Welcome to our Summer Newsletter!

As we reach the height of summer and gardens burst into life, there's no better time to take action for a greener future. In this newsletter we’re highlighting new opportunities to make a real difference, whether it's through eco-friendly gardening, reducing your carbon footprint or simply learning from the inspiring steps your neighbours are already taking to live more sustainably.

Read on for practical tips for summer gardening, local initiatives you can join and volunteering opportunities. As ever, we’re all about easy changes you can make to live a greener life.

Over the summer, you’ll find S3R members out and about in the community, including our regular presence at the monthly Ricky market. We hope to see you there! Visit our website for more information and upcoming events.

Together, our small actions can lead to lasting change. Let’s make this summer a season of sustainability and community connection.

Happy reading and let’s grow greener together!

With Our Best Wishes

The Sustainable Three Rivers Team

PS If you don’t already, please do follow us on Facebook and Instagram to see all our latest news.

Are you ready to reduce your environmental impact, save money, and connect with your community? The Transition Streets programme offers a fantastic opportunity to achieve all three!

Many households have already embarked on this journey, discovering that small, manageable adjustments can lead to a significant positive impact. Imagine understanding your true "water footprint" or making delicious, sustainable food choices - Transition Streets helps you explore all this and more. It's not about drastic changes, but rather a supportive framework for mindful consumption, from understanding the carbon cost of your food to exploring greener transport options.

Beyond personal benefits, Transition Streets emphasises the power of collective action. Households come together, supporting each other through modules on energy consumption, resourceful living, and more. This community aspect transforms individual challenges into a shared adventure, providing invaluable peer support and practical advice. Participants consistently report not only a reduced environmental footprint and financial savings but also a greater sense of well-being and a stronger connection to their neighbours.

Ready to unlock your own greener future? Read our full article to learn how Transition Streets can empower you to make a big impact with small changes!

Repairing things and reusing them is a great way to save money, reduce waste and live more sustainably. Croxley Green Repair Café has been set up to help local residents do just that.

This community-driven initiative is running on the first Sunday of each month at Croxley Green Community Centre, Community Way, WD3 3SU.

A wide range of skilled local volunteers are available to help breathe new life into old clothes, toys, electronics, computers, tools, jewellery, bikes and much more.

The Café is already proving very popular, with 47 items repaired at the session on 1st June. What could you take along to the next event on 6th July?

Change to Community Garden Volunteering Times

Please note, we’ve condensed our volunteering sessions from 3 to 2 per week.

Volunteering in the garden now takes place on Mondays 11:30-1:30 and Sundays 10:30-11:30.

If you’re interested in getting involved, get in touch with us via hello@sustainablethreerivers.org and one of the team will be in touch

Join the national campaign to encourage the public to check for strangling tree-ties. 

Whether they have been abandoned or there is no understanding that these stakes and ties should have been removed after 3-5 years (once the trees have established), the net result is still the same: countless trees will fail to establish and achieve the landscape and ecosystem benefits for which they were planted. Many could even die.

Find out how to recognise strangled trees, and what to do about it, with advice from local tree expert Russell Ball, founder of Fund4Trees.

For all our latest news, tips and sustainability events, take a look at the S3R blog. Our team of writers regularly adds content. Recent additions include:

• A review of Ocean with David Attenborough

• An update on our Pollinator Friendly Hanging Basket Workshop

We also have a great back catalogue of articles, including our popular Sustainability FAQs post.

Volunteering Opportunities For Young People

Do you know a young person looking for a volunteering role, perhaps for their DofE, or just to add to their CV for uni application?

We have volunteering opportunities at the Community Garden and also on our social media team. If you know someone who would be interested, please ask them to get in touch at hello@sustainablethreerivers.org.

A few members of our team are CRB checked, and parents are always welcome to join in with the volunteering sessions if they wish!

Sustainable Summer Gardening Jobs

● Use grey water from your washing up bowl or bath/shower on ornamental plants. It’s a great way to make the best use of precious water

● Water and feed your sweet peas regularly to maintain lots of blooms. Remember - the more you pick, the more you get!

● Provide a shallow dish or saucer of water for birds and small mammals such as hedgehogs. Put it near a hedge or long grass

● Remember not to water your lawn in the dry, hot weather. It will recover once the rain returns.

● Plant bee-friendly plants such as lavender, scabious, marjoram, thyme and salvias

● Try bringing out some of your house plants during the summer months, but remember not to put them in direct sun or they will get scorched

● Deadhead flowering plants such as cosmos, petunias and roses to keep them blooming for longer. Remember to feed them with regularly with liquid feed such as tomato food

● Take cuttings from salvias, lavender and penstemons. Take 10cm cuttings from non-flowering shoots and put in compost.

● Harvest first and second early potatoes, onions and also raspberries.

Just One Sustainable Thing…

Big change starts with small steps. Here are some ideas for you to try this summer:

• Dry your washing outside! This might seem an obvious one, but it’s surprising how many people with gardens still use tumble driers over the warmer months. Nothing beats the smell of washing dried outside (but we understand if you have hay fever you might prefer not to!)

• Use a Toy Library. If you’re a parent or grandparent looking for something new to amuse your little ones, you don’t have to go out and buy something. Try Rickmansworth Toy Library in Mill End.

• Take a reusable water bottle if you’re out and about in hot weather. There are plenty of different designs available. We like the ones at Chilly’s, but you can get lots of different designs, including this one, supporting the RSPB and this from the Wildlife Trusts shop.

What’s your favourite sustainable tip? Visit our website for more ideas.

Sustainable Three Rivers is a Community Interest Group founded by local residents. Our aim is to help people in Three Rivers make lifestyle changes to protect the planet. 

If you’ve got any ideas for sustainable solutions, or questions about any of the points we cover, we’d love to hear from you!

You can email us at hello@sustainablethreerivers.org

Please click the link below if you’d like to donate to our cause.

As a Community Interest Company, everything we do is for the benefit of all of us in the Three Rivers area. We run community events and other initiatives, including investing in our flourishing Community Garden. We rely on grants and donations to keep funding all of this. If you can spare anything to help us keep our community thriving, we’d be incredibly grateful. Thank you in advance.

Photo Credits : Claire Pride at S3R, Annabel Foley at S3R, Croxley Parish Council, Fund4Trees, Ocean with David Attenborough