RHS Garden Wisley: Our columnist’s perfect day out at a garden just beyond Sussex

Another week, another chance to mention how much I love the National Trust.
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But this time it’s to reassure the heritage conservation charity that I’m still its biggest fan, despite the fact I’ve been cheating on it this week with another garden...

I was invited to visit RHS Garden Wisley, just over an hour away near Woking, in Surrey. It’s the flagship garden of the Royal Horticultural Society and one of the UK’s most visited and best-loved gardens, attracting around a million visitors each year.

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Combine that with the fact it was hosting a giant Easter egg hunt for children over the holidays, and this pretty much had ‘Katherine’s perfect day out’ written all over it.

A day out at what's essentially a garden them park?! Yes please, said KatherineA day out at what's essentially a garden them park?! Yes please, said Katherine
A day out at what's essentially a garden them park?! Yes please, said Katherine
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The gardens cover 240 acres. This doesn’t mean a huge amount to me, as I’m all about words, not numbers. But it basically means the place is pretty huge, and there’s plenty to do to fill a whole day.

Aside from the obvious different gardens (I was loving the rock garden), there’s also a huge glasshouse to explore, as well as several different walks, viewpoints, bird hides, sculptures and more to see.

And unlike National Trust properties I’ve been to, there were also playparks. The one we found was a decent size, and the kids spent a happy hour getting covered in sand, bouncing on mini trampolines, hanging upside down and doing obstacle courses.

Katherine – loves gardens, will travelKatherine – loves gardens, will travel
Katherine – loves gardens, will travel
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It also gave us the ultimate parental upper hand: ‘Let’s just look at this alpine house, then we’ll go to the playpark’ or ‘If you don’t stop running, shrieking and making other adults look at us like we’re bad parents, we won’t go to the playpark’. Because we all know the secret to good parenting is threats and bribes. You can just make the playpark bribe work for your own needs on the day. I also always like to have the prospect of an ice cream lingering throughout the day, too, as a way of keeping them from getting too feral.

The aforementioned Easter egg hunt also gave us another card up our sleeve (gotta love a bonus bribe) as those completing it got a prize – a little box featuring chocolates and a toy bunny to make. The hunt was included in the admission price, and the trail booklet included lots of interesting information for children. When we picked up the prizes, there was also an opportunity for the kids to make bunny ear hats – another free activity that entertained them for a good 20 minutes. And it gave my husband a new hat to wear when my son got bored of wearing the ears #embarrassingdad.

I should also note that cafés and food huts/trucks are pretty abundant throughout Wisley. There was also a plethora of benches and picnic tables. We never struggled to find anywhere to sit, and could get food when we needed it at either end of the site.

A day out at what's essentially a garden them park?! Yes please, said KatherineA day out at what's essentially a garden them park?! Yes please, said Katherine
A day out at what's essentially a garden them park?! Yes please, said Katherine

Toilets are also plentiful, and best of all they’re clean – something that comes into its own even more when you have children. Why must they touch everything? Even if it’s of no interest at all?

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We arrived at opening, left just before 5pm, and still felt like we could have spent hours more at these beautiful gardens. Surely the sign of a fab day out?!

To book and for more information, visit the RHS Garden Wisley website.

School places

It was national offer day for children starting school in September on Tuesday. This meant our son was due to find out if he’d been accepted at the same school as his sister. I’m very pleased and relieved to say he was, as I was getting ever more panicked at the thought of trying to be at two schools at once (just how does anybody manage that?!). I hope everybody got what they were hoping for.