Flower Gardens

We think that enhancing a beautiful valley with bee friendly flowers can be beneficial to everyone.

Trendle Farm became part of Mill on the Brue in 1982 having earlier been a dairy farm with many cider apple trees and from the 1960’s a 9-hole golf course. The whole area had been made into fairways and greens with very few trees (elm disease had struck a few years previously).

The first flowerbed was created in 1991 at the end of the entrance lawn, and in the mid 1990’s it was decided that the entrance to the activity centre should have an attractive ‘first impression’ as people arrived.

Subsequently the climbing roses on the right of the drive and the oval rose bed in the lawn were planted and then Mill on the Brue’s recycling policy was put to best use when old canoes were converted into flowerbeds.

The First Green used to be just below what is now the Longhouse and a large herbaceous border was planted (a sand bunker had to be dug out for this purpose!) As the grass here heavily sloped away, we rebuilt the ha-ha and planted a beech hedge to link up the two copper beeches. The vineyard was also planted in 1996. Around the vineyard we planted roses, rosemary and a lavender bed all to encourage our bees to pollinate the vine flowers!

Since the construction of the Longhouse a rainwater harvesting tank holding 26,000 litres supplying the lavatories in the Longhouse, was buried under part of the First Green and the herbaceous border was extended over this. Now that this has matured we’ve tried to create a vertical planting scheme shading under the Longhouse balcony.

In 2015 we built four new bedrooms attached to the back of the Clubhouse accommodation. In order to soften the vista we planted a green roof over the balcony to feel more in keeping with close by kitchen garden. On the side of the Clubhouse we dedicated an area to make a bee garden.