The final place that I want to introduce you to that we visited on our holiday was The Eden Project. Again, it was somewhere that I had wanted to visit for ages, being a combination of educational project and gardens, plus all the pictures make it look spectacular. It was created in a huge, disused china clay pit and was the idea as the same man, Tim Smit, who was there at the beginning of the restoration of Heligan. They claim to have ‘the largest rainforest in captivity’ within their geodesic domes and the whole project seems to be based on superlatives. If you want to know about the history of the project, there’s lots to see and read on their web site; do check it out.

We loved seeing the Mediterranean and rainforest plants – a few of which, like the Coco de Mer, we had seen in their native habitats – but in fact the outdoor plantings were a joy too. It was great to see gentle education in the form of information boards and interactive displays as well as the groups of school children engaged in a whole range of activities. The project is about much more than plants – it highlights all sorts of aspects of caring for the environment from conserving habitats to reducing consumption… all in all a project after my own heart.

It’s such a big and diverse site that even spending two days there, as we did, was not really enough. Like Heligan, we will certainly be back. And, like Heligan, pictures will probably give you a much better flavour of the place than hundreds of words…

First some outdoor shots:

And then, in the biomes:

Like Heligan, I highly recommend a visit… or two… or three…