiveness, these people visibly

changed during the first few lines of Sleeping Beauty. What is it about a princess who pricks her finger on a spindle that makes an intimidating male ex-con cry? What is it about a lazy tailor who makes a story out of a button that releases something in a dementia patient who hasn’t spoken a word for four months and start to tell her story? These are different

demographics but the one thing that unites them is the power of storytelling.

But this word storytelling isn’t just about ‘Once Upon a Time’, it’s also about the conversations we have with each other. The secrets we share that help us understand each other. It’s about the passing of information within a narrative that helps us remember facts and important issues. It’s about conflict resolution. Think of some of the most famous stories in the world and I am sure Cinderella is up there somewhere; stories can mirror our own journeys and life experiences. From Frodo in Lord of the Rings to Homer’s Odyssey, from Adam and Eve

Storytelling at EdenDiana Mullis, Storyteller

Since Eden opened its heart to Cornwall and the wider world 14 years ago, it has told stories. As we continue to celebrate its very own wonder tale I look back at the storytelling culture we have nurtured and the twists and turns that inevitably create chapter after chapter.

What is it about a princess who pricks her finger on a spindle that makes an intimidating male ex-con cry?

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to Sherlock Holmes, they all have their stories to tell.

Colleagues have asked me why I tell the fairy tales, what has Beauty and the Beast got to do with Eden? Very little directly, but fairy tales open people’s hearts; ‘Once Upon a Time’ gives us permission to let go, and when hearts are open other things can be let in. People become receptive to important messages and perhaps change something. Behavioural change can’t always be evaluated, but it often takes place nonetheless.

I often ask people to imagine a world without stories. It cannot exist. It just can’t. Whilst pressing the keys on their games consoles, children tell me, they wouldn’t miss stories...well there go their games for a start.

At Eden there is a story around every corner, and for the past six years, every single day at 12 and 2 pm with very few exceptions, a storyteller has arrived in the Citrus Grove in the Med Biome to tell a tale. The teller, in story coat with staff in hand, commands the space in such a way that people stop talking. Their hearts start to beat to a different tune. Their mouths drop open, not to eat their lunch but to be fed by the wisdom and wonder of the traditional craft of oral storytelling.

Eden has been one of the very few visitor destinations, if not the only one, which offer daily storytelling. But others are following; storytelling has become ‘trendy’. This is wonderful, but Eden needs to continue to be innovative and set the bar to deliver the unique and best. This September we open our doors to students from

all over the UK who want to study, experience and deliver the art of storytelling. During their year’s study of a Higher National Diploma in Performance, Storytelling and Interpretation, they will explore its development since the beginning of time, its relevance in a progressive society, its conceptual digital application, and where they personally want to take it in their own lives.

It’s an exciting time as a new structure for our storytellers takes shape and it is our hope that students, collaborating with Cornwall College and Plymouth University, join us to take storytelling alongside performance in its many genres into a very effective and dynamic future.

No one is too young or too old, we share tears and laughter. I’ve always said that if a story I tell makes someone cry then I have done my job well. And there have been many tears. I hear the most extraordinary stories from our visitors, and this is when we form relationships with each other. People have been born, loved ones have died, and everything is all right because it all matters.

A storyteller has to be all things to all men. He or she is the teller, the listener, the mystic, the orator, many things, but never the judge. Someone once said that you can never judge someone without knowing their story. This is a quote carried in the pockets and notebooks of many social workers and people in the caring professions. A storyteller has to read every single member of the audience, being able to discern sensitivities from their body

language and facial expressions. They have to know how to discourage the heckler – and I’ve a had a few – from spoiling the experience for others. I have often spoken to a visitor having realised I have struck a nerve when telling about a death or a difficult issue. These are the hardest things, but everyone’s stories include them and it’s why the Brothers Grimm in the 19th century collected stories that didn’t always end up ‘happily ever after’. Storytellers have to take responsibility for what they are offering. It is a gift but one that needs nurturing and careful delivery.

It is not our intention at Eden to make people feel uncomfortable, they don’t come to be sad, to be reduced to tears, but it is our intention to change things, to change behaviour, and storytelling can do this without preaching. A story is a vessel in which to carry information, to carry a message. The messages are very often subtle, and an effective story, the right story at the right time, is a powerful tool. The Rainforest stories given to me by elders of the Takuna tribe in Colombia are harsh and can be cruel, but the fate of the rainforest is harsh and cruel and the truth in the stories serve as a testament to the responsibility we should feel. Landscapes evoke memories, smells, touch, and emotions jump for joy when we ‘remember’. So let’s trust the story.

I feel privileged to have been given the opportunity to be a part of such an honourable tradition. It is at the heart of the spirit that is the Eden Project.

We are all part of this story. We are all characters in this magical wonder tale.

Thank you for listening to my story.

Storytelling, not quite the oldest profession in the world but almost, weaves itself like a magical thread helping us make sense of our world.

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Most people know Pukka for our herbal teas. You can buy them in almost every major supermarket and independent retailer in the UK and increasingly around the world. From our HQ in Bristol, we’re on a mission to help people discover the wonders of incredible organic herbs and their ability to help people lead healthier and happier lives.

It’s an area of knowledge everyone used to know about – go back a generation or two and your mother/grandmother/great-grandmother knew all about the benefits and uses of many amazing plants. But for most of us today this knowledge has faded away. Pukka are here to make a positive change – helping people to rediscover the beauty, deliciousness

and benefit of herbs.The Eden Project reflects our own

view that connecting people, plants and planet can benefit all. It’s even how all of our stories and content on our website are structured. So we thought we’d explain a bit about Pukka in this way – showing how Eden and Pukka are on the same journey.

