FarmAbility

04/08/2026

What have we been up to recently?

We’ve made bird tables and bat boxes, painted sheds and grown giant sunflowers🌻

At we’ve been collecting seeds and potting on Betany 🪻

In the market gardens we work with we’ve been clearing cabbage beds and making beautiful salads 🥗

And not only are we friends with each other but also some very nosy goats! 🐐

30/07/2026

FarmAbility has been on tour! Throughout July we have attended four events, meeting lots of great people, having many fantastic conversations about FarmAbility and our wider community.

📸1: On the 1st July we exhibited at the inaugural Parents & Carers Conference hosted by The Propeller Academy Trust Set-up to inform, support and connect parents and carers of pupils attending the Trust’s schools, the keynote speakers were brilliant - funny, moving, reassuring and informative. And the exhibition area was packed with a huge array of well curated, friendly and helpful exhibitors. We look forward to attending the next one.

📸 2-6: On the 13th July we attended the City of Oxford Bassoon Quartet’s wonderful ‘Music on Monday’ performance at the beautiful St Michael at the North Gate Church, Oxford. “Pigs” by Ridout was dedicated to FarmAbility and a proportion of the proceeds from the collection will be donated to the charity, for which we are very grateful. A HUGE thank you to the Quartet: Andrew, Carol, Chris and Simon!

📸 7: On the 16th July Coralie and Jenny presented at the Nature Connections Conference 2026 University of Derby It was a privilege to present FarmAbility’s work at the conference. There is so much exciting, innovative and impactful work and research happening in the field. It's great to be a part of it!

📸 8-10: And on the 19th July, we exhibited at the Neurodiversity Celebration Day at the brilliant Oxford City Farm. Organised by the lovely Ciddy Gray - Neuroaffirming, Trauma Informed Education and Family Support, it’s always a pleasure to collaborate with like-minded groups and initiatives, all celebrating neurodiversity in a wonderfully safe and supportive space.

It’s been great to meet so many of you over the past month!

29/07/2026

Shop with over 8,000 retailers via and earn a free donation for FarmAbility at the same time! Thank you to our existing supporters who, whilst shopping for clothes, groceries, homewares, holidays, even car insurance, have raised £180.49 donations for FarmAbility!

All the big names like eBay, Argos, John Lewis & Partners, Tesco and Just Eat are ready to donate. It won't cost you anything extra!

Plus, for a limited time, when 10 new supporters sign up, FarmAbility will receive a bonus £10. For further information and to sign-up to support FarmAbility, please use the below FarmAbility easyfundraising link:

https://join.easyfundraising.org.uk/farmability/dgnuuw/s2s/FZ9Up2Ac/SE870/textcopy/

Thank you!

28/07/2026

Last week was National Moth Week!

To celebrate we took a closer look at these dazzling and often overlooked creatures.

We also loved painting the more vibrant species such as Elephant Hawk Moths.

What a wonderful way to spend a morning!

15/07/2026

The hot weather last week called for lots of arts and crafts in the shade. While we took refuge under wonderful big trees in the woods and chilled next to breezy ponds we let our creative juices flow with clay and paint. Over the week we produced some beautiful work…🎨

This week in the cooler mornings we’ve been very happy harvesting the fruits of our labour - which is mainly watering! Meanwhile, we made a prototype bat box which we hope to roll out and put up around our sites 🦇

08/07/2026

Last week we had a beautiful evening wondering through Blenheim’s high park searching for wild honeybee hives in ancient oak trees 🌳

We also saw bees on brambles, hornets and stag beetles 🪲

Programme Leaders Erin and Kai shared their knowledge of pollinator conservation and bumblebees with cofarmers, families, volunteers and other staff. It was a great turnout and so lovely to wander and chat in the sunshine together ☀️

Our ‘All about Bees Event’ was part of our Thriving in Nature series of events this year. Look out for information about our upcoming ‘Night Walk’ in October… hopefully there are as many bats as last year! 🦇

08/07/2026

We are in peak sweet pea summer season here at FarmAbility. The co-farmers' seed sowing in late winter, followed by planting out in spring, has paid off. The sites are awash with the beautiful colours, amazing scent and summer joy of spending time picking, (or cutting), and sharing bunches of sweet peas. And, the more we harvest and share, the more they bloom!

We wish, in addition to sharing these photos, we could also share the scent with you... Pure summer!

07/07/2026

We’re delighted to have been selected to present at the national Nature Connections Conference in Derby next week. Our Thriving in Nature project, supported by the Oxfordshire Community Foundation, has given us a boost to bring more hands-on nature connection, environmental stewardship and habitat conservation into our weekly sessions, helping us to do more for the planet, local and global, as we work on our host farms and gardens each day.

“There’s no wellbeing without nature’s wellbeing.”- Professor Miles Richardson

Looking forward to seeing (and meeting) everyone there and sharing more about the FarmAbility Thriving in Nature Project 😊

Find out more about the event- https://lnkd.in/esYPnt3P

07/07/2026

❗️FYI for our community, Thursday's Have a Go! Festival has been cancelled due to the Amber Heat Warning. Please see below for further information. Thank you.

⚠️CANCELLED ⚠️Have a Go Festival Cancelled – Thursday 9 July 2026

Due to the extreme heat forecast and the Amber Heat Warning in place from 8–12 July, we have made the difficult decision to cancel this year’s Have a Go Festival.
The safety and wellbeing of everyone attending is our top priority, and unfortunately, we cannot run the event safely in these conditions.

Please help us spread the word to anyone planning to attend.

💙 Thank you for your understanding — we hope to see you again soon!

Message sent on behalf of Oxford Health NHS and Active Oxfordshire.

⚠️CANCELLED ⚠️Have a Go Festival Cancelled – Thursday 9 July 2026

Due to the extreme heat forecast and the Amber Heat Warning in place from 8–12 July, we have made the difficult decision to cancel this year’s Have a Go Festival.

The safety and wellbeing of everyone attending is our top priority, and unfortunately, we cannot run the event safely in these conditions.

Please help us spread the word to anyone planning to attend.
💙 Thank you for your understanding — we hope to see you again soon!

Message sent on behalf of Oxford Health NHS and Active Oxfordshire.

20/06/2026

Here’s a look at FarmAbility’s 3rd week of ‘30 Days Wild!’

We harvested the first strawberries from our garden at Park Farm and they were delicious!

We refreshed some mini accessible ponds at one site while enjoying our newly dug biggest pond at another. We love ponds… can you tell!?

At Sandy Lane we had a laugh feeding the chickens and at Willowbrook we got to stroke the goats while mucking them out!

The Wildlife Trusts