Monday mentor...RHS Wisley

This may not seem like an obvious Monday mentor but for many local (Surrey) based Mummies, RHS Wisley is a godsend.

The home of the Royal Horticultural Society (from hereonin referred to as RHS), the gardens at Wisley provide a beautiful, safe and clean environment where both Mummy and baby can learn about plants, animals, seasons, colours, and life.

Both Anna & I are keen gardeners, we may have mentioned that once or twice, and can often be found walking around Wisley with our terrors, I mean delightful children, in tow.

Gifted to the RHS in 1903, the garden now boasts a huge array of different habitats for us to explore. At this time of year, the heathers in the far reaches of the north east of the gardens - through the pine tress are particularly eye catching, as is the last of the rose blooms in the new Queen Mother's Rose Garden.

Always stunning is the green house with its large artificial waterfall. DangerBaby and I always save a bit of our sandwiches for Mr. Swan who hangs about on the lake near the Glasshouse doors.

My absolute favourite place is the fruit orchards! Pushing the buggy up fruit mount is well worth the effort. In spring time there's beautiful blossom, and in autumn a heady smell of fermenting fruit fall! It's easy to see why people believe that the fruit that tempted Eve was an apple (the actual type of fruit is never mentioned in the bible).

We wander back to the entrance via the Herb garden and cottage gardens, through the roses back to the Alpines, where we can follow the streams down via waterfalls and splash pools back to the house with it's formal grass and boarders.

When we're with friends we visit the WILD AT WISLEY area to play making dens, learning about knots, and improving our balance on logs smoothed by many little hands.

It's a wonderful place with things to discover at every turn, you can't see it all in one day. We've been going at least once a week for two years and still find new things each time we visit.

So pop along to Wisley and have a wonderful time getting back to nature!