Jealously guarded during the Society's tenure, in 1983 the garden became a charity and opened to the public for the first time. Many were to supply clients who included the navy, army, the East India Company and the Crown Colonies. And don’t discount what nature provides without your intervention, such as a spontaneous blooming of lemon balm (good for alleviating stress) or nettles (used as a cleansing herb).

The Apothecary Garden

The beans climb up the corn stems as they grow, fixing nitrogen at the roots, and then the large squash leaves curl around the bases and keep other plants and weeds at bay.

The seed exchange programme's most notable act may have been the introduction of cotton into the colony of Georgia and more recently, the worldwide spread of the Madagascar periwinkle ( Catharanthus roseus).

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Well, that is entirely up to you and usually you will have to work with what space you have available. Today, as an independent charity, we rely on visitors, Friends and supporters to help protect and nurture the Garden for future generations. Some of the plants grown in these gardens carry a clue about their helpful past in their botanical name — officinalis.

Meanwhile, the fine roots of the yew tree would grow through the eyes of the dead, preventing them seeing their way back to the living (The Alnwick Garden, no date: 34). The stone was brought back by Sir Joseph Banks in 1772 and used, together with old stone from the Tower of London (which was undergoing refurbishment at the time), to make an artificial rock garden to cultivate plants which delight in such habitat. Rosemary beneath the washing line gives sheets that extra fresh smell and I like to keep digestive-aiding mint in pots to pick for tea on my way to the studio.