Letters, contributions and comments sent in from Times’ readers this week.

Helen, Gladstone Wildlife, Friends of Gladstone Park (FOGP), writes:

It is not just the bees and wildlife who benefit from the long grass in Gladstone Park.

It is the likes of me and hundreds of others.

Walking through the park gives many a spiritual uplift as they touch in with nature reconnecting to something green and greater than themselves.

Being able to walk among the butterflies flying, watch the birds foraging and listen to their singing – the thrush sings every day by the park’s walled garden – feel the welcome damp coolness walking under the trees and see children’s delight walking through long grass almost taller than themselves is quite wonderful.

Brent have asked for the grass to be cut and the clippings removed in the autumn, common practice for such long grass management.

Having long grass does benefit Brent Council.

But I believe it also benefits us because of the wildlife and our closer contact to nature.

Read more about the long grass on the Gladstone Park Friends website: gladstoneparkfriends.org/index.php/2018/06/25/long-grass/

• Also, our volunteer gardening group is growing.

In partnership with Veolia we have pruned, fed and mulched the four rose beds, reclaimed the top terrace beds from weeds and added more draught-tolerant plants there, removed ivy from the unusual hawthorn, Crataegus monogyna “Stricta”, trees and the roses, Rosa rugosa, surrounding the old bowling green, and weeded in the walled garden.

We meet every Wednesday by the walled garden at 9.30am and work for two hours with a break for tea.