Friends of Windmill Gardens visit Kew
Members of FoWG’s Tai Chi and Gardening groups had a great day out at Kew Gardens on June 9th when we visited as part of Kew’s Community Open Week.
Staff and volunteers at Kew had organised a day of free and enjoyable activities. We started the day by finding out where our food comes from and how to identify seeds that provide many of the foods we eat each day.
We viewed our beautiful surroundings via an Arcadian Camera Obscura that the staff had constructed. They will be taking it to other sites along the River Thames over the next few months, recreating a technology that has not been used in Kew since the 18th century.
After exploring the magnificent Temperate glass house and its 1,500 species of plants from Africa, Australia, New Zealand, the Americas, Asia and the Pacific Islands, some of us joined in a calming Mindfulness in Nature walk, while others took advantage of a guided walking tour around to discover different areas of the gardens.
Later, most of the group boarded the Kew Explorer for a guided tour around the entire site, learning more about the history of Kew and the important work that goes on there to help prevent biodiversity loss and to develop nature-based solutions to some of humanity’s biggest global challenges. A few of the more energetic members of the group climbed 18 metres up to enjoy the Treetop Walkway for a closer look at the upper branches of Kew’s trees and the birds, insects, lichens and fungi that thrive there.
Thanks community@Kew for enabling us to make this visit. We had a great day out enjoying the beauty of Kew Gardens and learning a lot about the importance of plants and fungi for the future of food, clean air and medicine.
We will be back to explore more of the 300 acres of Kew Gardens and to understand more about why our future is botanic.