PeoplePukka was started by two people – Tim and Sebastian – who shared a vision that organic herbs could play a much greater role in our health and wellbeing. From small beginnings in Tim’s bedroom and Sebastian’s kitchen, Pukka now sells over 25 million cups of organic herbal tea a month around the world across 34 different delicious varieties. What’s more, with over 45 health supplements, Pukka is intent on bringing the scientific wisdom of traditional herbal medicine to help inspire healthier lives. And as the business and numbers of teas grow so do the number of people discovering the wonder of herbs.

Pukka believe passionately in creating a sustainable business based on ethical practices. For over 15 years we have developed relationships with our growers and farmers across the globe – pioneering standards of production and supporting social and ecological standards like Fairtrade and its less well-known cousin FairWild. It ensures that organic herbs – many of which are harvested from the wild

People, plants, planet and PukkaNeil Fox, Creative Director, Pukka Herbs

Introducing a new partnership between two ethical and pioneering organisations – Eden and Pukka Herbs. In the Avenue of Senses in Eden’s Outdoor Garden we are building a new exhibit in partnership with Pukka that matches their beautifully designed tea boxes. So we asked them if they could tell us a little more about their purpose and philosophy.

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– can be produced sustainably and in a way that ensures a fair price is paid directly to the grower. It’s all about creating virtuous circles – where everyone gains from the process.

PlantsPukka create their 34 tea blends and 47 supplements from over 175 different plants – every one 100% certified organic. Next to the new exhibit at Eden a bed is planted with just some of these incredible herbs – each one showing where it comes from and its use. The story of our use of plants is fascinating – and has implications for our health today.

Until about 100 years ago people used to eat over 100 species of plants regularly, but for most us today it’s down to between 10 and 20. This means we are exposed to far less of nature’s phytochemical health-soup everyday. Because the variety of plants and herbs in our diet has radically diminished we are no longer bathing our cells in the spectrum of plant-life that has helped shield our species throughout our evolution.

There was a wonderful study illustrating the benefits of a broader plant-based diet carried out a couple

of years ago by the perfectly named Professor Blanchflower; it showed how our happiness is directly connected with the amount of vegetables we eat, peaking at about seven a day.

The work of Paul Clayton and Judith Rowbotham, describing how our diets have declined in nutritional diversity since the 1870s when chronic disease rates were 90% lower than today, also exemplifies the value of diversity. One way of broadening our nutritional horizons is including more of the less well-known plants in our diet, such as those used in the herbal tradition like liquorice, lemon balm, and lime flower. For example, a cup of herbal tea with all its delicious essential oils, colourful pigments and tastiness has the approximate equivalent benefit of half a portion of vegetables.

The ability that plants have to protect themselves from invading microbes and extreme climates is remarkable. That these same qualities can help our life flourish is plain common sense. Just as the spicy compounds that you can find in ginger, tulsi, or turmeric help the plant flourish, they also interact with our whole mental-emotional-immune network to optimise our response to

just about everything. They can help stop a virus replicating, they can kick-start our nervous system to ameliorate pain, they can lift our mood when we feel threatened. As they interact with our genes, cells, tissues, organs and spirit, plants literally help us to influence our destiny. Plants really are incredible.

PlanetPukka is intent on respecting our interdependence with this beautiful planet. And, like everyone at Eden, we want to help celebrate as well as educate about how important it is to work together to care for the environment. From being carbon neutral to initiating FairWild herb collection projects that also help preserve the Great Pied Hornbill – a majestic bird that lives in the Bibhitaki tree in India’s Western Ghats – our purpose is all about helping create a Pukka Planet. You can watch a fascinating film about this story on our site.

Our new exhibition at Eden is in the Avenue of Senses in the Outdoor Gardens – which is perfect because everything we do emanates from the senses. From the delicious taste of the tea, to the exotic scents of herbs such as ginger and mint, star anise and cinnamon, we hope this exhibit inspires you to develop a sense of adventure all about herbs and rediscover their amazing properties as part of your next inspiring visit to Eden.

Pictured above: The wonderfully beautiful Echinacea flower – a perfect support for winter wellness.

Pictured: Tim Westwell and Sebastian Pole – Pukka’s founders. Sebastian is Pukka’s master herbsmith and qualified herbalist.

Pukka Herbs: www.pukkaherbs.com Pukka Planet Film: www.pukkaherbs.com/pukka-planet/stories/pukka/fairwild-2014

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It has been a long-held ambition and part of the plan since the dawn of Eden – to create an extraordinary classroom for both formal and informal education for all ages; school children, undergraduates, apprentices, lifelong learners. For anyone, in fact, whose curiosity might be sparked by the Living Theatre of Plants and People.

Following the launch of our successful apprenticeship programme in 2014, undergraduates will arrive this September to study horticulture in what must be one of the most diverse environments in the world, with an opportunity to learn about plants and ecosystems from across the globe.

The unique offer for students is the combination of highly respected teachers from Cornwall College’s Horticultural Institute, Rosewarne, plus Eden’s practical experts to give first-hand knowledge of commercial horticulture and the stewardship of one of the country’s greatest gardens.

In addition, working with other horticultural partners, particularly

Heligan and Tresco, students will have the opportunity for placements and experience in some of the most special places in Cornwall.

