Rickmansworth Community Garden
Celebrates Its First Birthday

During June we were delighted to celebrate the first anniversary of the construction of Rickmansworth’s Community Garden. The garden was built by Sustainable Three Rivers volunteers in July 2023 and has been flourishing ever since.

Thanks to an army of local gardeners, volunteers and S3R members who visit three times a week, the raised beds now are now full of vegetables, herbs, fruit and flowers.

Regular events are hosted at the garden, including Rickmansworth Library’s reading groups for Mums and Tots, as well as workshops on gardening and the environment. Check our Facebook page for the latest events.

Our celebrations at the garden coincided with our activities for Great Big Green Week 2024, including two well-attended workshops. The first covered planting pollinator-friendly hanging baskets and the second was a gardening class for all the family, teaching participants how to create wildlife friendly gardens.

Working With TRDC In The Rose Garden

We are also excited to be working in collaboration with the grounds maintenance team at Three Rivers District Council to develop the rose garden and ensure that it is ready to cope with climate change. Many hours have been spent over the last six months weeding, pruning and planting.

New plants chosen for their resilience to cope with extreme heat and drought, plus a great deal of rain, have been planted. These plants have also been selected based on their ability to attract pollinating insects, with many native UK plants also planted. This is such an exciting, inspiring project and we have already noticed many more local residents visiting the rose garden to enjoy the beauty and tranquility. 

Rare Orchids and Wild Flowers

The Community Garden is situated within the Community Orchard, where the council’s No Mow May policy has paid dividends in terms of the wild flowers which have been blooming profusely in early summer.

We noticed stitchwort, mouse ear, bird's foot trefoil, meadow vetchling, dove's foot crane's bill, daisies, buttercups, plus many different grasses. We were also delighted to find three different types of orchid.

The rarest of these is the seldom seen bee orchid. This attracts male bees with velvety flowers which look like female bees. The opportunistic flower emits pheromones which trick the male bees into mating with it, thus pollinating the orchid in the process.

We have also seen another type of rare orchid in the orchard, the pyramidal orchid. This has a pink flower which is shaped like a pyramid and is pollinated by bees and moths.

The image below shows the bee orchid in the Community Orchard. Check out our Community Garden Gallery for more images of the wild flowers.