Tim Smit, co-founder of the Eden Project, has called on local councils to “rip up asphalt” to create community gardens where young people can grow vegetables. His remarks come ahead of the Chelsea Flower Show, where he has designed an “edimental” garden with landscape designers Harry Holding and Alex Michaelis.
The garden blends edible plants such as cabbages and strawberries with traditional bedding plants, illustrating that food-producing flora can be both beautiful and functional. Smit hopes the exhibit will inspire people to grow fruit and vegetables at home and provide a template for councils to transform urban spaces.
“When you look at towns, you realise you could dig up a lot of the asphalt and put up a lot of large growing boxes all over the place,” Smit said. He believes such initiatives would encourage healthier eating and pave the way for farmers’ markets in town centres.
Smit, who also restored Cornwall’s Lost Gardens of Heligan, has been exploring heritage varieties of fruit and vegetables that predate commercial farming. Many are “on the verge of extinction”, he said, having been replaced by higher-yielding or disease-resistant species. He recalled a traditional strawberry that “if you crush one across the top of your palate and let the juice run over your tongue, you’ll never forget”.
The Eden Project, built in a former clay pit, has injected nearly £2bn into the Cornish economy and drawn 25 million visitors since 2000. Smit has also voiced support for the Green Party, saying he was “thrilled” by its recent progress under Zack Polanski. He stressed the importance of giving young people access to land, noting “the degree to which we, as humans, have been denatured by not having access to land is extraordinary”.
After Chelsea, the edimental garden will be permanently relocated to Eden Project Morecambe, forming part of a 1.5-acre community space for learning and gathering. Smit hopes it will help end the perception of gardening as “twee” and unimportant, calling it “a really fundamental and life-changing thing”.
