‘You could dig up a lot of asphalt’: Tim Smit’s Chelsea garden prioritises growing food

Eden Project founder wants to inspire councils to build community gardens so young people can grow vegetables

Local councils should “rip up asphalt” to build community gardens so young people can grow vegetables, a co-founder of the Eden Project has said.

Tim Smit, who opened the giant biomes in Cornwall in 2000, has designed an “edimental” garden for the Chelsea flower show with the landscape designers Harry Holding and Alex Michaelis. The concept behind it is that plants such as cabbages and strawberries are beautiful but edible and should be placed alongside traditional bedding plants.