Friday 21 August 2020

Visiting the Sunflower Picking Patch in Hampshire

Today we visited a beautiful sunflower field in Hampshire, an instagrammer's dream! Sunflower Picking Patch is located in Fordingbridge and they are open to visitors throughout August. 


I've been to a pumpkin patch before but never sunflowers (the same company run both from the same location!) so we thought it would be a fun visit for the kids and something a bit different. 

You can book tickets in advance or pay on the gate, however they do limit numbers so I would definitely advise booking online. We booked in advance and just had to show the email at the front gate. The cost is £6 per person, however under 4's go free. 

Parking is free and plentiful and the Sunflower Picking Patch is very easy to find if you are coming from the Ringwood direction. It's on the main road and you can't miss it! 

Once you get inside you can head straight for the sunflowers, although a friendly member of staff advised us to leave that until last. You might want to pick yourself a bunch of sunflowers so it makes sense not to have to carry them around with you. 

There are crafts available to purchase and we saw some lovely looking sunflower pails that children were painting. We opted for a tin can bee/ladybird kit and handily this was all contained inside the tin so it was easy for us to take home without having to do it there and then. One to save for a rainy afternoon! 

There was an ice cream van on site, plus toilets and also a fab little play area which our kids really enjoyed playing on. The noisy cars were a big hit! There was a lovely swing that is perfect for having your photo taken on. 



The Maize Maze on site is really impressive and is over 4 football pitches in area with almost 2000m of path! (We got lost and I'm certain we covered every one of those metres!). The maze has been designed with Covid in mind and has nice big pathways so there is plenty of room for social distancing. It's a bit uneven underfoot but you could definitely take a buggy round - my friend did just this and had no issues. 



The maze is bee themed and features 9 fact boards along the way with a surprise in the middle which you might spot peeking over the top of the maize plants. We loved getting to the middle and it was reassuring to know we weren't completely lost! 



The sunflower field was our last stop of the afternoon and it was a sight to behold - hundreds and hundreds of bright sunflowers swaying in the wind. We walked around the entire perimeter of the sunflowers and found the best flowers over the nearest side. Alot of the flowers on the far side were already starting to droop but to be honest, there were so many that you wouldn't have any problems finding the perfect sunflower! 




If you choose to purchase some sunflowers, they are priced at £1 per flower of 6 for £5. You can bring your own secateurs but they do have spares you can borrow. 

There are plenty of perfect spots for photos and lots of little pathways through the sunflowers if you wanted to go further into the field. 



We had a lovely afternoon and really enjoyed our visit. If you want to pick some sunflowers of your own, be quick because you only have until the 31st of August. It's definitely worth following them on social media too because they will update on bad weather closures. And it's definitely nicer to visit on a sunny day! 



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