London Calling...Gardeners

First of the garden stops was Holland Park in Kensington. Sports ovals, avenues, wild areas and formal gardens, all higgledy piggledy. Wonderfully relaxing and great local parkland.

However the pictures I've provided here are of Chelsea Physic Garden and The Garden Museum.

I've visited Chelsea Physic Garden before, but not for many years. As you can see from the sign, Chelsea is the second oldest 'botanic garden' in England.



It was as I remembered it - small, prim and charming. The picture at the top of the posting and the ones below are those that appealed to me.

There is certainly a love of order.





They are also fond of Carl Linneaus, and why shouldn't they be. Something old, and something new...





And I liked the lichen on a board display - very cute!

The Garden Museum is a little odd.



Again, charming (perhaps that's true of every English garden). The spade wall is a small part of a small exhibit of gardening memorabilia.



At the moment they have a special display on Christopher Lloyd: a Life at Great Dixter but due to the complexity of the building (a church) and the large number of people eating lunch almost everywhere in it, I somehow left withouth seeing it.

Although the Church and its garden were saved in 1977 after the tombs of the plant collectors Tradescants were found there, for Australians it holds other noteworthy bones, those of Governor Bligh.



The gardens around the tombstones are both charming and odd, but I liked them.

And so to Dublin...