As well as degrees in Horticulture and Landscape Design, we are offering two other university programmes which are attracting considerable interest both locally and nationally: Event Management and Performance, and Interpretation and Storytelling.

The entire higher education programme has been developed in partnership with the Cornwall College

Group and all degrees will be awarded by Plymouth University.

The links between the three courses we are offering may not be immediately obvious, but they are all facets of Eden – telling stories, providing experiences and engaging people in our complex living world. The vibrancy of our events, the storytellers in the Biomes and the ever-changing landscape of the plants all combine to create memorable moments for our visitors.

What better place to learn about practical events management? Students will be able to work on real events, with real challenges of time management, budgets and the unforeseen circumstances which plague all organisers: weather, media, prima donna performers or world events, to name a few.

With the wide range of events at Eden, from weddings and conferences

The Eden DegreeCharlotte Russell,

Head of Learning Partnerships

On a grey autumn day, the prospect of a morning in West Africa followed by an afternoon in the Mediterranean sounds an enticing prospect. For a group of horticulture students, that is exactly how the day might look as Eden opens its doors to undergraduates for the first time.

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to the Sessions or the summer dinosaur season, the students will have an unrivalled opportunity to get behind the scenes and work with expert practitioners.

The performance students will be learning alongside our narrator team, again combining formal teaching sessions with a major emphasis on working within the environment – learning to engage the public with the myriad stories of science and the living world.

The public engagement of science is a significant strand of government policy and Eden has a major role to play – both as an educator and also as a forum for research, working with

academic partners and institutions such as the Wellcome Trust to understand what works.

The development of Eden as a campus will not be without challenges; finding the right combination of spaces for work and play for our learners, apprentices and undergraduates, and the integration with staff and with visitors will all require adjustment and some re-working of space.

In the first couple of years we will rely on temporary facilities including a purpose-built laboratory for science teaching and a studio for the landscape design students. Teaching will take place on site and also down

at Watering Lane Nursery where students will be able to learn about plant production, commercial growing systems and plant health.

As numbers grow, it is envisaged that a new building may be required to house all our students together and create a higher education hub on site. Plans are for 60 students in the first year, rising to more than 200 by year three. Accommodation options for students are already available in both St Austell and Truro and an influx of students will provide a further economic boost for the local community.

An open day held in the spring attracted more than 150 people and there are strong applicants for all courses. Traditionally Cornwall College has found that the majority of students come from Cornwall or the south west but it is already apparent that we are now attracting people from all over the country and it is hoped that there will eventually be a strong international contingent, as the reputation of the campus grows.

Further open days will be held during the summer and autumn and we are looking forward to welcoming our first, pioneering group of students in September.

Complementing the long-established schools programme and the emerging apprenticeship scheme, university students are the last piece in the jigsaw, bringing education right to where it should be – at the heart of Eden.

The links between the three courses we are offering may not be immediately obvious, but they are all facets of Eden – telling stories, providing experiences and engaging people in our complex living world.

To find out more about the Eden Project’s university courses visit: www.edenproject.com/university-courses

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Recognising that this newfound sense of community was the beginning of something, not an end in itself, the Big Lottery funded Big Lunch Extras. Big Lunch Extras (BLE) is designed to inspire, empower and equip some of these people take the next step and start to transform their neighbourhoods for the better. Over 690 people have attended our community camps so far, that’s a lot of people who are interested in making a real difference to their communities.

At the heart of Big Lunch Extras are the events we hold at Eden itself. People from across the UK have attended our community camps, which are intended to be as diverse and enriching as the communities our participants want to transform. Every Big Lunch Extras camp is different – there is no set formula for reinvigorating a community –

it might include sessions like ‘A sense of the outdoors’ and ‘Bees are blooming brilliant’ on green spaces, a community food session by Sustain, the food and farming alliance, or a seminar on funding a project. There’s usually a visit to see an inspiring project such as People & Gardens

and occasionally a trip to the beach to demonstrate team building techniques in action. The idea is to inform and inspire in equal measure. But BLE isn’t just about experts transmitting their knowledge, our participants are experts on their communities and so we ensure they can share their stories, through a dedicated session and also through the networking opportunities which we provide. We aren’t just building community activists, we’re creating a community of people who can help and support each other. And that can make all the difference, as one participant explained: ‘Big Lunch Extras helped me to join forces with other like-minded people. It helped me put on two community projects and gave me loads of ideas for future projects.’

Inspiring people, changing places: how Big Lunch Extras is helping communities to make their neighbourhoods extraordinaryPam Horton, Big Lunch Extras Catalyst Manager

Community is at the heart of what we do at Eden. The Big Lunch was born out of the need to bring communities together – to introduce people to their neighbours. Four years later, a sense of community has been reborn in thousands of streets across the UK as a result of the Big Lunch and the millions of people who make it happen every year.

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But the Eden-hosted Big Lunch Extras events are in fact just the beginning of a bigger programme of community-building initiatives that have evolved over the past two years. What swiftly follows is the next link in the Big Lunch Extras programme: a mixture of tailored advice and regional road shows led by a team of Eden Catalysts, travelling up and down the UK.

It’s an opportunity that our Catalysts regard as a privilege, as Christine said: ‘One of the real pleasures of being a BLE Catalyst is visiting our participants in their own areas of the UK and seeing what they are doing to evolve community in a positive way. It’s truly heart-warming to realise how what we do in the camps

is taken and translated into real activity on the ground.’

Another set of eyes can really help, as Cara, a Big Lunch Extras discovered: ‘The Big Lunch Extras Catalyst visit opened my mind to many possibilities within our community and reinforced that community engagement can be fun and exciting whilst getting information.’

