Just over 12 months have passed since Janet wrote about Chelsea Physic Garden and the important role it has played in her life. Ever since her first visit, LittlePod’s Managing Director and founder has found comfort and contentment behind the walls at 66 Royal Hospital Road. With Janet’s voice soon to feature in a new audio guide for visitors to the glasshouses at London’s oldest botanic garden, our respective stories are about to become even more intertwined. Keen to find out more, Paul caught up with Jen Dyer, Fundraising Manager at Chelsea Physic Garden. These are her words:

I love Janet’s story of how she found the garden and what it means to her. I talk about this kind of thing a lot as part of my role here. The impact that a green space can have on an individual can be huge. Hearing stories like Janet’s makes my job worthwhile. It can be difficult to find peace and quiet, in London in particular. Chelsea Physic Garden is so inner-city, we’re in an area that has some of the least accessible areas of green space in the UK. London is quite a green capital city. But a lot of it is private gardens and parks. Our aim at Chelsea Physic Garden is to break down barriers and give more people access to high quality green spaces.

Chelsea Physic Garden has been around for a long time. Last year, we celebrated our 350th anniversary. The garden was first established in 1673 by the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries. This is a word we don’t use much anymore, but the apothecaries were the physicians of their day. The garden was set up to teach trainee apothecaries how to identify, grow and cultivate plants that could be used to help cure people. In 1983, the garden became an independent charity which exists to tell people about the importance of plants for the benefit and wellbeing of humankind. Everything we grow in the garden is curated for a specific purpose.

Storytelling is so important to us here. We sometimes call ourselves London’s oldest outdoor classroom. Children in the inner cities can often become quite distanced from plants and their uses in everyday life. We hold school workshops. We often ask the children, how do you think you’ve used plants today? Is there cotton in your clothing? That’s a plant. Brushed your teeth with mint toothpaste? That’s a plant. It’s not just that we eat plants. We use them in so many different ways. We want to connect people to nature. But you don’t tend to care about or love something you can’t connect to. This is where telling stories comes in. Communication is crucial.

Chelsea Physic Garden means different things to different people. Sustainability, and the importance of looking after plants and the environment, is at the centre of our work. But beyond that, wellbeing and mental health is a big focus. Our previous head gardener used to talk about watching people enter the garden and seeing their shoulders drop. It’s a wonderful image to reflect upon what nature can do for people. The garden is a quiet place to sit and contemplate and reflect. This is what Janet wrote about last summer. We’re here for whatever people need. Whether it’s learning or leisure, there’s always something to be found for you in the garden.

We have our Friends of Chelsea Physic Garden, who visit every day. This is their space, their garden. I love to see them reading their books and their newspapers in their favourite corners. People missed this so much during the pandemic. To have that lifeline, that routine and that special place to go feels comfortable and safe and is good for the brain. Our patrons are a wonderful group of people who choose to support us a higher level. This provides us with a bedrock of support that is such a help. We’re so grateful to Janet and our other supporters for helping us do what we do. It’s a privilege for us to be custodians of a place that means so much to so many.

We are looking forward to launching a new audio guide for our glasshouses. This has been a long time in development, but it’s almost ready. This will be a 25-minute tour that people can access using the Bloomberg Connect smartphone app. It has been voiced by Claire Ratinon, who is a horticultural columnist for The Guardian. You might have heard her on Radio Four’s Gardener’s Question Time. It was important for us to find the right voices and, of course, Janet is one of those voices. We want to share as many stories as we can and so Janet has recorded a segment on vanilla for us. Our vanilla vine is thriving in the Tropical Corridor. It is one of our star plants. Who better to tell its story?

I’ve learnt a lot from Janet in the time that we’ve known each other. I’m always sharing what she has told me about vanilla. She is a great source of knowledge with so much passion. It has been fascinating to learn about vanilla, how it’s cultivated and how important it is to biodiversity. But it’s more than that. It’s also a commercial crop that creates jobs and provides livelihoods. It is such an important plant – and it’s delicious too! The vanilla orchid is so transient – the flower lasts for just 24 hours. I think there’s a beauty in that. It is a special plant with so many uses. Janet has done so much to tell this story, all her awards and accolades are well deserved.

I feel so fortunate to work somewhere that is so special to people. Fundraising is always a challenge, but thanks to all our wonderful supporters, we are able to continue to care for and share the garden. Restoring our Victorian glasshouses was a major project that we completed last year and we have done a lot of work on accessibility. Being a garden for all is so important and the garden can be enjoyed in countless ways. You can come along and learn something, sit on a bench and read a good book or – in the not-too-distant-future – use our audio guide and do it at your pace. Chelsea Physic Garden is a special place that is loved by so many. Please do come and visit us!

Like to visit Chelsea Physic Garden, LittlePod’s favourite corner of the capital? Find full details here. Be sure to keep following for updates on the new CPG glasshouses audio guide, which is due to be launched this November. Taking some time out in the Tropical Corridor? Do listen out for a LittlePod perspective and some words of wisdom from Janet! Sending vanilla hugs and our thanks to Jen and all the team at CPG x