Abingdon Green Gym Blog

 This mid week blog was written by Sally  This evening marked the first of a few extra-curricular sessions at Oxford Preservation Trust’s Abraham Wood in Boars Hill to begin the systematic removal of Small Balsam - a non-native invasive species that originally heralded from Siberia or Turkestan - which has rather taken over as the principal understorey plant.  As soon as we arrived through the gate, we were greeted by a mass of balsam plants, which has small yellow flowers and some seed pods had started to form. It was growing very tall in places and stretched as far as the eye could see.  We certainly have our work cut out! The eight volunteers spread out working from the path to the fence line on one side and in blocks on the other.  Lesley also cut back bramble which was beginning to spread onto the pathway near the gate to make the walk a little easier for people and young families. Heaps of crushed balsam soon started accumulating and two hours passed by very quickly!  It was

 This weeks' blog was written by Eleanor D  Saturday saw us actually in Abingdon for a change, that is, at Abbey Fishponds. We had been left instructions by Earth Trust, who manage the site. The morning began with some light rain, but this soon gave way to sunshine. There were several tasks. One was to scythe, rake and stack vegetation near the bridge. Another was to remove crassula from the pond, which Philip agreed to do, having been shown what crassula was. Some of us set off to hunt down Himalayan Balsam, but we only found a few plants. Maybe it hasn’t grown enough yet to be visible or maybe we did such a good job in previous years that we have eradicated it! There were also overhanging branches to be cut by the path through the reserve. You can see a photo of mating dragonflies but the three in the sky are not large dragonflies but helicopters, perhaps on their way to Trooping the Colour! We also found a very small frog and a large toad, disturbed from their grassy residen

This weeks blog was written by Kevin Saturdays session for the AGG at Matthew Arnold Field at Boars Hill begun in glorious sunshine. There were a dozen keen volunteers and Rod to come along and point us in the right direction to scythe, lop and rake. This time we were mostly working down in the valley clearing bullrushes, thistles and bracken/ferns which was a good location working in mostly in the shade as the temperature climbed. There were still some Hawthorne samlings that were still spreading out from the main bushes in the field that needed pulling out with the useful tree popper and were quickly dispatched by James and Kevin before refreshment break. Meanwhile Sally, Jim and Roger took to task the bracken and ferns with their scythes. The remaining group of Dieuwke, Carolyn, Lesley, Michele, Graham Helen and Olivia pushed back the bullrushes and Thistles. Still more to do but hopefully the plan to integrate the meadow/field to grow through into the valley to create a natural

This weeks blog was written by Eleanor D  Twelve Green Gymmers  were back at Boundary House Fen, where we had last been in May. Although the day promised to be fine and dry, there was a chilly north easterly wind, so most of us were wearing warm jackets.                We made our way to the fen, and were surprised to see how much had grown in three weeks. Rod d’Ayala wanted us to move the heaps of cut reeds and grass to the edge of the fen, while the scythers carried on scything, just to make sure the raker uppers and transporters didn’t run out of work! There was also some work to be done digging up hemlock plants at the edge of the fen. By break time we had moved most of the old heaps. The sun had come out and we were all getting hot and wondering why we had worn so much clothing. Then it was time to get back to work and start raking up the freshly cut reeds and moving them to the piles. The bees were busy on the comfrey and we saw some damsel flies and brimstone butterflies. We