Nature

Glorious sunshine helped make this year's Buriton Open Gardens Renaturing Trail a great success, with scores of visitors enjoying the seven venues around the village. 

The Trail combined a variety of private gardens with public open spaces, providing plenty of inspiration about how everyone can play a part in supporting nature.

The gardens showed how native hedges, rather than fences, can provide food and shelter for a range of creatures, particularly birds and important pollinators.

Stroll round the village to see how the community is helping nature.

An opportunity to visit a range of gardens and public open spaces around the village to see how they are catering for wildlife.

Each garden will show some simple renaturing initiatives to help creatures and the planet. Ask each of the hosts for details.

There are lots of wonderful plants and creations to see - as well as Cream Teas and Cakes at St Mary's church (2-5pm).  

Details of the trail (with a map showing all the locations) will be available from the church.

The audience in the village hall was treated to a fascinating illustrated talk in March about one of the parish’s most remarkable natural treasures: our dark skies.

Elinor Newman of the South Downs National Park Authority — affectionately known as the “Queen of Darkness” — gave a lively and enlightening presentation about Buriton’s night skies and the many creatures that emerge after sunset but are rarely seen.

More than 40 people braved a very wet and windy February evening to get to the village hall for an illustrated talk entitled “Hidden Lives in Our Hedges, Gardens and Fields”, given by Andy Davidson, Nature Recovery Officer for Hampshire County Council. 

Those who came were richly rewarded.

Andy opened a window onto a world that usually passes unnoticed — the countless small creatures quietly keeping our countryside alive. 

Studies by Nottingham Trent University and others have confirmed that hedgehogs are now vulnerable to extinction in Britain, with populations falling particularly in rural areas due to habitat loss, intensive farming and death on roads.

Numbers of hedgehogs have fallen by up to 50% in rural areas since 2000 – but gardens can be a really important habitat.

The experts say that, whilst leaving food out can be helpful, providing wildlife friendly features in gardens is essential too as hedgehogs struggle to find space to hibernate and breed.

Kim Boog, from the Barn Owl Project Hampshire and Bird of Prey Hospital (BOPH), attracted a huge audience at a coffee morning earlier this year.

She will returning on 22 October to give an in-depth talk about the lives of British owls and the work of her rescue organisation.

She’ll focus on the perils owls face in the modern world and the steps that can be taken to help them flourish.

Kim will bring two owls again - both have been rescued but are unsuitable for release back into the wild.

After her hour-long talk, Kim will take questions from the audience.

Lots of people like the long grass around the edges of the Recreation Ground which is helping wildflowers and insects.

But this has to be cut at least once a year or else the grass forms a thick thatch and wildflowers can’t survive.

And then all the cuttings have to be removed to reduce soil fertility which is the key to helping more wildflowers in the future.

The mowing will take place fairly soon and then it’s hoped that lots of parishioners will join a ‘Community Hay-Day’ by bringing rakes and wheelbarrows on Saturday 6th September – from 10am.

There were eight venues to savour on the 2025 Renaturing Trail with a mix of inspiring gardens and public open spaces showing how everyone can help to cater for wildlife.

Lawns, hedges, ponds, flower beds and vegetable patches were all featured on this annual Trail. Whilst everything was managed by humans (not just left to go wild), the owners aims were to share their gardens with a wide range of living things, bringing added joy and delight to relaxation.

Villagers were treated to a fascinating insight into local farming practices at Weston Farm on 22 June.

Mark Rowden and Colin Hedley gave a detailed commentary about the range of activities on the farm and answered questions as the special seated trailer travelled through the landscape.

As well as learning about what crops are grown and what they are used for, there was a focus on conservation and environmental practices followed by some fascinating examples of diversification.

One of nature’s greatest mimics – a bee orchid – was found growing in the pollinator patch at the side of the recreation ground at the beginning of June.

Bee orchids are one of the most beautiful and well known of British native orchids – and its unexpected appearance on the edge of the Recreation Ground added to the plants own ‘wow factor’.