The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) sounds grand, ornate and impressive, which it is, but a substantial section of the 70-acre grounds is dedicated to a flourishing kitchen garden known as the Demonstration Garden.
Crops are grown in two areas that the public can explore at their leisure: an outdoor plot (10m x 36m) for hardy crops such as beans, peas, kale, purple sprouting broccoli, courgettes, beetroot, chard and leeks; and a polytunnel (20m x 4m) for year-round salads and herbs such as rocket, lettuce, spinach, chard, parsley and coriander.
The kitchen garden doesn’t simply grow produce for the sake of it; it supplies vegetables, herbs and salads for the RBGE ’s on-site catering establishments (we’re talking a restaurant, cafe and staff canteen too). Crops are usually harvested weekly and…
