Connect with nature

• The park is home to some wonderful trees.  You can download some tree trials on the right hand side of this page.
• For a 1997 guide on the trees in Horsham park published by the Horsham Society but no longer in print download a copy: Horsham Society Trees Horsham Park.   There will have been some changes but many of the trees are decades or hundreds of years old, so it is a starting point for tree lovers who want to know more about the trees in the park.
• Visit the Human Nature Garden – the planting explores our link with plants for food, medicine and clothing
• Visit the pond

How to be a kinder gardener

Click here to download some Kinder Gardening Advice

Winter Nature Spots

All created for us by our Conservation Director Stefen Hepburn.

Tree mapping

Thank you to the ten volunteers who came along to survey some of the trees in Horsham Park on 4 September.  Ben gave us an interesting introduction and then we had a great time measuring and recording. 

The Ancient Woodland Tree Inventory no longer just shows 5 trees in the park!  Several more have been added as notable and there are two more veterans (shown in green). Grey ones are waiting to be verified.
 

Veterans are vitally important since as a tree gets older it becomes increasingly valuable as host to a wide range of flora and fauna – and for many years after it has died if left in situ like the ‘standing monument’ – near the Pavilions car park as shown in the photo.

As you can see from the map, we haven’t even covered half the park and the volunteers were keen for another date.  We will be surveying on Saturday 9 October 2021 from 10-13.00.  If you’d like to join in, please contact Sally at [email protected]. If you’ve got an interesting tree in your garden, road or at your allotment, we can tell you how to survey that too.

Summer Nature Spots

All created for us by our talented committee member, Stefen Hepburn.

Meadow grass

There has been a change in the mowing regime in the Park.  Most of the grass will continue to be mown fortnightly but an area between the wood copse and the skate park is being allowed to grow longer, forming a grass meadow.  Mown paths through it will encourage people not to trample the longer grass and ensure it is still easy to cross the park.

We’re very supportive of this idea which will improve biodiversity.  Longer grass will bring more insects which in turn provide food for many bird species.  We should see more butterflies, blue tits, robins and swallows gracing the skies. Over a few years we expect to see the meadow become increasingly attractive too as native grasses and wild flowers start to take root.  Stefen, a keen conservationist on our Committee, has started to survey the flora so we can see how much it diversifies as the meadow becomes more established.