The roadshows are another vital part of the programme, they allow the Big Lunch Extras team to infiltrate the heart of fledgling or floundering communities, and

Alex Hall, East London Alex, manager of a local youth club, came away from Big Lunch Extras bursting with ideas and inspired to do things she, her club and local community wouldn’t have otherwise done. Alex now runs a range of BLE-inspired craft activities in the club’s youth sessions.

Flip Robinson, Northern Ireland Flip runs a co-operative energy scheme in Northern Ireland. Flip returned from the Eden event, impressed by shared community energy project ideas, and went on to develop a community oil-buying project: Future Proof. As well as working with local schools to improve their energy-saving measures, Future Proof approached their local Co-operative supermarket to talk to them about covering their roof with solar panels. The company have also been working with a local community member on a hydro energy scheme on his land. ‘Our Eden visit fuelled us with vision, direction and positive energy. We are inspired and are now able to form a solid plan.’

Anne Quinn, Northern Ireland Anne came from a residents association in Cushendall, Northern Ireland. Before Anne had attended Big Lunch Extras, she had just set up an allotment project which was already benefitting residents. The BLE programme has enabled the project to evolve further. Anne came away from the BLE event with a ‘Can do’ attitude and the confidence to drive forward community building initiatives in her local area: ‘I knew the BLE event would give me more opportunities to network and exchange information and to gain more knowledge which would benefit my community even more.’ Anne applied for funding from the local council in order to decorate a local bus shelter for the Giro Italia cycle race which went through Northern Ireland in May 2014. She also won a £1000 grant through the Lloyds Community Fund to create a stunning community orchard for the local residents.

Alex loved the BLE lantern parade and so ran a similar event just before Christmas.‘Our community often feels unsafe on our streets at night (we unfortunately struggle with gang-related violence) so we wanted to run the parade as a sign of claiming back our streets.’

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target those who want to make a change in their neighbourhoods. Twenty regional roadshows have been held in communities across the UK, all meticulously evaluated and (we’re pleased to report) met with overwhelmingly positive reviews.

Our team of Catalysts do an incredibly exhaustive and rewarding job maintaining contact with their participants across the regions through roadshows, telephone, email, social media and the online community chat area on the Big Lunch Extras website. The team thrives on the knowledge that their work continues to produce positive results for communities.

The feedback we’ve had suggests that the Big Lunch Extras programme raises confidence in participants; confidence to inspire and enable positive change within communities. Research gathered over the past two years has shown that 98%of our participants have taken some proactive community-building steps

Helen Gotts, The Wirral A former teacher, Helen joined the Big Lunch Extras programme because she wanted to continue to work with young people in the community. Helen came away with ideas to engage communities as well as more practical information about running projects. Some of this came from speaking to others and finding out how other participants had managed to accomplish what she wanted to achieve: ‘Big Lunch Extras helped immensely in the

sense that it clarified my ideas about changing my community.’ Clarification led to a desire to work with young people with mental health difficulties and set up a social enterprise scheme in her local area. She attended the camp in July, and in August, she officially registered ‘Grow Sow Well’ as a community interest company which uses community gardening to help improve the health and wellbeing of the community – particularly young people.

following a Big Lunch Extras Camp, from researching and sharing their ideas to setting up a social enterprise. Ninety-three percent of participants say that Big Lunch Extras has helped them in their community initiatives. Eighty percent of those surveyed have gone on to do something new and progressive within their communities as a result of joining the programme – a sign that real social capital is being generated.

There are a further two BLE events scheduled for May and July in 2015.

In March we delivered a pilot Youth event targeting 16-25 year-olds with participants from across the UK. The BLE team is still looking for enthusiastic individuals from across the UK who are keen to create positive community change where they live.

To find out more visit: www.biglunchextras.com

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Set up on a small part of the 300-hectare site, the garden is run by a group called Allemande Kontor – Allemande is a medieval term meaning ‘common’ in German. Allemande Kontor runs the Tempelhof garden on behalf of its members, who have eagerly made use of the space. Conceived as a temporary or ‘meanwhile’ use of the space, the site was leased until 2016. As a

result, members could only grow in containers so that the garden could be shifted once plans to redevelop the airport had been agreed. There were also safety concerns about digging over the ground at Tempelhof because of the possibility of unexploded wartime bombs.

There are over 300 gardens and 650 people are growing at Tempelhof now. Between the runways are boxes

and beds made from everything from furniture to old records. The Tempelhof gardeners pride themselves on the diversity of their members – Turks, Arabs, Asians and Europeans from the surrounding neighbourhoods all add to the mix – and the diversity of the crops, which include heirloom varieties like purple potatoes. The site now has a stage and a ‘town square’ where a bicycle repairman has set up shop in a caravan and people regularly gather to socialise and eat. Bigger than New York’s Central Park, the site as a whole has become one of the city’s vital green spaces despite the threat of redevelopment.

Closer to home and even closer to the sky, the Food from the Sky Project in London’s Crouch End colonised the roof of a local supermarket to grow vegetables. The owner of the supermarket at that time, Andrew Thornton, not only gave the group permission to grow, but also sold their produce in the store below – possibly the shortest distance between field and fork imaginable. Unfortunately, repairs to the roof have meant that Food from the Sky came to earth with a bump. But the pioneering spirit behind the project continues – the team have relocated south of the river and are setting up an urban farm on terra firma.

