Parks & Gardens - General

I work extremely long hours in the School term time as I am a music teacher in a boarding school and I still have a performing career. On top of all that I also am quite active with politics. Things get easier in school holidays and I try to keep Sunday clear all year wherever possible. In these precious windows of time I like to have quality time with my children and sometimes some solitary quality time with myself.

It is ...
...space in this stress filled treadmill of a world in which most of us live. Sometimes it is a luxury to veg out at home, but as a general rule we like to go out and about to relax. There are several wonderful places where you can go, either free or for a small charge. With that in mind I thought I might, over a period of time, share our experiences of a few"day out" places. There follows a short preamble, before we get to the main topic ... more

I work extremely long hours in the School term time as I am a music teacher in a boarding school and I still have a performing career. On top of all that I also am quite active with politics. Things get easier in school holidays and I try to keep Sunday clear all year wherever possible. In these precious windows of time I like to have quality time with my children and sometimes some solitary quality time with myself.

It is vital, I believe, to look after yourself and have some space in this stress filled treadmill of a world in which most of us live. Sometimes it is a luxury to veg out at home, but as a general rule we like to go out and about to relax. There are several wonderful places where you can go, either free or for a small charge. With that in mind I thought I might, over a period of time, share our experiences of a few"day out" places. There follows a short preamble, before we get to the main topic of this op, which explains where I am coming from on days out! It is, mercifully, brief!!

A few years ago we took out family membership of the National Trust, English Heritage and more recently The Royal Horticultural Society. This gives us a huge choice of options of activities, which suit the more middle aged amongst us but have enough to interest and enthral the younger members of the family. I know most of them would probably prefer Alton Towers, but I do honestly think we have a duty to educate our children broadly, and this includes how to spend leisure time in many different ways and to learn about our traditions, heritage and country ways. In this playstation/pc oriented world our children shut themselves away in front of a screen of one sort or another! As a parent I felt it was fine for mine to do this as long as:

1.They got lots of fresh air and exercise.

2.They were able to hold an articulate conversation (think of Kevin and Perry aka Enfield and Burke) do you want youngsters like that?! Me neither! I have one though, despite my best endeavours, but the other three weren't!

3. They were able to mix with people of all ages and have developed social skills.

4.That they spent time as part of the family group and did things together sometimes. Occasionally they must go to places that might not be of their own choice, without moaning, and attempt to learn something. When they were younger I made them keep a journal of trips out where they had to write a paragraph or two about what they had enjoyed and learned. It was interesting that often that the trips that were deemed to be the least favourable before leaving home often were the best from the kids point of view by the time they wrote their journal! It has also given three of them a lifelong love of writing and three write on this site! (We do sometimes go to Theme Parks, in case you think I have deprived my family!!!!)

There we have it. So here we are off to Wisley Gardens at last! Be fair, you never go anywhere for a day out without having a bit of a journey first!

I have known Wisley Gardens all my life, as I come from Surrey and about 15 minutes by car away from Wisley. I went several times as a young girl and once again in my early twenties. We then moved to Hampshire and I did not visit Wisley again until last summer (2001). I joined the RHS last year, which costs me about £29 a year for me, and a guest and then I do not have to pay admission! Great! On certain Sundays of the year you can take three free guests.

Wisley Gardens is the flagship garden of the Royal Horticultural Society and is situated near Woking, Surrey just off the A3. It is very well signposted with those brown tourist signs so it is nice and easy to find!

It is a wonderful place to visit with far more to see than you could imagine. It isn't just about tramping round a few flowers!

The gardens cover an area of 240 acres of lush Surrey countryside. It is hard to believe you are so close to the major trunk road from London to Portsmouth when you stand in the peace and tranquillity of this lovely place. You don't hear the rushing cars go past at all! It is a blissful haven.

When you arrive there is plenty of parking with no long hike from the car to the garden. On the periphery are a snack bar and coffee shop and the entrance to the shop. The shop deserves a paragraph to itself, so I will return to it later. Once you have gone into the garden you have to decide what you want to see. If you make a day of it you can do everything if you are feeling energetic! If you have only gone for a couple of hours it is worth planning to look at the bits that you would find particularly interesting.
Are you a tree person, flowers- fruit- vegetable growing- or would you rather just amble about enjoying the walk and seeing what crops up! (Sorry about the pun, it was not intentional!)

There are lots of aspects to this garden. There is a fantastic rock garden with alpine houses and rock pools. You can feel as though you have been whisked away to Switzerland!

I love the rose gardens and it is worth going when the roses are in bloom. Gorgeous and fragrant, too. There are many varieties of rose and you can pick up some lovely ideas for your own garden. I also told it can be very romantic walking through the rose gardens in the evenings!

