I’ll never tire of what small treasures London can throw up. As Samuel Johnson said “when you get through all the museums and galleries, it’ll be time to start over again”.

And so to the Chelsea Physic Garden, a 3.5 acre patch of beautifully floral, dazzlingly colourful and enchantingly peaceful London. It’s been around since 1673 and is advertised as London’s secret garden, which suggests to me that London is rather overwhelmed with gardens if this is a secret.

Rockery – flowery

While it costs £10.50 to get in, comparing unfavourably to Kew at £15, the garden is a private charity and offers free guides and tours. the theme for this year is captivating scents and the garden is filled with flowers that smell heavenly, from the Sweet Peas and their summery scent, essential oils from Australia like tea tree bringing back memories of teenage acne. There’s an amphitheatre of perfumed plants  with information boards telling you that your expensive aftershave is often based on scents like black pepper, lavender, coriander and cardamom.

As you move around, you can enjoy the garden simply as a stroll that rewards your vision and sense of smell. But there’s so much information here that part of the pleasure is to learn about what plants do for us. There are plants that help fight cancer, parkinson’s disease as well as plants used for childbirth. You can find out how humans have been harnessing the power of plants for thousands of years, but before you get too close, look out for signs warning you of poisonous plants!

One of them is ricin, naturally-occurring in the seeds of the Castor plant. A fatal dose of ricin can be the size of a few grains of salt. There’s the possibility that in the future, cancer will be treated by ricin, but only if the ricin doesn’t go rogue and instead of killing the cancer cells, starts to devour the healthy cells. This is not a plant to mess with!

Near a major road – all this peace!

On the site is a restaurant and gift shop; the restaurant was heaving with people paying princely sums for food that looked outstanding but to my mind, this is where the reality of Chelsea creeps back in. A lunch costing £20 and upwards is not on my to-do list. Instead, we walked to the Royal Court’s restaurant on Sloane Square where I had a marvellous burger and salad.

Royal Court burger. Very, very good.

You can find the garden here: http://chelseaphysicgarden.co.uk/