Community green spaces can help create a sense of identity and provide a community with a shared sense of purpose and pride in what they’ve achieved, even when some of that community is relatively new to the

Growing placesRob Lowe

Berlin’s Tempelhof airport is famous for its role in the Berlin Airlift of 1948-9, during which time allied aircraft delivered well over 2m tons of much-needed supplies to beat the Russian blockade. Today, Tempelhof is no longer an airport – it was decommissioned in 2008 – but it still has a reputation for bringing food to Berlin. The former airport is now Berlin’s biggest community garden.

Photo credit : Kilfinan Community Forest

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area. The Killarney Asylum Seekers Initiative (KASI) in the Republic of Ireland has provided a social space where asylum seekers living in the area can meet the local community and exchange ideas, skills and recipes. KASI gardens offers everyone training sessions in organic gardening, healthy eating and cooking on a budget. It has also produced two cookbooks containing recipes from the whole community.

In some cases green spaces can offer the opportunity for part of the community to share what makes it unique with everyone else. Every weekend during the summer months, Berlin’s Preußenpark becomes Thai Park, where the city’s Thai community gather to eat amazing Thai meals from around 30 vendors who serve them from picnic blankets – anyone who takes their Thai food seriously turns up.

Community green spaces are often blank canvases for communities. The initial ambition may be nothing more than clearing or tidying some neglected land, but once that’s done, the real work begins. In 1999 a group of residents from Hulme in Manchester’s inner city set about clearing a patch of wasteland by hand to provide the area with a public green space. That wasteland is now home to Hulme Community Garden Centre – a fully stocked garden centre and nursery which uses its profits to support its community work. Unlike many commercial garden centres, Hulme encourage people to make the most of the gardens, which are used for a range of activities and events, including a regular Parent Toddler group and the rather racy sounding Fifty Shades of Potato. The centre has over 15,000 visitors a year and operates as a volunteer hub, seeing

around 100 volunteers a week. Around 3,000 people participate every year in their training sessions, workshops and events, which include everything from an Amenity Horticulture

course designed to help young people into work, to a Forest Schools taster session. Determined to ensure the community is at the heart of what they do, Hulme Community Garden Centre are now busy creating a new part of the garden with the help of the local community which will be open all day, every day.

Transforming a patch of land into a community green space can be daunting, but some communities have taken on even bigger challenges – managing woodlands. The first community woodland in the UK, Wooplaw was the idea of Tim Stead. A wood sculptor and furniture maker, he wanted to replace some of the oak, elm, and ash trees he had used in his work. With the help of organisations like Reforesting Scotland, WWF and the Countryside Commission, the woods were purchased on behalf of the community. There are now around 200 community forests in Scotland alone.

Community woodlands offer more than just recreation for their local inhabitants, they can really help a community thrive. In 2010, the community of Kilfinan on the west coast of Scotland purchased its local forest from the Scottish Forestry Commission. The Kilfinan Community Forest Company (KCFC)

was founded in 2010 as a charity to manage the 127-hectare woodlands with the aim of creating a ‘working forest’. With 200 members and four full-time staff, KCFC trades timber

and runs workshops, but its plans to expand have just received a boost thanks to a £750k lottery grant which will enable them to purchase a further 434 hectares. The expansion means that their plans to make the forest a treasured and used resource are now sustainable, thanks to income from managing the woodland – and the resulting timber trade. KCFC plan to create forest walks, bike tracks and camping areas, as well as a training centre for forest management.

Not every neighbourhood has wasteland ready for renovation, forests to buy, or rooftops for growing, but as a recent book, Edgelands, has shown, there is land at the margins of all sorts of industrial and commercial businesses that could be put to good use. In some cases these are already home to more wildlife than the heart of the countryside, others need more help. When a factory in West Yorkshire decided to expand and bought some land backing on to a river, one seven-acre strip was identified as a potential car park by factory employee Andrew Clark, but a quick chat with the project engineer yielded a better idea: create a nature reserve. The idea was put to the local community and with the help of the factory and some other funding, Urban Wilderness was created.

Bigger than New York’s Central Park, the Tempelhof site has become one of the city’s vital green spaces despite the threat of redevelopment.

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Twenty-five years later, Andrew is still involved and the reserve is home to all sorts of creatures, has its own education centre (where Spider Club is run for kids) and around 5,000 people visit every year.

Green spaces can transform a community. The physical transformation of a space by the people that live there can also change how those people view themselves as a community. Bringing people together, sharing ideas, tasks and stories can give a neighbourhood a new sense of identity and a shared purpose.

Tempelhof was only ever meant to

be a temporary home for Allemande Kontor – the city council’s long-term plan was to build much-needed homes for Berlin’s increasing population – and when the lease came up Allemande Kontor would up sticks (and containers) and find somewhere else to grow.

But it turned out that not everyone wanted Tempelhof to become another housing estate. As the deadline approached, a campaign began called 100% Tempelhof. A petition was circulated which triggered a referendum over the site’s future. Sixty five percent of Berlin’s

population voted for Tempelhof to remain as a green space for the city. And the vote wasn’t just carried in the local neighbourhood which used the site most frequently, it was won in every one of the city’s twelve districts.

So, it might just seem like a nice thing to do – grow things, have a space to meet and share things, food, stories, skills – but a community green space is also a physical manifestation of community spirit and intent: this is our community, our place, welcome.

For more information on setting up a community garden visit: www.biglunchextras.com/resources/plant-community-garden

Community green spaces can help create a sense of identity and provide a community with a shared sense of purpose and pride in what they’ve achieved.

