Yesterday I talked a little bit about Birkheads Secret Gardens and Nursery which you can find here. Today I’m going to talk more about
the actual gardens.
I don’t want to go into too much detail with all of them
because I don’t want to spoil it for you. I don’t want to take away the secret element
for you. Half the fun after all is exploring the unknown. I’ll just talk about some of my favourite
parts, which is most of them to be honest.
I loved the Millennium Avenue, which was a long walk with peonies,
roses and lavenders among others in the border. You’ll find that a lot of the
borders are colour coordinated which is just simply amazing. You get a good
view of the house as you walk along too.
There’s a working bee hive which I was so amazed to see. It was
situated in the vegetable garden. You could just see the bees flying in and
out. I've never been so close to one before. I spotted homemade honey in the
coffee shop, so I’m guessing they get it from their own bees. I love that
although it’s pretty; it’s also a working garden. Being sustainable is a great
achievement.
Throughout the various gardens there are statues and pieces
made by local artists or to do with the history of the gardens, which is a
great element. It was good reading about them and seeing how everything fits
together.
Another favourite of mine was The Slate Circle Garden. It
was filled with beautiful flowers, roses and lavender to give it a great scent.
I love the smell of lavender and may have rubbed my fingers along a couple of
stems so I could get a good whiff of it. The garden uses scented shrubs and
perennials to attract butterflies and humans. It definitely attracted us
alright and there were many butterflies gently landing on flowers before flying
off again.
A child-like element was the Wishing Tree. Christine, (one
of the owners of Birkheads) told my mam the story of how it came about and I
was just fascinated by it. You’ll have to go and ask her yourself to find out. You can add your own key to it and make a
wish. Bring your own from home or buy them at the gift shop if you forget. I
think it’s great and although I didn't make a wish this time, it means I have
an excuse to go back.
My all time favourite garden was the Meditation Retreat. I’m not even
kidding, as soon as you stepped into it, you could have been somewhere else
entirely. It had the wooden bridge going over the pond. The plants looked authentic,
the gongs and lanterns. Everything about it was amazing and the exact replica
of an oriental garden.
The whole place was indescribable. Each little section you went into transported you somewhere different. I don’t just mean geographically,
just the elements of the gardens, the props, the themes and the colours. It tied
everything together nicely and made the whole place fascinating.
Like I said in my previous post it's dog friendly as long as you keep your pooch on a lead. There are no bins for poop bags though. We just kept it next to the car until we left. It would be a great place for kids too.
It's £4.50 for an adult ticket. You can get season tickets (£12 each) or double season tickets (£23 for two) if you go and decide you want the season ticket you can deduct the £4.50 off the ticket which is great.
At the moment Birkheads is open 10am - 5pm Wed - Sun.
We opted for a season ticket. There's no doubt in my mind whether I'll go back. I'm just waiting for some snow maybe. That would make any garden magical, with this, so much more so...
Do any of you know any other garden places local?
