Green Health Thames Valley

23/04/2026

We have had busy week in the garden but still found time to sit and enjoy it. Our woad grown from seeds from the The Museum of English Rural Life is in full bloom and the flowers smell like honey.

We wished goodbye to the lovely Sarah Hunneman who is joining the Community Health Champions team Reading Council. We will miss seeing her every week when we do the wellbeing walks from Hexham Community Centre but wish her the best of luck in her new role.

06/04/2026

The first of our monthly short clips with messages from the garden. They were made in collaboration with Real Time and funded by John Sykes Foundation. We love them and hope you do too.

04/04/2026

It is with great sadness that we share the loss of Richard Byard who passed away at the end of March. Richard was our Chair of Trustees from 2017 to 2023 when he moved to Wales for a new adventure with Sara. Richard supported GHTV for over a decade and was committed to our mission of promoting mental well-being through horticultural therapy. He spent much time seeking funding for the charity but also spent time on site with our group whenever he was able to do so. As a result, he was known well, thought of fondly and will be missed. Love and condolences go to his wife Sara, Clare and Terry and to everyone else that knew and loved him.

Richard is pictured here at the opening of our garden hub with Sara and the then Mayor, Rachel Eden who opened the hub for us and then with the wider team including Elton who constructed the building. Richard had a smile on his face and pride in his eyes. This is how we will remember him always. Thank you Richard for all you brought to our garden.

MHSRIP.

26/03/2026

On this we reflect on the benefits that our charity has brought to so many individuals over the twelve years that we have been operating.

We have been sowing herbs, root vegetables and flowers. The poly tunnel is steadily filling up with baby plants and the garden is abuzz with insect life.

Thank you to Radis Reading for their donation of £100 to our project which will go towards our enrichment activities that make such a difference to our group. We look forward to welcoming some of the Radis group for a visit to our garden soon.

We have eaten Tempura vegetables, vegetable soup, garlic flatbread and some delicious fresh fruit together. Lavender Garden Cookery School visited today and we are looking forward to our next set of cookery lessons thanks to a successful funding application to Queen Victoria Fund Reading.

20/03/2026

Welcome Spring Equinox! What a joy to feel the sun on our skin and see the garden really coming to life. Thank you to a Reading Food Growing Network member for the redcurrant bushes that have been dug in this week. We are very happy!

We celebrated birthdays with delicious sweet and savoury food and lots of conversation about sleep and the challenges brought about by a lack of sleep.

The Green Wellbeing walks explored the stunningly beautiful blossom and blooms along the way. We saw multiple peacock butterflies and our first Scarlet Tiger moth caterpillar of the year. Butterfly Conservation

To end the week, we joined 23 other teams in a quiz night supporting the amazing charity ReadiFood Food Bank. The quiz was excellent as was the company and although we didn't win the enormous quiz trophy, we had a great evening Holiday Inn Reading-South M4, JCT.11.

12/03/2026

Fabulous week at GHTV! Our open event Reading Council was just wonderful with two local artists Hadil and Fong Scott Crafts working with willow to make butterflies and creating botanically inspired bookmarks. Reading Green Wellbeing NetworkWe met new friends from local charities- Reading Interfaith Group and Arthros. 5adaygarden the willow was used to create a garden structure for climbers and to repair our edging! We also planted up sedum in our donated terracotta pots for people to take home!

Our group have been busy this week and we have worked hard to get the garden ready for our seedlings to move into bigger beds in the next couple of weeks. Thank you to Reading Food Growing Network for the red currant bush that will join the blackcurrants and raspberries in our 'popular with the birds' bed!

Our walks for wellbeing have started again on a Wednesday afternoon. All are welcome. This week we explored the incredible plants of the Hexham Road estate.

AND FINALLY, we have frog spawn in our pond!

26/02/2026

This week saw Emotional Health Awareness Day on the 24th and we reflected how spending time together gardening impacts positively on our emotional regulation, self awareness and how it can build our emotional health.

We saw our first butterflies in the garden, a male brimstone and a peacock. Butterfly Conservation Our insect habitats are full of life and we have added some more accommodation in the form of 'Green Henge Thames Valley' in which we dug out a space in our wild area and sunk left over pieces of cedar from our bench build. These will decompose, feed the soil and provide food and habitat for creatures growing in the soil such as beetles. Our site is visited by many cats and these spaces will provide sanctuary for any amphibians that find their way to our mini pond. Froglife

We were visited by our friend Cathy who brought us a gift of terracotta pots that we shall fill in preparation for our Open Event on the 12th March. Thank you Cathy for thinking of us!

Our friend Rowena also visited and brought Magalie from Reading Green Wellbeing Network to see our space and meet us in person. It was a pleasure to see them both. Rowena contributes so much to our project by producing our monthly newsletter and we are so grateful for this.

Our beetroot and sweet pea seedlings are looking good and we are looking forward to planting more next week as Spring is close by.

19/02/2026

All welcome

19/02/2026

What a busy week! Some of the group loved seeing the lanterns at the Valentines day lantern parade in the town centre. Beatroots Jelly and Broad Street Mall.

On Tuesday some of our group joined the Freely Fruity, Imke and Carol for some pruning of the fruit trees at Meavey Gardens.

We then pruned our own trees, propagated cuttings from the grape vine, potted up spider plants for our March event and swept the Hawthorn debris from the paths.

Thank you to The Rising Sun Arts Centre for hosting the celebration event and screening for the Real Time project funded by John Sykes Foundation. It was such a pleasure to meet the other groups involved Christian Community Action - CCA Reading, Sue Ryder Duchess of Kent Hospice and to see the recordings showcasing their work.

We were also very happy to visit the Health Watch Team at Reading Voluntary Action and meet with Azra who shared lots of reassuring and helpful advice for our group. What a great opportunity to have this free drop-in service on our doorstep.

We also celebrated birthdays and one of our group rediscovered his love for the guitar...we are aiming to be able to serenade the March birthday celebrants with a guitar accompaniment! Wish us luck...

12/02/2026

Thanks to the Small Grants Fund from Reading Council, we were able to host a beautiful event at the garden today. Thank you to Beth Scott from Reading Food Growing Group for making the amazing bird habitats with everyone. Thank you to our friends at 5adaygarden for growing the willow that we purchased to create our willow hearts and garden crafts. Thank you to local artist Nick Garnet and our volunteer Emma for creating willow hearts and to friends in the Reading Green Wellbeing Network that put up posters, shared the event on their socials and to everyone who put up posters and handed out posters locally.

The weather was dreadful but those who came along had a lovely time. Our group worked hard to prepare the site for visitors and it is starting to look more and more as though Spring is just around the corner!

12/02/2026

Don't let the rain put you off...we have some indoor space too.

All welcome...