Dens and Mazes

Top of the list of children’s favourite things to do in a garden has got to be building dens and running around a maze. We visited Wisley in Surrey this week and found both of these.

The children’s play area has been upgraded to include a fantastic den building area. A great way to keep your children occupied in a really constructive way. The frames of the dens are provided by permanent wooden poles stacked into the ground. A range of building material is then provided for your kids to create what ever they want. It was interesting to see the different techniques eomployed.  There were those children who kept redoing their den, those who just wanted to chill out inside, some made elaborate doors and some dens were completely sealed up. There are some ideas for creating a den in your garden at Kidsinthegarden.  If you have a large garden the Wisley format is a great idea.

As well as the usual climbing frames and stepping stones there was also novel spying area.  The blue circles in the wooden stakes pictured above are binoculars.

A sunflower maze is a great idea. Unfortunately due to lack of water the giant sunflowers at Wisley were only about 3 feet high, but the little ones still couldn’t see over.  It also meant that the sunflower heads were accessible so the whole maze was filled with sunflower faces and patterns created by the children. My favourite mazes in the South East of the UK are the hedge maze at Hampton Court Palace and the water maze at Hever Castle in Kent. We are just back from Normandy where maize mazes are very popular. The one we tried took well over an hour to find our way around, testing the patience of our 5 year old, so a little bit of cheating went on.  If you would like to visit one in the UK Adrian Fisher, the master maze creator, lists a number of maize mazes in this country.

Frogs in a Grow Bag

We have always had numerous types of frogs in our garden. A green frog watering can, stone frogs and some made of cast iron. Although we do not have a pond there have always been real frogs. One of which came all the way with me to the rubbish tip and back again. Than goodness I realised he was there before the clippings went down the chute. I always now check my garden rubbish bags before setting off.


This year we have had a real delight with the frogs. They have taken up residence in the tomato grow bags. Each time the tomato plants are watered one, and sometimes two frogs, peep their heads out to receive a lovely dousing. I am using organic seaweed fertiliser on the tomato plants so I am hoping that there will be no harm to the frogs. We have also spotted what I think is toad in the garden. The more the better as far as I am concerned especially as I am sure they are helping to reduce the slug population in the garden.

Most information on the internet about attracting frogs and toads to your garden concentrates on having a pond. However most frogs and toads do not hibernate in water and spend a lot of their time on dry land so there is no reason why they cannot be frequent visitors to most gardens. The tree stumps and log piles left in our garden may be a prefect habitat for them. The Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust gives lots of tips and information about creating a frog-friendly garden.

Hampton Court Flower Show: My Favourite Garden

The garden one that bowled me over most at The Hampton Court Flower Show was the ‘An Uprising of Kindness’ garden designed by Bill Butterworth. The garden celebrated the homeless charity Emmaus which began in France in 1954. The planting was beautiful, with an edible French Mediterranean theme, including vines, olive, bay and apple trees. The colours of purple and orange were divine. The main water feature had 19 stacks of plates representing the 19 Emmaus communities across the UK. However it was the entrance to the garden which appealed most to me. You enter through a circular arbor with seating. On the floor two curled up people are depicted with glass bottle bottoms sunk into the ground. To enter the garden you cannot walk around these people as you usually would homeless people. You either step over or walk through them when you go in. You also have the choice of sitting in the arbor and contemplating what you can see.

HAMPTON COURT FLOWER SHOW 2010: GARDENS FOR CHILDREN

When I visit gardens I am always on the look out for ideas that will get children playing and really looking at their environment. This year there was lots on offer at the Hampton Court Flower Show.  A garden which aims to raise awareness of overactive bladders may not be an obvious candidate for having child appeal. Yet any garden with a giant pink tap hovering in the air and pouring out water is a great eye catcher. There is no doubt that children will be intrigued as to how it works and how magical it really is. I am sure there will be quite a few ‘I want one of those’ heard during the course of the show. And, indeed, a smaller toned down version would be great fun.

A Matter of Urgency

A garden with a more traditional child-friendly feel is the Playful Garden designed by Southend Borough Council. It combines a blend of play, vegetable and landscape garden, all with a quirky feel, so that plants hang down rather than grow up. The tunnels in perspex are designed so that children can see the roots and animals living in the soil. The design and planting encourages lots of different type of active play and interaction with the plants and structures. I liked the arena – giving children the freedom to run around, tumble down or to dress up and put on a play.

