Museum of Garden History

The Museum of Garden History in Lambeth is one of my favourite places.


I visited again last week with friends Hilary & David. The museum's home is in the former parish church St Mary- at-Lambeth.



John Tradescant's tomb can be found in the garden and the17th century knot garden is planted with many of the plants that the Tradescants grew.







The cafe serves delicious vegetarian food at very reasonable prices - soups, main courses and yummy cakes.

Garlic

I have been planting next years garlic this month. I grew Elephant Garlic this year and its mild flavour made it very useful for roasting and eating whole. I grew my garlic in pots and used the thinnings as green garlic. This was very successful but for a change next years will be growing in the ground again. I bought the bulbs from the Isle of Wight Garlic Farm when I was at the Garlic Festival in August.

http://www.thegarlicfarm.co.uk/garlicfestival.aspx

The festival is not just about garlic as there are plenty of other attractions -


I have harvested Lemon Grass




and Ginger



I have grown both in my greenhouse and they have been very successful this year. The cats are attracted by the lemon grass leaves - it seems to have the same effect as catnip!
We had torrential rain in the middle of the week - the gardens needed it as the ground was very dry. Today is sunny and dry and the garden is still looking beautiful. Trees are starting to lose their leaves and these contrast nicely with the autumn flowers and berries. There is still plenty of colour in the gardens.



Autumn colour on the University of Surrey campus

Blenheim Palace

I went to Blenheim Palace last Monday with my friend Amy. The palace was gorgeous and so were the gardens. We were really surprised to see so many roses in flower - many were beautifully scented.


I was especially pleased to see one of my long term favourites 'Peace'.


and also Iceberg


Isnt it wonderful to see roses planted in such profusion.


I wish I had had more time to look at the restored secret garden


We hope to revisit in the spring. We can do this for free as we were able to convert our ticket to an annual card for no extra charge - great value.

And now here is a picture I took of the beautiful garden behind the Montague Arms at Beaulieu


The weather has cooled down now that it is October. Today I picked all my tomatoes (green and red ) and put them in a large dish in the kitchen. I am hoping some of the green tomatoes will ripen but if not I will cook them green. Have you read Fannie Flaggs book -Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe ? Its a novel not a cookery book but it did inspire me to use my green tomatoes in recipes other than chutney. (Nigel Slater has recipes in todays Observer)