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View the images online: www.wellcomeimageawards.org

The Wellcome Image Awards were established in 1997 to reward contributors to the Wellcome Trust’s image collection. The collection holds over 40,000 biomedical and clinical images.

The winning photograph was taken by Michael Frank and shows a specimen from the Lanyon Anatomy Museum of the Royal Veterinary

College in London. Described by Sir Tim Smit as ‘hypnotic, like a Hieronymus Bosch painting…only it is real and truly marvellous’, the image captures the preserved uterus of a New Forest pony, approximately five months into the pregnancy, with the developing foetus still attached.

Entry to the exhibition is included in Eden’s admission price.

Capturing the breathtaking riches of science: the Wellcome Image Awards exhibition comes to the Eden ProjectRob Lowe

Harnessed to its blood supply, a horse foetus floats beyond its mother’s uterus; an old woman’s spine curves like an overripe fruit; a galaxy of pollen spins off a stamen – these are just a few of the twenty startling and beguiling images that can be viewed at the Eden Project until 29 May as part of this year’s Wellcome Image Awards. The Eden Project is one of 11 science centres, museums and galleries worldwide to host the exhibition.

“The breathtaking riches of the imagery that science generates are so important in telling stories about research and helping us to understand often abstract concepts. It’s not just about imaging the very small, either: it’s about understanding life, death, sex and disease, the cornerstones of drama and art. Once again, the Wellcome Image Awards celebrate all of this and more with this year’s incredible range of winning images.” Scientist and broadcaster Adam Rutherford, presenter of this year’s awards.

The exhibition can be found on the Mezzanine in the Core Building and runs until Friday May 29, 2015.

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1: Pregnant pony uterus, Michael Frank, Royal Veterinary College Photograph of a pregnant uterus (womb) from a New Forest pony, approximately five months into the pregnancy. The developing pony (fetus) is outside the uterus but remains attached by its membranes. Its vast blood supply can be seen on the inner surface of the uterus.

2: Purkinje cell, Professor M Häusser, Sarah Rieubland and Arnd Roth, UCL Scanning electron micrograph of tree-like branches spreading out from a particular type of nerve cell (Purkinje cell) found in the brain. These finger-like projections act like tiny sensors, picking up information and passing on messages to help control muscle movement.

3: Mouse brain, Luis de la Torre-Ubieta, Geschwind Laboratory, UCLA Confocal micrograph of nerve cells inside an adult mouse brain. The brain has been sliced (like a loaf of bread), and a piece that’s 0.75 mm thick is seen here. Nerve cells found at different depths are colour coded from red (nearest) to orange, yellow, purple, blue and green as you look into the image.

4: Chemical reactions in the kidney, Jefferson R Brown, Robert E Marc, Bryan W Jones, Glen Prusky and Nazia Alam Colour-coded map of part of a mouse kidney as it breaks down food to make energy. This is done through a large set of chemical reactions (metabolism) and is needed for cells to survive. Three of the chemicals produced by some of these reactions (coloured red, blue and green) are seen here.

5: Newly discovered parasitoid wasp, Andrew Polaszek, Natural History Museum Bird’s-eye view of a tiny wasp that lays its eggs inside other insects. After hatching, the larvae feed on the host insect, eating it alive from the inside out. This is a newly discovered subset of wasp from the rainforests of Borneo: it measures only 0.75 mm in length and has unusual antennae, legs and wings.

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One Magic Square exhorts you to get stuck in – its first instruction is to stop reading and get digging. If you do as you’re told then you’re rewarded with the revelation that that bit of spadework makes you a real gardener.

As you’ll have guessed, One Magic Square is not a conventional gardening book. It covers climate change, store-cupboards, rules on seed collection and to its credit is one of the few books of its kind to acknowledge that finding time to

The Flower Farmer’s YearGeorgie Newbery (Green Books, £19.99)

One Magic SquareLolo Houbein (Green Books, £19.99)

garden is one of the major challenges for any new gardener.

At times it feels a bit chaotic – it only gets down to the tools you’ll need 200 pages in – requiring a lot of cross-referencing to get started. But there are also real benefits to Houbein’s get growing approach, at least for novices. One Magic Square sets out to ensure you eat what you sow, by offering a range of metre-square gardens. There are five different salad plots (and advice on salad dressing), plots dedicated to curry, stir-fry, soup, and even pizza and pasta plots, not to mention Aztec, as well as the less scientifically certain ‘anti-cancer’ plots. Along the way are tips about

leading independent flower farms. Her aim is simple – show you how to grow flowers and sell them – and this book is likely to be useful to anyone who plans growing several acres or just selling them at their garden gate.

Common Farm began from scratch, and so, Newbery says, can you. Be warned, though, being a good gardener is not enough in itself, however beautiful your herbaceous borders may be. As Newbery points out, ‘If you want to be a flower farmer, think like a market gardener, not an RHS-Gold-Medal-winning garden designer.’ It is, she admits, a hard habit to break, but the realities of harvesting mean you need your cultivars in one place and in as tight a formation as possible.

As you’d expect there are sections on planning your ‘farm’ and how and what to grow, but with a more commercial slant which sometimes runs counter to what you might

have learned over the years – used to planting your bulbs at four times their depth with plenty of space? Forget it, this is about turnaround: grow, cut, then use the space for something else.

There are chapter on cutting, conditioning and presenting flowers, starting a business, getting to grips with profit and loss, where to sell, and advice on marketing and making use of social media. Interspersed with these are invaluable pieces by people working in the industry: suppliers, growers and retailers, that offer insight into the realities of the artisan cut flower industry.

