Planting 10,000 Trees

This week at The Lost Gardens of Heligan, the future is going into the ground.

Over the next two months, the Heligan landscape will welcome 10,000 new trees, each one part of a long, slow act of restoration that looks far beyond a single season. On Sunday January 4, the first chapter of that story began as we welcomed our first group of volunteers to the gardens. Together, they planted 500 young trees in a single winter morning.

The mix reflects both resilience and diversity. Hazel, Oak, Crab Apple, Field Maple, and Hawthorn were carefully chosen to strengthen hedgerows, enrich habitats, and quietly support wildlife for generations to come. Supplied by our friends at Plant One CIC, these trees will shape shelter, food, and structure across the landscape as they grow.

Winter planting carries its own quiet magic. The trees may appear dormant, but beneath the soil their roots are already beginning to settle, finding moisture, making contact with fungi, and preparing for spring. This is heritage gardening at its most patient, working on a timescale measured in decades rather than months.

If you would like to be part of this living project, there are more opportunities to join in. Tree planting sessions will take place on Saturday January 10 and Sunday January 11. You can plant one tree, a handful, or as many as you are comfortable with during each two-hour session, all bookable through the Heligan website.

To explore the wider vision behind this work, including how people and place come together through planting, you can watch the short Canopies and Communities film below.

Sometimes the most meaningful work in the garden begins with something small, a spade in the soil, a bare root lowered carefully into place, and the quiet knowledge that what is planted now will outlast us all.