Some nibbles from London

First stop Singapore Airlines in Sydney where the woman next to me said her suitcase was half full of books. The topic: gardens. She was horticulturist and broadcaster Helen Young who was leading a tour group to the Singapore Garden Festival where the themes were balcony gardens, fantasy indoors and 80sq metre landscapes. At home in Sydney, Helen raises veg in an Earth Box and is currently harvesting snow peas, beans, rocket, silver beet and cut and come again lettuces.

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In London I met former Canberra Times food editor Natasha Rudra who has lived in Greenwich for 18 months. We went to The Culpeper in the East End and climbed four flights of stairs to Piculpeper on the rooftop where Londoners were lunching among beds filled with basil, bay and edible bounty. Cucumbers are growing abundantly and chefs are preserving little ones in brine for winter. On the menu, Piculcumber is served with lamb kofta, house flatbread and hummus, there is piculpeper ketchup and rooftop mixed leaf salad.

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During the heatwave, advanced sapling street trees of London were girdled with Barcham’s 75 litre hydration bags which slow release water over six hours. Summer weather has olives setting fruit, figs overhanging garden walls ripening for harvest and bunches dangling off grape vines. For sale in a shop off the magnificent courtyard at Somerset House were Kabloom seedboms (google "Not on the High St"). Using recycled materials they contain bee attracting and edible seeds for throwing guerrilla style onto derelict sites.

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Gordon’s Wine Bar is beside the well-planted Victoria Embankment Gardens with its deck chairs a popular office workers’ retreat. In the 1680s the building was home to Samuel Pepys and in the 1820s seedsmen Minier & Fair used it as a warehouse. Walk across the Golden Jubilee bridge to the Queen Elizabeth Hall and climb steps to the rooftop where disadvantaged people have planted apple trees, olive trees, herbs and sunflowers above which are flags designed by Zandra Rhodes.

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Anthea Hamilton’s The Squash is a lure to the Tate Britain until October 7. To complement her imaginative installation, the gallery has turned its front lawns into a pop up "Common Ground" designed by artist collective Something & Son. It is open to all (until November) and maintained by volunteers to trigger sociability. The vegetables, herbs and flowers have been chosen to reflect multicultural London and there is a greenhouse in which you can share recipes and food memories on an interactive website.

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From 2004 to 2012, a ferry ride to Richmond to dine among potted plants at Petersham Nurseries Cafe was high on the travel agenda. The main attraction was the food of Australian chef Skye Gyngell. A few months ago, owners of Petersham Nurseries since 1997, the Boglione family, opened a pots/plates/glassware shop and florist at Covent Garden. There is a delicatessen and cellar and the very glamorous Petersham restaurant.

These adjoin la Goccia, also part of the stable, a cafe with indoor eating facing the wood fired oven and courtyard tables surrounded by sunflowers and eau de nil massed hydrangeas. The menu changes daily but Haye Farm, a mixed organic farm in East Devon, supplies courgette flowers and chicken for fritti, tomatoes for padella, beef and pork from the grill and kale for the salads.

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Following Wimbledon 2018, the All England Club released details that players got through 4520 servings of sushi over the fortnight of play and the outlets at Wimbledon sold 111,250 traditional English scones, which was close to the sale of legendary garden strawberries and cream.

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A former Canberran ex Adelaide, who now lives near Heathrow, revealed over lunch his element of kitchen gardening. Two years ago he bought one raspberry cane for one pound. It produced 10 raspberries. After emptying used potting mix onto the ground, the cane started marching and multiplying. This season he has harvested the 2636th raspberry and 198th plum tomato of the season and, yes, he is a mathematician.

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Footnote: The winner of Vegan 100 by Gaz Oakley (Kitchen Garden, July 10) was Lorraine Box of Conder who is currently planting a new edible garden.