Emmetts Garden and Hop Shop at Castle Farm near Sevenoaks
We decided to make the most of the sunshine and we headed to Emmetts Garden for our first visit. We received a warm welcome on arrival, along with a map and we proceeded to explore. First stop was the discovery hut, a little building that had some recordings and videos of how Emmett’s Garden used to be.
We then wandered through the rose garden, and the children were amused when they asked me to read out the signs, which informed all to close the gates as rabbits enjoyed nibbling the plants and bulbs! This caused great amusement as the children reminisced about the Peter Rabbit film and I could see how they were envisaging a take over by rabbits having a rave at Emmetts Garden!
We explored the grounds further and came across some lovely sculptures of giant ants, made out of wood. There were signs explaining the ant species details, along with a map of where they were found, which the children enjoyed learning.
We then came across the natural play area, which had a lovely tepee which had a box of dressing up costumes inside. The natural den and balance beams were a hit with both kids, as was the balls and tube tunnel, albeit there were only 3 balls available. We noticed some work was being undertaken, constructing a mud kitchen, so a promising addition to the play area.
There are ample benches dotted around, along with picnic tables near the café and other areas of the grounds. After our picnic, we went to the café for an ice cream treat, and the children enjoyed sitting inside the ‘stables’ which even had the hooks for the horses leads, along with the hay racks – which resulted in the children pretending to be horses eating hay.
We had a further wander around the ground, exploring lots of lovely plants and flowers and saw lots of bumble bees, insects and butterflies, which all went down well for our tracking list for #30dayswild.
As it was still sunny, we decided to drive down the road to visit the Hop Shop at Castle Farm, for a quick preview of the lavender flowers. What a lovely scent and sight to see all the purple. Always competitive, my children took bets to see who could guess how many bees and bumble bees we would discover.
There is a viewing area and bench for one to sit and admire the beauty and take in the scent, although trying to get two children to sit still for a photograph is a challenge of mission impossible! The cherry on top was seeing the red tractor in action and buying some treats at the shop to take home.
https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/emmetts-garden
https://hopshop.co.uk/