The spring and summer seasons have always served as the most opportunistic times to experience fun festivals throughout the world. Especially throughout the month of June, professional and amateur horticulturists alike come from every corner of the earth to celebrate the Green Fingers Festival at the Eden Project in Cornwall. Full of daily discussions and tips, tours and demos, this festival welcomes gardeners at any level.
This year the Green Fingers Festival ran from June 1st to the 21st and featured talks by celebrity gardeners on certain weekends. This festival appealed to those who were completely new to gardening, right through to those who were looking for inspiration for their own gardens and those who had previous experience.
Background Information
The Green Fingers Gardening Festival is put on every year by the Eden Project and is a way to inspire beginners and keen amateurs in the garden through celebrity talks, expert gardeners and daily tours.
As well as this the Eden Project offers short gardening courses and puts on a range of other events throughout the year to keep getting more and more people interested and involved in gardening at home.
Celebrity Gardeners
There were plenty of talks to attend throughout the festival, featuring well-known names such as Charlie Dimmock who spoke about creating ponds and water features in your own garden, and ITV1’s David Domoney who held a discussion titled “Confessions of a TV Gardener”. Anne Swithinbank also attended and gave a talk titled ‘Grow Something Different’ to encourage attendees to be a bit more creative with their space and what they grow.
But Celebrity gardeners weren’t the only ones hosting talks, with daily talks and tours from their own expert gardeners and other guest horticulturalists there was something for everyone at this year’s event, no matter what day you went on.
Other Activities
There was also a range of other activities to take part in, some of which were great for children if you attended as a family day out. From indoor rainforests and outdoor gardens to zip wire trails and fun dining experiences, the Green Fingers Gardening Festival had plenty of activities and sites to see for people of all ages, making it a great way to get kids interested in the outdoors as well as being interesting for garden-loving parents.
Rainforest Biodome
Featuring more than 1,000 varieties of plants and trees from tropical islands, West Africa, Southeast Asia, and Tropical South America, Eden’s Rainforest Biodome is the largest indoor rainforest in the world. And with temperatures of 15-35 Celsius, visitors certainly felt the tropical heat as they followed the deep path into the enormous indoor jungle environment. Due to the sheer size and spectacular sights of the biodome, it was recommended that visitors allow at least 2 hours to explore just this area, giving you a good idea of the size of the festival itself.
The Core Building
For a more interactive experience, the Core building at the gardening festival offered a wide variety of activities and exhibits for kids and adults alike. The building’s design itself was based on the structure of a sunflower and it has much more to offer to those who step inside. From button pushing to wind handles, visitors could learn about ecosystems, evolution, climate change, and plant resources.
In addition to these activities, visitors were also encouraged to get a glance of the giant seed sculpture at the heart of the Core building. Constructed by Peter Randall-Page from one piece of granite, the seed’s surface has been carved with 1,800 nodes into the pattern of a Fibonacci spiral, much like the growth patterns we see in pine-cones, sunflowers, and ammonites.
The WEEE Man
Standing at 7 meters high and weighing in at 3.3 tons, the WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) Man structure was constructed to represent the amount of electrical waste and equipment the average British household tosses out in a span of a lifetime. Made from used mobile devices, lawn mowers, audio players, etc., this one-of-a-kind structure will certainly put electrical device usage and what it is doing to our planet into perspective.
All in all, this year’s festival was as interesting and enjoyable as you can imagine, and will be running again next year in case you missed out on it this year. For all the up-to-date information about the festival, be sure to visit the Eden Project website and take a look at what else they have to offer throughout the year as well!