From Plot to Plate

From Plot to Plate: Building a Heligan-Inspired Kitchen Garden

The kitchen garden at Heligan is more than a productive space-it's a celebration of connection. Between soil and sustenance, between tradition and today. Whether you have a few raised beds or a full plot, building your own kitchen garden in the Heligan spirit is a journey rooted in seasonality, practicality, and pleasure.

**Start with the staples.** At Heligan, we focus on crops that are both useful and beautiful: rainbow chard, climbing beans, lettuces, courgettes, and heritage tomatoes. These grow well in mixed beds and offer a continuous harvest through summer and into autumn.

**Design for use.** Paths between beds are wide enough for a wheelbarrow; beds are narrow enough to reach the centre without stepping on the soil. Group crops by family or growing habit-leafy greens together, roots in another, and climbers given height with bean poles or trellis. **Add a cutting bed.** Herbs like thyme, chives, and parsley serve both kitchen and pollinators. Interplant edible flowers-nasturtiums, calendula, violas-that can be used in salads or desserts, or simply to brighten the day.

**Feed the soil.** We use well-rotted manure and composted plant material at Heligan, topped with mulch to retain moisture. A no-dig approach is favoured by many for its ability to improve soil life and reduce weed disturbance.

**Harvest regularly, cook simply.** Kitchen gardens aren't for display-they're for use. At Heligan, we harvest little and often, allowing new growth to follow. Fresh courgette with mint, just-picked salad leaves with chive flowers, a tomato still warm from the sun-this is the magic of plot-to-plate living.

And above all, let your kitchen garden evolve. Keep a notebook. Follow the weather. Grow what you eat, and eat what you grow. That's how the garden becomes a rhythm, a ritual, and a joy.

. . . Back to Garden to Plate

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Wellness & Lifestyle

To garden is to live seasonally, to return to presence through care, patience, and daily attention.

Here you'll find quiet reflections, sensory rituals, and simple ways to bring the gardens calm into your home and life.

Click here to find rest and rhythm and lifestyle inspiration through your garden

Flowers & Crafting

Some things we grow for colour, others for scent and some for the joy of preserving fleeting beauty.

At Heligan, flowers are not just grown, but gathered, dried, and woven into the rhythms of home and celebration.

Click here to learn how we carry beauty beyond the bloom

Tools & Techniques

From hand-forged blades to long-trusted methods passed between gardeners, the tools we use shape not just our soil but our understanding.

Here, you'll find the implements that bring the Heligan gardens to life and the quiet knowledge behind their use, shared by those who use them daily.

Click here to discover hands-on knowledge that shapes every season

From Garden to Plate

The journey doesn't end at the seed bed. What begins with planting often finds its way into the kitchen, into the jar, onto the plate.

Explore recipes, harvest rituals, and preserving techniques inspired by Heligan's productive gardens - carrying the gardens story into every meal.

Click here for a taste of the gardens

Root to Recipe

Subscribe for heritage recipes, kitchen garden guides, and tips on making the most of your harvest - season by season.

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