If you need proof that spring has officially sprung, it’s well worth taking a visit to Chelsea Physic Garden. Tucked away behind the sweeping promenade of Chelsea Embankment and nestled next to Royal Hospital Chelsea under the looming red brick mansion buildings of Cheyne Walk, lies an oasis of calm and colour for Londoners.

Founded in 1673 by the Society of Apothecaries for their apprentices to learn to grow medicinal plants and study their uses, today the Chelsea Physic Garden offers nearly four acres of botanical bounty – from tropical species of fern and cacti, to useful plants found in everyday household products and cosmetics, Europe’s oldest man-made rock garden and the largest olive tree growing outside in Britain.

Now, I’m no horticultural devotee, yet I can think of few better ways to spend a sunny hour or two. With every visit I’m reminded of the importance of plants in our everyday lives – not least to lift our spirits. A wander along the gravel paths here, between narrow beds laced with daffodils, crocuses and daisies, or delving into a heated greenhouses thick with weird and wonderful specimen from around the world, it’s impossible not to come over all Wordsworthian and be wide-eyed in wonder at the amazingness of nature. Follow that with a cup of tea on the terrace beneath the heavily blossomed trees and you begin to see that the Garden is not just a microclimate where plants, herbs and trees thrive, but people too.

Images courtesy of Charlie Hopkinson