Blog by Sally. Photos by Julio, Michele and Sally
On Saturday, 17 May, we returned to Matthew Arnold Field, one of the Boars Hill sites which is owned by Oxford Preservation Trust. This is an area of acid grassland, which is quite rare in Oxfordshire. It used to be grazed by a horse, which sadly died of old age a few years ago. We are working with Hannah Brockwell of OPT and under the direction of consultant ecologist, Rod d'Ayala, to help restore it to a rich meadow.
We had a good turn out of 14 Green Gymmers, including Simon, who also volunteers with OPT. The morning felt a little chilly to start with given recent high temperatures, but it was nice and bright and it soon warmed up. We met in Jarn Way and went through the various tasks we'd be given, which were primarily to remove Alexanders to prevent its spread, a robust biennial umbellifer, which can grow to 1.5m and is out-competing native plants; to scythe emerging bramble and bracken, as well as nettles from near the fence, and rake this off the field and the third main task was to remove emerging blackthorn to prevent its spread and turning the meadow into scrub. Another task was to start removing small balsam, an invasive non-native species, from the adjacent Jarn Heath.
The briefing in Jarn Way
The assault on Alexanders begins
While others turn to scything to remove nettles, bramble and bracken
Kevin made for the far end of the field with the tree popper to continue with removing blackthorn where he left off last month.
As it warmed up, the sound of bees buzzing could be heard; comfrey being a favourite food plant
And there was also time for "Spot the Ladybird"
We were asked to heap the Alexanders and cut bramble and bracken onto the existing dead hedge which runs between the field and the mire wood.
Margaret empties a bag of cut Alexanders onto the dead hedge
The concerted effort to remove the Alexanders, which had already started to flower, continues
Once a good inroad had been made to remove the Alexanders, a couple of Green Gymmers made for Jarn Heath for a start on removing small balsam.
It was soon time for a welcome break in the sunshine. Always convivial!
Dog rose looking resplendent
We also took the opportunity to cut back blackthorn, bramble and nettles away from the kissing gate.
Margaret ponders her next move
The bottom area of the field after scything bramble and bracken and
Simon removed blackthorn and hawthorn
One patch of cut bramble and the dead hedge sporting the new trimmings
The scythed patch, around the gorse bush. It's amazing what three scythers can achieve in a morning!
Looking upfield after scything the emerging bramble and bracken
It was lovely to see the yellow rattle, buttercups, red campion and sheep sorrel, among other plants, in flower. It was a day for invertebrates as we also found this spider with her egg case:
After clearing the Alexanders - just goes to show how much ground they cover! Hopefully, this will make space for other plants to thrive.
We left the site feeling as though we'd done another good morning's work. It's always a good feeling to return to a site and see the progress we have made over the course of time.
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