I read in a gardening journal recently, several well-known gardeners bemoaning the poor growing conditions this year and the effect on their plants. They are not the only growers who have had a difficult year. Normally if I can grow anything it will be beans and courgettes. Not this year! The damp conditions was terrible for the beans but excellent for slugs and snails. The thing I noticed about my courgettes and other squash plants was that a lot of the flowers did not get pollinated.

I have spoken to other gardeners who have reported other problems. One lady I spoke to from a nearby village was very disappointed that although she had a front garden full of flowers for pollinators she saw none – which is very alarming.

Another lady who grows her own vegetables had a terrible harvest, but she blames her neighbour who has extremely bright external lighting he leaves on all night. Plants, of all species need the rhythms of nature that all living creatures need. Lengthening the hours of daylight weakens them and the invertebrates that are needed to pollinate them.

No one can deny that without invertebrates we lose our pollinators, our natural pest controllers, our waste eaters and soil improvers. We humans and all living species, can’t live without insects but they are disappearing at a frightening rate. We have known this for 40 years or more. It is not a case of saying we should stop killing them but we must stop destroying them with pesticides and other noxious chemicals and pollutants. These pollutants are not doing humans any good either when they leach into our water and air systems.

It seems a bit strange that Paris and other cities around the world have seen the light and banned pesticides but we can still find shelves of them in local garden centres and supermarkets. What does that say about our care of the world around us?

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You may have read in the Henley Standard that Greener Henley held our first ever Science Fair for Schools on the subject of pollution. We were delighted to host 120 children representing 16 local schools and some Henley College students. The Fair was designed to be as interactive as possible with the older students leading all the activities and explaining the different kinds of man- made pollution to the primary children. And what a brilliant job the older children did! The hall was a happy buzz of children learning and teaching each other.

One teacher present told me that her Year 9 pupils had asked to run a Year 9 Science Fair for the Year 7’s in the summer. I did hear that some College students were interested in holding their own Science Fair for their teachers and fellow students. That’s all very encouraging. It did cross my mind that
perhaps we should put on a similar Science Fair for adults in the town!
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Greener Henley has volunteered to help the Council achieve Bee Friendly Status by late spring. This involves working with communities considering our pollinators by planting up local areas with bees and other insects in mind. Included in the scheme should be a few bee hotels for solitary bees and perhaps some easy access water for thirsty bees.

If you are a school, care home, church or a business with a bit of outdoor space and would like to put Henley on the map as being a Bee Friendly Town , we’d love to hear from you at greenerhenley@gmail.com. Or, if you are handy with a saw, how about helping to make a few bee hotels to put up in various bee-friendly spots around town.

At the moment we have one school, one sports field, one church, one allotment holder and one residential street interested in doing this. Have you got a bit of communal ground near your road? Are you up for the challenge? See what other towns are doing at https://beefriendlytrust.org.
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It has been a busy year for Greener Henley and we would like to thank you for all your support. It would be good to say we are making headway in mitigating the harm of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution in the area but sadly that wouldn’t be true, there is much more to do. None of us knows what’s
around the corner but if our community works together now and plans for whatever emergency befalls us, Henley will be the stronger for it. Please keep in touch.