Enriching people’s lives with plants
Anna and Simon Ainsworth opened their award-winning flagship Eden Gardens, retail and hospitality complex in 2004. It launched a unique business model based on a genuine commitment to both social and environmental causes and a mission to improve the quality of life in the wider community, through horticulture and education.
Enriching People’s Lives with Plants is more than just a tag line at Eden Gardens; it’s their reason for being. They engage by contributing genuinely and without conditions in seeking to improve the quality of life of others through active participation with plants. Art, its placement in the display gardens and encouragement of site specific artists as part of Eden Unearthed, is an extension of this.
Many artists have donated their time to run workshops with local schools and Father Chris Riley’s Youth Off The Streets youth to collaborate on installations. The proceeds from the sale of Eden Unearthed catalogues will go directly to Father Chris Riley’s Youth Off The Streets.
The people of Optus joined in crafting Hope Blooms with textile artist Alison Thompson, an installation that is raising funds for Cancer Council NSW and which will be a feature of the Daffodil Day Morning Tea. Eden Gardens staff and Royal Rehab have joined forces to create a ceramic mosaic work that will hang firstly at Eden Unearthed and then in the Community Kitchen Garden at Royal Rehab. Finally, one of the Royal Botanic Garden’s Community Greening groups have installed some of their artworks in the kitchen garden, creating a touch of Bidwell.
Eden pride them selves on a genuine commitment to both social and environmental causes, with a mission to improve the quality of life in the wider community through horticulture and education.
They invite other organisations to implement our programs and adopt many features of the Eden Gardens flagship store, which was designed around: reducing electricity needs, recycling and harvesting water, using solar power to heat water, energy efficient lighting, and using natural lighting and air flow to light and cool the building, beyond environmental standards.
The Display Gardens
Wander through the award-winning gardens and you start to get a feel for what a pleasure garden is all about. Unlike a botanical garden, this internationally recognised private garden is a place of fun and sharing. So take your time, stroll and lose yourself among the forest of poplars, enticed by the exhibition gardens or tantalised by the cooling water features. Most areas are
wheelchair accessible and there is also an elevated skywalk for a birds eye view.
The display gardens at Macquarie Park contain a huge array of plants and are rich in diversity, foliage and flower colour, showcasing a range of design styles in the seven exhibition beds. They contain 128 different plant families, equivalent to almost 21 per cent known plant families. There are 630 different species or cultivars of plants and around 7000 plantings through the
gardens and wider property.
Designed by Jon Shinkfield and Simon Ainsworth, the gardens are highly acclaimed taking out the prestigious LNA Landscape Excellence Awards (Landscapers New South Wales and ACT Association) in 2006. Their exemplary us of water reuse, is the inspiration for one of the installations titled Sound Line for Compos Mentis, by Leanne Thompson.
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