On Air Now Nick Osborne 10:00am - 3:00pm Sigala / David Guetta / Sam Ryder - Living Without You Schedule

Ventnor Botanic Garden Joins 'Exciting' Gardens United Project

Ventnor Botanic Garden

People across the world can now visit Ventnor Botanic Garden virtually thanks to a new initiative.

Today (Wednesday), Google Arts and Culture has launched “Gardens United” - an interactive online resource celebrating gardens around the UK, which is the result of collaboration with Ventnor Botanic Garden and more than 30 other cultural partners around the country.

From archives, museums, botanic gardens and heritage bodies, you can learn from leading experts and community gardeners about topics ranging from health and wellbeing, food growing, urban gardening and much more.

Gardens United gives everyone, everywhere an opportunity to explore, learn and discover gardens through a new lens- including “Britain’s Hottest Garden” in Ventnor. 

In over 150 curated online exhibitions, Gardens United presents an enormous archive of over 4,000 items including photos, videos, ASMR tours and Google Street View tours. Learn about how gardens have always held a special place in our lives, how important they are for our health and wellbeing, what gardening can do to help support the planet and look back through botanical history from Darwin’s garden to Royal landscapes. 

Ventnor Botanic Garden hopes to help spread the message of climate change and sustainability to a wider audience both on the Isle of Wight and further afield. On average it is over the year, 5 degrees hotter than mainland Britain, meaning that it is uniquely situated to grow, study, and research plants that cannot be grown outdoors elsewhere in the country, and consequently is home to many rare and exotic plants.

Ventnor Botanic Garden’s partnership with Google Arts & Culture has helped to recreate the garden in digital form- allowing anybody, anywhere to gain an insight into the rich and diverse eco-system that lives there, and enable VBG to continue to promote its message on climate change and the importance of sustainability. 

John Curtis, Director of Ventnor Botanic said of the collaboration:

"We are very grateful to Google Arts & Culture for helping us bring our garden and our ethos to a wider audience- we hope together we can raise awareness of climate change through our plant collection”.

Amit Sood, Director of Google Arts & Culture said:

“Everyone around the world can find joy in exploring a garden, and through this program, we wanted to celebrate this as well as inspire audiences to seek out new gardening experiences. From botanical art to urban gardening, thanks to our incredible partners, Gardens United has something for everyone - even if you are only looking to plan your next staycation itinerary!”

Explore Gardens United on the Google Arts & Culture app on iOS or Android or online via g.co/GardensUnited

More from Isle of Wight News