Abingdon Green Gym Blog

 this weeks blog was written by Eleanor D This was our second visit to Old Manor Stables in Letcombe Bassett. Our task was to pull up ragwort, which is poisonous to horses. In its fresh form they avoid it but risk eating it when it is withered and dry. This time we were asked to park further up the hill, which meant negotiating a steep, single track, much potholed road. We were almost at the top of the Ridgeway and from that vantage point, we had a magnificent view over Oxfordshire.  The field we were working in was a steep, sloping valley with two grey horses in it.  We were surprised to find that much of the ragwort was not in flower and we had to look out for the small rosettes of leaves and dig them out with the specialised digging tools. The weather was mostly cloudy with only occasional, sunny intervals and we could see the rain moving along the far horizon but fortunately, apart from a few minutes drizzle, it missed us. At tea break time, we climbed wearily back up the hil

 This weeks blog was written by Helen B A good number of us assembled at Manor Farm in Marcham this week, with one primary goal: to remove as much Himalayan Balsam as possible during the course of the morning.   Our first task was to find a suitable place to cross the stream so we could access the swathes of balsam on the other side of the bank. This wasn't a problem for Kevin though who sported the Green Gym waders to reach the plants right by the water's edge. Whilst some of the balsam stalks were above head height, they were fortunately quite easy to pull; the biggest challenge was avoiding the stinging nettles that were growing in amongst them! After tea break, we powered on and made good inroads, but there will still be plenty for us to do when we return in a few weeks. crossing the stream to get to the balsam kevin in the waders lots of pulling up going on local wildlife tea time lots more to pull up