It opened its doors to the first urban garden of the British Royal Horticulture Society (RHS), which the company has described as “the largest participatory horticulture project in Europe”.
Located in Salford, it is 62 acres RHS Garden Bridgewater It opened a year later than planned due to the coronavirus pandemic, BBC News writes.
RHS General Manager Sue Biggs says the £ 35m park is “the result of years of hard work”.
The company hopes the park will be visited by 1 million people a year and will generate £ 13.2 million a year in revenue by 2030.
A spokesperson for the project said that nearly 250,000 new plants have been planted in the area, and the park will provide jobs for more than 100 people, including nearly 50 local residents.
The Bridgewater team is also participating in a pilot program focused on the “link between horticulture and better health”. As part of the initiative
Local doctors “prescribe” gardening to their patients with chronic symptoms, who can leave everyday problems behind and forget about weeding and removing dead parts of plants while outdoors.
Their goal is to build a close relationship with those who live in the surroundings, park curator Marcus Shelton-Jones says.
Visitors can encounter different types of gardens. In the Garden of Eden, for example, you can learn about farming inspired by Asian and Mediterranean gardens.
The RHS Garden Bridgewater was replaced by a country mansion surrounded by lavish gardens, which became extinct in the early 20th century, and then in 1943 gave it a fire punch grace until it was finally demolished. In the following years, part of the area was used, among other things, as a gardening and scouting camp.
Cover photo: illustration