Hello Everyone! It's time for me, Endon Bear, to write a Garden Bears' World post, and this one is about a visit to a big garden centre called Bridgemere, which is not too far away.
The first is a lovely little cottage garden, which was a show garden at the Chelsea Flower show many years earlier. A local WI branch designed it, and I thought it was delightful. We all wondered what was in the little house, but we couldn't go inside to see.
Nearby was a glorious magnolia tree which we bears were allowed to climb. Polar sometimes thinks about getting one for the front garden, as they grow well in the local soil, but she would not want a huge one like this. The blooms on this one were so large, Waverley could sit in one!
Another garden had what looked like a ruined castle. We enjoyed climbing on that too. Polar said it looked a little like Mow Cop Castle, the folly on top of the high hill near our house.
Just around the corner was a brilliant water garden, with waterfalls and a really big pond. We had lots of fun exploring the woods and climbing on the mossy rocks but were careful not to get too close to the pools or waterfalls.
'If we were wild bears, we would stand out in the flowing water catching fish!' said Hanley but, luckily for the fish, we are not wild bears.
'We'll have to take you bears up there to see the view,' she told us. 'On a clear day, you can see all the way to Liverpool and Winter Hill near Bolton, though it's a steep drop from the folly, so I don't think we'll let you climb it.'
That sounded very interesting but, for now, all we wanted to do was to run around exploring these pretty gardens, sniffing the flowers and climbing interesting trees and shrubs. There were so many different styles of garden and plants we hadn't seen before.
There were formal gardens, similar to those we see at some of the National Trust gardens, with tulips planted in big rectangular beds edged with box.
We bears loved these apple trees, which had been trained into a hedge around a big lawn, as these were perfect for small bears to climb!
I was surprised how colourful some of the trees were too. We think of leaves being colourful in the autumn but these acer trees have colourful leaves all year, with very fresh colours in the spring, and deeper shades as the year goes on.
Polar carried us up some steps to the top of a mound, where there was a little gazebo with some comfy seats in. She and Polar sat down to have a drink of water and we jumped out of our bag to explore.
We were level with the higher branches of some of the big magnolia trees, which looked glorious with the sun shining through their huge flowers. We were tempted to try to climb them, but it would have been a long drop if we fell and, if we had got stuck, Polar definitely couldn't have reached to lift us down.
When Polar and Grizzly had finished their rest, we went to look at some more big beds of tulips, before going back towards the water garden for a closer look at some trees we had seen from the gazebo on the mound that Grizzly didn't recognise.
Luckily, one of the gardeners was nearby and he could point out the name and a special 'Champion Tree' plaque from the Royal Horticultural Society for the Cercidiphullum japonicum 'Pendulum' which is a very unusual tree, originally from Japan, which produces leaves from its main branches as well as from smaller twigs, like normal trees. The gardener told us the very new leaves and autumn leaves smell like burnt sugar!
Polar got some of the plants she wanted for the pond, then we came home and had a special treat for lunch - oatcakes, which Grizzly had bought at the farm shop. Polar warmed them up under the grill with mushrooms, cheese and chives.
They are not as tasty as the ones from Mrs Kay's boat but they still make a good meal for a small gardening bear!
No comments:
Post a Comment