Common Farm is now four years old, selling bouquets year-round. It’s a small but growing business. As Newbery admits, you’re unlikely to end up a millionaire but if you take it seriously you could enjoy a (small) share of a global industry that is worth £2.7 billion, while helping more people enjoy genuinely fresh flowers.

Buy a bouquet of fresh flowers from a supermarket or a florist and the chances are they’re anything but freshly cut. The majority of flowers sold in the UK have been dunked in chemicals and chilled, before being carted halfway around the world.

In The Flower Farmer’s Year, Georgie Newbery shares the knowledge she’s gained from setting up Common Farm, one of the UK’s

store cupboards, warnings about climate change and food security.

There is a shortage of images later in the book which is a bit off-putting but it’s not really designed to be read in chapter order. It’s a bit unusual but there’s no doubt that it offers an alternative to more conventional approaches, not least by ensuring you know what you’re going to do with what you’ve grown before

you commit yourself to anything more than a bit of digging.

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How to Create a New Vegetable GardenCharles Dowding (Green Books, £19.99)

Learning with NatureMarina Robb, Victoria Mew and Anna Richardson (Green Books, £17.99)

stuck a spade in the ground and checked the soil. A former market garden, Homeacres is likely to be considerably bigger than

most domestic gardens, but this gives Dowding scope to cover a huge range of subjects and plants. Hefty and filled with photographs, this is one for the armchair rather than the shed, though the reader should expect to be filled with admiration and envy in equal measure. The book’s great strength is Dowding’s approach.

challenge and outcome and help children develop a range of practical and social skills, along with a deep respect of the natural world.

This book invites readers to imagine, create, meditate, play, learn, have fun and appreciate the natural world. All activities can be experienced virtually anywhere – in local parks, woodland areas, playing fields, or even concrete playgrounds. And the activities don’t require a wheelbarrow’s worth of kit, just people and basic resources such as paper, sand and soil. Stand-out activities for me are: ‘Animal forms’ based on animal

Instead of dispensing advice from on high, as many experienced gardeners are wont to do, Dowding relates his experiences and experiments and makes his recommendations on the basis of these, not abstract rules and regulations. As a result How to Create a New Vegetable Garden manages the unusual trick of being both friendly and authoritative – the ideal combination.

behaviour, ‘Meet a tree’, ‘Fairy homes’ and ‘Flower fairies’ (I have a four-year-old daughter!) and one of my personal favourites, ‘Sense meditation’; time to stop, listen, observe and contemplate.

From an educational perspective, the Invisible Learning boxes for each game and activity clearly illustrate National Curriculum-linked learning outcomes and so the book is a valuable resource for teachers and outdoor practitioners seeking inspirational experiences for children outside.

Unstructured play and learning outdoors in nature are as important for the development of children as food and sleep. This book offers a nurturing and nourishing feast of the outdoors, opportunities for young people and grown ups to get their teeth into.

Review by Pam Horton Written by experienced outdoor educators and Forest School practitioners, Learning with Nature is exceptionally thorough yet uncomplicated in terms of its content and message. The book is split into sections covering games, nature activities, seasonal activities and survival skills. It’s packed with stunning illustrations and photographs that support tried-and-tested activities for children aged 3 –16. An accessible colour coding system makes it easy to find the right activity for you and your child.The 97 outdoor activities in Learning with Nature are graded in terms of

Charles Dowding is the tortoise to Lolo Houbein’s hare. Rather than get stuck in, he suggests you read the first few chapters and get a good idea of what you’re letting yourself in for. Take a measured approach, is his advice. The leading advocate of ‘no-dig’ (which the novice should not assume means ‘do nothing’), Dowding intersperses practical steps with his own experience of establishing his new garden at Homeacres. Dowding made sure that Homeacres would fit the bill – before he put in an offer he

30% off at Green Books for Eden Magazine ReadersSee p.28 for T&Cs

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Gardens of Cornwall Katherine Lambert, Photographs by Alex Ramsay (Frances Lincoln, £12.99)

Chygurno and Lamorran in Penwith as well as the developing sculpture garden at Tremenheere, just outside Penzance. Closer to ‘home’, Tregrehan and Marsh Villa are both well covered. The stunning gardens at Trevarno are still featured in this edition even though they were closed to the public in 2012 (a note is added at the end of the text) but it is good to have a reminder of how spectacular they were. These lesser-known gardens have been included at the expense of the some of those marketed as the ‘Great Gardens of Cornwall’ such as Bonython, Godolphin and Tregothnan. The descriptions of each garden are, however, uneven; it is clear that at some gardens, she had the benefit of a tour with the owners or head gardener and these descriptions give a special insight into the gardens. Others appear more to be the impressions of a general visitor. A repeating theme is the influence of the Victorian plant hunters on many Cornish gardens and the joint

discussion of Glendurgan and Trebah is particularly interesting.

I was excited to see that the strap line for the book was ‘Eden, Heligan & other delights’. However, it was disappointing that both gardens receive relatively modest and quite idiosyncratic reviews. Her description of Eden Project opens with ‘….the Project is of course not a garden at all’ and goes on to suggest, ‘It therefore has no business featuring in this book’. The meagre five paragraphs that follow are full of rather strange anecdotes. It feels as if the publishers requested these gardens to be featured and they were reluctantly included. Ms Lambert is clearly a traditionalist and, for me, it would have been better if she had left Eden out.

