Sale Botanic Gardens - Garden for Life Project

Work is beginning on the exciting Garden for Life project at the Sale Botanic Gardens.

The Garden for Life looks at the myriad of ways plants support life and how we interact and use them.

Plants don't only clean the water we drink and air that we breathe, but they are also fundamental for life - providing shelter, food, fabric, medicine and building materials.

Plants also support a range of birds, animals, insects and fungi.

The overall garden design reflects cellular patterns of plants, with the individual gardens each telling a different story.

In the centre of the garden there will be a picnic and play lawn, which will be surrounded by the other individual garden areas.

Water plays a major role in the garden design, with a zero depth water play-space incorporating flowing water and individual water jets where children can play and appreciate the link water has with plants.

For the food element, there will be vegetable and other food plots in the garden, including important food crops from around the world.

A grassy maze will showcase the amazing grasses that provide around 20% of the Earth's vegetation cover and are the sources of food, fabric, paper and building materials.

A palm forest will provide a tranquil place to sit among the amazing beauty of the plants.

The 'forest' area of the gardens which already exists, will be improved and a selection of different sitting places will be provided for people to relax among the trees.

There will also be a section for plants that have traditionally been used for cosmetics and other beauty items including henna, rose and gum arabic. The perfumed and coloured plants will be a real feature of the garden.

With bees playing such a vital role in the way plants interact and create food and medicine, the project will explore how we can incorporate a series of Bee Palaces into the space. While the existing wildlife fencing will be removed for this project, the wild peafowl who have lived in the Botanic Gardens will continue to do so, with protected nesting areas in ground plantings already in existence throughout the garden, but also new ones created.

The Garden for Life is an exciting, contemporary landscape that will continue the history of humans sharing this beautiful space with other living things and provide many more opportunities to appreciate the link between all forms of life.