The mixed flower borders can also be really spectacular if you go at the right time of year. Spring and summer give the best displays usually. Now, you will probably think me really sad, but I always slip the digital camera into my handbag when I go to places like this. I take a photo of any plant I fancy having in the garden and I also take a photo of its tag so that I can marry them up at home. We then enlarge it on the computer and see what we think it would look like in our garden. I have some lovely flower pictures stored on my computer!

The fruit cages are worth a look in the summer. There is an amazing amount of soft fruit including berries I had never heard of. There are the obvious strawberries, gooseberries, blueberries, raspberries, loganberries etc. They all sit temptingly, tantalisingly just out of reach behind the wire. I am a sucker for soft fruit!

Then there are the orchards. This is what an English garden should be like- neat rows of gnarled branched apple trees! There are also pears and quinces. You don't often see Quinces in Safeway do you?! They look like a cross between an apple and a pear and are usually used for making jelly and jam. In the orchard, which Wisley call the Fruit Field, there are over 670 types of apple. I find that absolutely staggering! There are miniature apple trees and cider apple trees which I found especially interesting plus some apple varieties which go back to the Middle Ages. I find that sort of historical continuity very comforting and utterly fascinating.

There is an Arboretum where you can look at different types of tree and Wisley is home to the National Heather Collection.

I particularly enjoy the artificial waterway in front of the house with resplendent water lilies. I have this as the desktop on my computer sometimes. It is in the Japanese style and is stunning.

The idea behind Wisley is to demonstrate the cutting edge of gardening practices. It houses the RHS library which members can use for help or research and it has model gardens to give you design ideas using new techniques and styles. I found this interesting as we recently acquired some extra land to the rear of our back garden and we can't all agree what to do with it. This gave us some ideas.

The Wisley experience doesn't stop there! They often have sculpture in the garden. Earlier this year were two pieces by Henry Moore, on loan from the Henry Moore Foundation. There was also a sculpture trail through the gardens. This was interesting as you kept stumbling against pieces of sculpture when you least expected it. One particularly spectacular piece was a colossal owl "flying" through the trees. It really made me jump when I saw it. Perhaps the most memorable was the first piece we saw. To appreciate this story you have to be aware that we did not know about the sculpture trail when we set off, as we had not picked up our "bumph" from the entry desk. Hannah and I came round the corner in a woody bit and in the trees I could see a man squatting, apparently naked! I nudged Hannah and said "Look- there is a bloke doing his business in the bushes, it's really not on!!" We continued walking and as we got nearer we saw it was only a statue. A very realistic statue, I might add! I think the sculpture was being sold, although when I found out the prices I gave up on the idea. They were very expensive indeed. I did notice several of our American and Japanese cousins purchasing them. I wonder how they would get them home?

This year Wisley are renovating the Walled Garden West. It is a microclimate created by 10ft high walls to allow a range of exotic plants to be grown. There is a lovely central pond with a slate bridge and it connects to a semi-circular pond outside.

There is a lovely restaurant but we tend to picnic and enjoy the lovely surroundings.

THE WISLEY PLANT CENTRE:

You can buy some of the many plant types on display in the plant centre. They stock more than 10,000 varieties. There are trained staff available to assist with any enquiries and you can get advice for any of your gardening problems. There is a two-year guarantee on hardy stock.

THE WISLEY SHOP:

We love the shop! It sells all sorts of things from delicious home made cakes, jams and pickles to a brilliant array of gardening books (the world's finest collection) and fine bone china. There is also stationery, kitchenware, glassware and videos.

Outside the shop is a little stall, which sells fruit and vegetables grown at Wisley. We had some lovely russet apples and a marrow.

If you are a keen gardener there are lectures, shows and special event days.

The shows are things like The British Irish Show, the summer fruit and vegetable show and the Cyclamen show. There are more, this is just a selection.

Here are some of the special events: Pruning of trees and bushes, Organic gardening, Getting started in the Greenhouse, encouraging butterflies into the garden, lawn maintenance, encouraging wildlife in your garden, Container gardening and loads, loads more!

When is it open?

Every day except Christmas day. Monday- Friday 10am-6pm (4.30 Nov-Feb)
Saturday and Sunday 9am-6pm (4.30 Nov-Feb)

Last admission is half an hour before closing. NOTE: From November - February on Sundays it is a member’s only day.

The entrance fee is £5 for adults and £2 for children 6-16 years. Of course, if you are a member entrance is free. Membership gives you free entry into RHS gardens all over the country. It also gets you first pickings tickets for the Chelsea and Hampton Court Flower Shows. You can get loads of other perks including discounted tickets to BBC Gardeners World and free seeds once a year from Wisley.

 

...less