Like many locals, we have had a pleasing amount of apples this year. The hot weather has brought a lot of fruits on earlier than normal. In the case of apples, we have noticed that they had a head start on the normal rampages of the wasps and other creatures that enjoy apples too.

Blackberries were a lot earlier than normal and much smaller in size but just as tasty. One thinks of blackberry picking in late August and September but most of the bushes I have been watching peaked in July – so not so many blackberry and apple pies to be had. Someone suggested that the glut of smaller fruit could be a natural defence caused by the lack of rain and excessive heat we have had this summer. The purpose of all living things is to reproduce and maintain their species. So it’s small or nothing!

Perhaps that’s the reason I saw a splendid magnolia tree in St. Marks Road flowering for the second time this year.

Another thing I have seen for the first time this year was a strange, flower-like object growing on a Turkey oak. It was quite beautiful, layers of petal-like scales very similar to a miniature globe artichoke. It transpires that it is actually a gall – the artichoke gall no less! From researching them, I find they are quite common on English oak and Sessile oak where they form in oak buds. Inside the structure there is a cavity containing a single gall wasp that emerges in late summer. I am amazed that I have never noticed these growths before.

If you like lovely trees, have you visited Howbery Business Park at Crowmarsh Gifford? This park owned by HR Wallingford is a beautiful parkland with a Manor house, café and river frontage. The park has a tree trail of some fantastic notable trees – you can pick up a leaflet in the Café that gives very useful information about each of the trees they have labelled. They also have a trail all around the Park with a children’s activity searching for wooden silhouettes of wild creatures. Visitors are welcome to the Business Park on week days.

However, the reason I visited the Park was to see the recently installed Flood Resilient Garden. This delightful garden won a silver medal at Chelsea Flower Show in 2024 and has now found its permanent home. The garden was carefully designed to show how people can protect their gardens and homes
against extreme weather and learn how to increase flood resilience from the ground up.

Gardens have an increasingly important role to play as a first line of defence to the growing threat of our homes being flooded. According to Flood Re, one in four homes is at risk of flooding – not just by the coast and rivers. They suggest that with extreme weather events becoming more frequent and severe, the adaptation of our gardens and outdoor space, of any size, will play an increasingly important role in preventing flooding.
Here are some key facts:
1 in 4 properties are at risk from flooding.
87% of UK households have a garden.
Gardens in London are turned grey to make way for hard surfacing (paving and decking) at the rate of 2.5 Hyde Parks a year.
In the UK our soil stores more water than all our lakes and rivers combined.
1 hectare of soil can store one and a half Olympic swimming pools.

On November 26th Greener Henley with the Kenton Theatre are hosting an important conversation about flooding and pollution with a panel of various experts. It would be great to see you there so we can all understand what Henley needs to do to improve our flood resilience in the town and surrounding area.

Another local place of interest which is worth a visit is the Lady Ryder Memorial Garden, Parmoor Lane in Frieth. This big walled garden has been brought back to life from a state of dereliction by a band of enthusiastic volunteers. The Garden is kept entirely by volunteers who not only tend the acreage but also help children with special needs and adults with disabilities to enjoy working and learning about horticulture. Also, the lucky children of Frieth Primary School have regular gardening lessons there too.

Last year in recognition of the tremendous work the volunteers do, they were awarded a King’s Award for Voluntary Service.

To pay their way they sell fresh fruit, vegetables, plants and flowers in season on Wednesdays between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. Any surplus either goes to the kitchen of the St. Katherine’s Retreat next door, or to a food bank in High Wycombe. There is such a lovely vibe in this garden, I would recommend it to anyone.

Henley is fortunate to have the Old Fire Station Exhibition Centre just above the Town Hall. We have a variety of exhibitions held there by all kinds of artists. Recently a group of textile artists had a show that I visited. It was all very interesting but I was particularly drawn to a piece called ‘Trapped’ by Jennifer Jones which is a hand-woven art piece aimed at highlighting the problems caused by ghost gear.

Ghost gear refers to any fishing equipment or fishing related litter that has been abandoned or lost at sea. Sometimes it is called ‘derelict fishing gear or fishing litter’. Anyone who has visited a beach in recent times would have seen the bright orange, green or blue plastic rope washed up with the tide.

The artist describes that every year, 640,000 tonnes of ghost gear disappears at sea. If it is not collected up, it eventually breaks down into minute plastic particles which then enter the food chain. In addition, these nets, lines and traps become floating killers of marine life, animals and sea birds. They are
indestructible and coated in harmful fungicides.

More than 136,000 seals and whales are trapped in ghost gear every year. Jennifer Jones ‘Trapped’ is woven into the shape of a fisherman’s smock in clear fishing line. It consists of pockets containing discarded ghost gear, collected from the shores around Britain, punctuated by collected shells. The
ends of the sleeves and neck are tied into nets and drawn closed – symbolically trapping the fisherman’s industry in its own waste.

This work is not for sale but can be loaned for exhibition by anyone engaged in highlighting or fighting the problem of ghost gear.

Finally, we are planning a Science Fair for Schools to be held in Henley in November. Last year was our first such event and was a great success involving 120 children from 16 different local schools.

We devised a circuit of activities all related to aspects of pollution. They were all led by older students (KS 3 and Henley College) for younger children to do. The hall buzzed with enthusiasm.

If any readers have some spare time, an interest in science, particularly environmental issues, and are interested in volunteering some help with designing appropriate activities, we would love to hear from you. Our children will be the leaders of tomorrow, let’s give them a helping hand.

Diana Barnett can be contacted through greenerhenley@gmail.com .