Today, Jane and I took a trip to Thornbridge Hall, which is not far away from Bakewell in Derbyshire. As RHS members we can get in free mid-week so, although not quite on our doorstep, we felt it was worth the trek after seeing it advertised in this month’s edition of the RHS’s The Garden magazine.

Not far into the garden, we were enthralled by watching bees flying in and out of their hives and that led to us falling into conversation with a friendly lady who turned out to be the owner of the whole estate – a fascinating chance to have an informal chat with someone deeply involved with and committed to the ongoing transformation of this estate into a place that aims to be a lasting legacy for local people.

What we particularly enjoyed about the gardens was the number of times we spotted plants we are familiar with and grow ourselves, including some of the less usual specimens (eg. Chenopodium giganteum, also known as tree spinach, magenta spreen and various other names). I’m not sure it was quite enough to take us back just for the gardens, lovely as they are, but we’d certainly consider dropping by if we knew we were passing in that direction.