For a book that looks like another coffee table book, this one is really quite quirky with lots of interest and some insights you wouldn’t gain from a guide book or a casual walk around. It would certainly add to your visit to gardens of our county.

Review by Jane Knight Reissued in paperback is the latest from prolific garden writer Katherine Lambert. Full of seductive photographs of the 23 featured gardens, the book gives a real feel for the richness of what Cornwall has to offer the garden visitor.

It is good to see many less well-known gardens featured, such as

30% off Green Books reviewed in this issue Our friends at Green Books are offering free postage and 30% off the following titles to Eden magazine readers: One Magic Square The Flower Farmer’s Year How to Create a New Vegetable Garden Learning with NatureTo claim your discount visit the Green Books website at www.greenbooks.co.uk select your titles and enter the code EDEN2015 at the checkout. Offer valid until 31 July 2015. Please note: this discount is only available on these titles.

Across1. Desperate need for Cornish garden (4)4. Parc owner redeveloped Cornish garden (9)9. Hornet and gnat flying about Cornish garden (10)10. South African landscape featured in travel documentary (4)11. Disastrous cash year for Cornish garden (8)13. Botanical scrubber goes back inside - such a fool! (6)14. Man is one; no man is one (6)17. Garbled reciter in Cornish garden (7)19. Cornish garden of alternative healing (7)21. Variety of herb at Cornish garden (6)24. Redesigned sector for Cornish garden (6)25. EEC hotel rebuilt into Cornish garden (8)27. Seen in Spitzbergen? (4)28. Cornish garden - surprisingly on dry chalk (10)30. The ranger prepared Cornish garden (9)31. What starts sun, sea and this? (4)

Down2. In Borobudur, Ian smelled some stinky fruit (7)3. Beginnings of negotiations into green energy resources in African country (7)4. Tropical bird, baked in Greece? (5)5. Grandmother, baked, in India? (3)6. Cancellation of divorce proceedings (9)7. Player, a violinist, hiding pasta parcels (7)

8. Social security – very equitable in common parlance (7)12. Diabolical starts to spring attack tulips and narcissi in Cornwall (7)15. Alkaline solution made from ashes? Sounds untrue (3)16. Sign of a holy man worn round his best friend’s neck? (3-6)18. Ear of maize used to build cottage walls? (3)

19. Produce from fields held in wharves’ terminal (7)20. Pasta dip in middle of road ?(7)22. Encourages former horticulturists (7)23. Garlic extract hidden in Cornwall icing (7)26. Passing through entry, only to check clothing for size (3,2)29. Japanese theatrical style making negative noise (3)

The Friends Crosswordby Maize

‘Maize’ is a crossword fiend who works at Eden. Answers on p.31

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9 10

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Behind the Scenes: Mediterranean Biome

Enjoy the peace of Eden in the early morning by experiencing an exclusive tour in the Mediterranean Biome. Meet the horticultural team who care for plantings, hear their plans and discover the May highlights. Following the tour, willing participants will also be given the opportunity to enjoy a hands-on practical experience and horticultural conversation, whilst working alongside the team planting up the 2015 chilli display.

Wednesday 6 May, 9am – 11.30am • Mediterranean Biome, Eden Project • Free for Eden Members and one guest each

Behind the Scenes: Rainforest BiomeStep into the Rainforest Biome before it opens to the public and you’ll feel like you’re waking up in the Amazon. Enjoy the unique sights and sounds before the day warms up, and get an insight into what goes on behind the scenes to manage a captive Rainforest.

Friday 15 May, 9am – 10am • Rainforest Biome, Eden Project • Free for Eden Members and one guest each

Our events are a great way to learn more about our work. To make a booking for any of our events please contact us on friends@edenproject.com or call 01726 811932.

Coming soonCelebrate the launch of our new exhibition ‘Invisible You - The Human Microbiome’ at a special private view for Eden Members, and don’t miss out on your chance to attend an expert panel discussion and Q&A. Further details will be advertised via our monthly e-newsletter. If you don’t already receive this please send your details to friends@edenproject.com to subscribe.

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Eden Events in 2015

www.edenproject.com

Eden Marathon 18 October

Halloweden 24 October–1 November

Little Monsters’ Ball 31 October

Eden Locals’ Pass From November

Christmas at Eden 28 November–3 January 2016

Cornwall International Male Voice Choral Festival 3–4 May

Eden Classic Sportive Cycling Event 10 May

Strange Science 22–31 May

Green Fingers Festival 1–21 June

Eden Sessions June & July

Dinosaurs 24 July–2 September

Harvest 10–27 Sept

Eden Beer Festival 3 October

Ice Skating October 2015–spring 2016

The Friends Crossword Solution – see page 28 Across: 1 Eden, 4 Pencarrow, 9 Tregothnan, 10 Veld, 11 Caerhays, 13 Loofah, 14 Island, 17 Trerice, 19 Heligan, 21 Trebah, 24 Tresco, 25 Cotehele, 27 Berg, 28 Lanhydrock, 30 Tregrehan, 31 Sand.

Down: 2 Durians, 3 Nigeria, 4 Pitta, 5 Nan, 6 Annulment, 7 Ravioli, 8 Welfare, 12 Satanic, 15 Lye, 16 Dog collar, 18 Cob, 19 Harvest, 20 Lasagne, 22 Exhorts, 23 Allicin, 26 Try on, 29 Noh.

Rogan Brown ‘Cut Microbe’ part of the new ‘Invisible You’ exhibit at the Eden Project.