This time of year is not always the best in garden display terms but I was pleasantly surprised by a visit to Chartwell, the family home and garden of Sir Winston Churchill at Westerham.

Sir Winston and Lady Churchill are known to have kept dahlias here during their time and there were lovely late summer colour displays of dahlias in the cut flower area.

I thought the semi-cactus dahlia My Love, with creamy-white flowers radiating out from a greenish yellow centre, was magnificent.

Also the pink Susannah York dahlias were eye-catching in the September sun.

The kitchen garden was bursting with autumn produce. There were carrots, kale, cucumbers and squashes, much of which are used in the Chartwell café.

There was a great display of gourds. Too bitter to eat, they look great in displays around the house and keep for ages. Members of the same family as marrows, courgettes and pumpkins, they are worth growing, as come in many wonderful weird and wonderful shapes and sizes.

The branches in the orchards were laden with apples ready to pick, the majority being the streaky red-flushed eating apple Winston. This rich and aromatic apple was formerly known as Winter King as the red apples hang on the apple tree after the leaves have fallen. It was renamed to honour Sir Winston after the Second World War.

BLOB: Owned by the National Trust, Chartwell is at Mapleton Road, Westerham. Adult entry is £13.40 and child entry is £6.70. For opening times see www.nationaltrust.org.uk

Plum and hazelnut tart

I have had a glut of Victoria plums from my orchard so I have stoned them and frozen them in a flat single layer before bagging them up.

That way, they don’t all stick together in one lump and you can pull out handfuls as needed.

With a houseful of guests expected I decided this plum and hazelnut tart was a good dessert offering as it also uses the nuts from my nut tree.

Lucy’s plum and hazelnut tart, serves eight.

For the tart

One pack of ready rolled sweet pastry

900g plums, stoned and quartered

Caster sugar to sprinkle

For the nut filling:

50g toasted coarsely ground hazelnuts

50g softened butter

50g caster sugar

One egg

Roll out pastry, line a 11ins tart tin, prick all over and chill.

Mix together the ingredients for the nut filling and spread over the pastry. Cover the filling with the plum quarters butted against each other and sprinkle with caster sugar.

Bake at 230C for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the skins of the plums are crisp at the edges.