Playful Garden

Root World Tunnel

There has been lots of publicity the Legoland Garden, which has great novelty value for the kids and is definitely better than plasticine flower garden shown at Chelsea last year. It is unlikely that you will be able to use similar features in your own garden. If you miss it at Hampton Court you will be able to see it when it is rebuilt at Legoland Windsor.

The Legoland Pirates Landing Garden

For me one of the highlights of this years show has to be the Home Grown Area. You can take tour around the fields of an arable farm in miniature and a similarly miniature market garden or is it a large allotment.  There is an orchard and chickens and an unusual mushroom growing area..  Everything looks great and children can really see where there food comes from and how ornamental it can all be. Inspirational.

Finally there is the recycled containers competition from Girlguiding UK.  I rather like this container just about identifiable as a shopping trolley.

Hampton Court Flower Show 2010

My review of the 2013 Flower Show can be found here

 I  thought I would share a with you some of my photographs from the Hampton Court Flower Show.

More on my favourite gardens and child friendly and quirky gardens to follow.

Photography and Savill Gardens

I have recently realised that you can’t write a website and a blog about gardens without getting into photography. A trip to Savill Gardens in Windsor Great Park last week with a photographer friend provided the perfect opportunity to have a plant photography tutorial. I hope we will all benefit from any improvement. One of the photos below is taken by my friend, Brigitte Flock. See if you can spot which one.

Go to Savill Gardens this time of year to see the hostas, trees, new rose garden and stunning perennial borders.

I am attending the Hampton Court Flower Show on Monday 4 July so I will be practising my new skills then.  You can usually pick up good tips for child-friendly gardens at the show.  I shall be especially looking out for the Playful Garden.  Where plants are fun to look at, feel and smell especially if they are upside down!   So watch this space to find out more.

Out2Play in Scotland

As a family we have just spent two weeks in Scotland enjoying the delights of the outdoors and mountain scenery in the North West Highlands. We camped at Glenbrittle, right by the Cuillin mountains and a lovely sandy cove on the Isle of Skye. Then we rented a farmhouse on the west coast of the mainland in an area called Torridon.

The campsite was a fabulous garden itself, full of wildflowers and long grasses, the cliff tops were crammed with wildflowers and there was fantastic vegetation on all of the lower slopes of the mountains. My son managed a number of 4/5 hours walks uphill. He learnt to identify deer track. He smelt bog myrtle, felt how soft cotton grass was and added sundew to his list of carnivorous plants. His shell, crab and rock collection was extensive. I came across geum rivale, Water Avens, for the first time and we all learnt to identify the different types of shells collected.

Our farmhouse was on the Coulin estate right in the middle of Torridon and next to the Beinn Eighe (pronounced ‘A’) Nature Reserve. The first national nature reserve to be set up in the country in the 1950s. This meant we have the luxury of walking in the estate from 3 miles in whereas other walkers had to start their walks from the entrance to the estate. One of our walks passed a mountain bothy. Bothys are maintained by a charity, the Mountain Bothies Association.  They describe the use of a bothy as camping without a tent. The one in Torridon was called Easan Dorch (The Teahouse) and is unusual as it is a relatively recent bothy. Most I have passed and stayed in have been converted cottages or barns. This was very cute and actually looked similar to a children’s playhouse. It is very small but would be a great place for children to stay overnight. All bothies are also useful also a lunch stop on a rainy day or when you need to avoid the midges.

On the non-walking days we fitted in two visits to Scottish gardens. I was intrigued by Attadale Gardens in Strathcarron, Wester Ross as it had been voted Gardeners World Magazine readers 1st choice of Scottish garden and best day out for kids. The garden is hidden well from the road and is full of natural planting and bridges and small pathways some forming secret passages especially in the water garden. It has a fantastic giant sundial and is full of sculpture. The cheetah and chameleon were my son’s favourite. Mine was a piece of rock engraved with the words ‘Life is not a rehearsal’. They had a great display in the self service tea room with maps of the world showing where all the plants in the garden had come from.

The National Trust for Scotland’s garden at Inverewe is a must for a visit. Its highlight is the walled garden. It really is to die for as it is a walled garden with the most spectacular views. Go and see it just for this.

Back home and we find that the strawberries have ripened, the carrot seedlings planted close to the house have disappeared, and something has been eating our onions – I thought they would be slug proof.