Category: nature-blog

SARRATT COMMUNITY GARDEN The garden behind the shop is a big space which has been used for very different purposes over the years. Given the central role the shop plays in village life we have put together a small group who wish to create a Community Garden. This will be open for the use of […]

Round up of 2021 in the Community Garden 2021 has been a year of growth in every sense. We started with a glorious blank canvas of 22 composted beds, separated by woodchip paths, which had been marked out and filled the previous Autumn and Winter. These were gradually filled, mostly with annual vegetables, but also […]

Thank you to Malcolm Coles for sharing the shot of a Barn Owl spotted in the field behind the Sarratt Post Office. Really good to see!!

September Update from the Community Garden September is such a GREAT month! Possibly my favourite. We have been sowing autumn salads to go into the polytunnel, along with Sweet Williams and hardy annuals such as Cornflowers and Ammi which will spend the next few weeks growing strong root systems underground, before stopping their growth over […]

January Update from the Community Garden The first month of the year is a time of resolutions, of making plans and looking forward. As the rain batters the windows and the seasonal ponds are replenished, it can feel unrealistic, if not outright foolish to be drawing up planting plans, counting future harvests, and allowing for […]

Their parents flew in Sunday March 29th and quickly feathered the nest. Now the five swallow babies have all successfully fledged but swoop back each evening and tuck up together as you can see from the photo!  Sarratt Swallows born and bred.

February Update from the Community Garden Spring in the air, drawing us out from winter hibernation and into the outdoors. If you have managed to give your garden yearly coverings of compost, your soil should be completely workable in February, and hopefully giving you some beautiful signs of life and bounty. There is something magical […]

Meet The Creator: Bartek Wojcik, Gardener and Beekeeper   Bartek Wojcik is part of our Gardens team here at The Grove but has found his passion in taking care of our very own beehives. We caught up with him about what his job entails ahead of the summer and harvesting our first batch of home-grown […]

Community garden  We have had an incredibly productive Autumn and Winter sorting out the bones of the garden and it is now looking beautifully inviting, both visually and with the sort of potential that warms every gardener’s heart! We now have a beautiful courtyard garden, though this remains in the realm of the shop, a […]

I am pleased to announce that the Sustainability director of Thames Water has agreed to attend a public meeting to be held in the village hall on the evening of Friday 25 September at 7.00. Also Phil Williams (Three Rivers Councillor responsible for environmental issues) and our local MP (Gagan Mohindra) will also be attending. […]

Sustainable Sarratt – An Apiarist’s diary May and June are two of the busiest months of the year in the apiary. Colonies of honey bees that have survived the winter grow exponentially in number during the spring so that they are reaching their peak when pollen and nectar flows are at there highest. A big […]

Sunday Snowday in Sarratt …… most likely that many households heard the excited screams of children just bursting to get outside and play in the snow this morning. Children of all ages no doubt. Sarratt is so pretty in the snow that so many of us are compelled to get whatever our age. Spotted… the […]

Sustainable Sarratt : No Mow May in Sarratt We are coordinating an effort to increase biodiversity in Sarratt, the more people who join in the better. It’s very easy to take part. The NoMowMay campaign is national and aims to reverse the loss of wild flower grasslands which provide vital food for our wildlife and pollinators. […]

Sarratt Wildlife Volunteers On Sunday January 9th we were again working at Quickmoor Pond. The weather was dry and quite fair after a drenching Saturday, and we were very pleased that several of the local residents turned out to help so there were about 15 of us. We wanted to finish the job we started […]

COMMUNITY GARDEN FEBRUARY UPDATE January has been a varied month in the SCG – bitterly cold days with brittle frosts and painful fingers; mild, wet and cloudy days reminiscent of Autumn; and the occasional glorious moment of mood-lifting sunshine. At a glance, nothing is growing, and the garden is a bareboned shadow of its former […]

February usually sees the first signs of spring, Snowdrops beginning to open, some early crocus and daffodils pushing through the soil and perhaps warm days and Sunshine???   So, what to do? …  find the wellies and clear up after the floods and wind. Very early vegetables can be sown preferably under a cloche, hardy lettuce, […]

During the evening of Weds 17th February (20:00-21:30): ‘River Chess Association will be hosting an online ‘Ask a Scientist’ Event via Zoom using our new Storymap resource. If you have any questions that you would like to ask about the River Chess then please do join us. During the event we will use our Storymap to […]

Sustainability Sarratt River Chess Barnaby Jackson has been following the issues of untreated sewage in our local river – The Chess. Just to remind everyone, the sewage problem arises from the treatment plant in Chesham which gets over whelmed with rain water, foul water and sewage from the homes and business locations in the Chesham […]

August Update from the Community Garden Today I felt the sun on my skin for the first time in weeks – wonderful. I don’t want to complain about the cool and rainy weather – it has been fabulous for young trees, shrubs, fruit bushes, courgettes, beans, raspberries, salads and dahlias, making up in part for […]

Chalk streams are a characteristic and attractive feature of the Chilterns landscape. They are also a globally rare habitat, confined to north west Europe and to the UK in particular. In fact more than 85% of all the chalk streams in the world, are found in England. Chalk streams are important habitats for wildlife and support a massive […]

Community Garden Update November 2021 November has been a surprisingly rewarding month in the Community Garden. Having assumed that, once the regular picking was over, there was little of interest to do, I couldn’t have been more wrong. Once the garden was cleared of the annuals that had dominated since Spring, we were able to […]

Busy bees at Asher’s Woodland Trails If you go down to the woods today, you’ll be in for a big surprise. Our green-fingered gardeners have been busy transforming the estate ready for our next guests’ arrival, whenever that may be. Natasha, our Head Gardener says they have been “Coppicing hazels to create new boundary faggots […]

Community Garden There isn’t a huge amount to report since the last update, it being wintery, cold and wet, but a few things have progressed: bulbs that were nestled under fruit bushes and in the courtyard beds are all pushing up strongly, giving us a much needed shot of encouragement that Spring will arrive, and […]

March Update from the Community Garden If I were a better gardener, I could wax lyrical about the wonderful winter veg I’m picking – kale, leeks, winter mustards. In reality, there’s little to boast about, and nothing to pick in the SCG this month, bar some rhubarb, which would prefer to be left a little […]