The Stonehill Community Garden

The Stonehill Community Garden Come and enjoy the outdoors with us. We're open every Wednesday 10am-4pm and will be open Fridays 10am-2pm in July, August & September 2026.

We cannot respond to direct messages on this account. Please email [email protected]. http://www.stonehillgardens.co.uk/

The Stonehill Community Garden welcomes people from all walks of life to get involved. We are currently in very early stages of getting set up and are working on a medium sized plot of land that will be transformed into a vegetable growing patch. Our aim is to bring p

eople closer to nature and to share the joys of being outside and gardening together. We hope it will be place that will be beneficial to all people including those from disadvantaged and/or vulnerable backgrounds. Whilst welcoming folk to get involved, we will nurture a respect to the local biodiversity and natural environment. Some of the activities envisaged include:

Now (2016) -
‐ building a community veg garden from scratch!
- growing food and learning about healthy eating and the potential of growing and foraging
‐ community cooking and eating


In the future -
- nature walk through the wood land and on into the meditation garden
‐ workshop spaces (tool maintenance, bicycle repair, woodwork, metal work, craft workshop)
‐ forest garden (specific and less intrusive means of growing and gathering food) near mediation area

We will operate as a non-profit charity. Currently our status is Charitable Company (10045681).

Sadly our resident chicken, Henny, died last month. We hope she had a happy retirement with us, she was very loved and w...
07/06/2026

Sadly our resident chicken, Henny, died last month. We hope she had a happy retirement with us, she was very loved and well cared for by our volunteers.

Today we picked up some more chickens, from British Hen Welfare Trust and what beauties they are!

Big thank you to Stonehill volunteers Phil and Jean who made all this happen and to the team and volunteers at British Hen Welfare Trust who work so hard and tirelessly to give factory farmed hens the chance to extend their lives and have the retirement they deserve.

We have ringed the hens but not yet named them. No doubt that will be the main discussion topic during our open day this Wednesday.

If you'd like to join us please do, we're open from 10am until 4pm on Wednesdays (we will also be open on Fridays from 10am to 2pm in July, August and September).

Drop in for an hour or two or stay all day. No gardening experience necessary, come down and enjoy being outdoors with us.

It's a beautiful morning here at Stonehill and thankfully it's set to be a bit cooler than the previous couple of days. ...
27/05/2026

It's a beautiful morning here at Stonehill and thankfully it's set to be a bit cooler than the previous couple of days. That said, if you're coming down please remember to wear sunblock, a sunhat and bring drinking water if possible (we have a limited supply of potable water).

Can you spot the difference between cow parsley and the very poisonous hemlock?It's quite easy when you see them togethe...
06/05/2026

Can you spot the difference between cow parsley and the very poisonous hemlock?

It's quite easy when you see them together.

Hemlock has a much redder/purple and smooth stem.

The cow parsley has a hairy ridged stem and is currently flowering.

The hemlock leaf is quite feathery and frilly, the cow parsley leaves are a bit wider.

If you have hemlock in your garden (you probably won't) best to pull it up, but wear gloves and don't put it in your home compost bin.

We garden organically at Stonehill and also try to improve biodiversity on our beautiful site.About 18 months ago we res...
06/05/2026

We garden organically at Stonehill and also try to improve biodiversity on our beautiful site.

About 18 months ago we restored one of our wildlife ponds and replanted it with native plants.

Last week one of our volunteers spotted a newt in it! We were so excited. Can't wait to see what else visits our pond.

We're open today from 10am-4pm. Why not come down and find out what we get up to. No gardening experience or knowledge is required to join in and enjoy volunteering with us.

Two of our volunteers, Ben and David, did a wonderful job laying fresh woodchip on our path last week. It looks so good ...
22/04/2026

Two of our volunteers, Ben and David, did a wonderful job laying fresh woodchip on our path last week. It looks so good it's almost a shame to walk on it! We're very fortunate, various tree surgeons donate wood chip to us which we use in a variety of ways, creating paths, mulching veg and forest garden beds, building winrows to create compost.

If you'd like to come and join us we're here til 4pm today and from 10am-4pm every Wednesday.

It's a beautiful day for community gardening, come and join us, we're open until 4pm every Wednesday.We'd like to thank ...
08/04/2026

It's a beautiful day for community gardening, come and join us, we're open until 4pm every Wednesday.

We'd like to thank Oxfordshire Community Foundation for their generous funding which will enable us to keep the garden open this year.

Sadly one of our volunteers discovered yet more vandalism at our garden this morning. This is the third incident of crim...
19/03/2026

Sadly one of our volunteers discovered yet more vandalism at our garden this morning. This is the third incident of criminal damage on our site in the past couple of months.

Luckily this time we got video of the perpetrators and will be passing it to the police, we have reported previous incidents as well.

I can't share the videos on here as the vandals appear to be under 18.

Our almond tree is in blossom! Spring has sprung!
25/02/2026

Our almond tree is in blossom! Spring has sprung!

We discovered more vandalism, our powder fire extinguisher had been emptied all over the inside of our cabin and worse s...
18/02/2026

We discovered more vandalism, our powder fire extinguisher had been emptied all over the inside of our cabin and worse still, into the natural pond in the woods, the pond so many animals and birds drink from.

Thankfully our volunteers did a superb cleanup job, we now have bags of contaminated waste to dispose of which will probably cost us ££ but the important thing is that the powder is out of the water and won't be harmful to the wildlife.

We'll have to tackle inside the cabin another day, wearing masks and gloves. Making sure the wildlife wouldn't be harmed was our most urgent task.

I'd like to thank all the volunteers who got stuck in and worked hard today to undo the damage done by the vandals.

Several caravans on nearby land were also vandalised to a shocking degree and attemps were made to light a fire.

Arrived at the garden this morning to discover that we have had trespassers who have once again committed vandalism, tha...
18/02/2026

Arrived at the garden this morning to discover that we have had trespassers who have once again committed vandalism, thankfully no permanent damage that I've discovered yet. One of our sheds was opened, the polytunnels were opened, the toilet was opened.

If you want to be part of our community please come on a Wednesday for our open days. Don't wander onto our site when we're closed and make a mess. It is trespass and potentially criminal damage.

Be part of something positive, don't wreck what others work to create.

Address

Stonehill Lane, Drayton
Abingdon
OX144AA

Opening Hours

10am - 4pm

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