Abingdon Green Gym Blog

Blog by Sally.  Photos by Michele and Sally We returned to BBOWT's Dry Sandford Pit Nature Reserve on a sunny morning for our last session of June and we assembled in the car park where Adrian explained what we would be doing as Beth Hall from BBOWT had given him a list of tasks earlier in the week.  Those wishing to pull Himalayan Balsam, an invasive non-native plant, were asked to put on wellington boots and those working on clearing one of the paths from overgrown vegetation were asked to wear sturdy boots.  After gathering our bags and tools, Adrian led the way and we soon came to a gate where the path was barely discernible in places as the nettles, thistles and brambles were so tall!  We weren't surprised when Adrian told the three scythers among us that this was what we would be scything. We soon came to a little dell in the wood where we made our base near a patch of Dog's Mercury.  The three scythers set up their scythes, whilst Adrian led the rest of t...

We met , as usual, in the Greenkeepers' compound at Frilford Golf Club, while Barbara and Dieuwke, who were joint leaders, waited by the gate with the tools for us to collect.  We made our way down to the fen, where Rod d'Ayala was waiting for us.  There was a lot of scything of the reeds to be done, as well as the bracken on the bank at the edge of the fen, but fortunately there were several scythers among us. We set to work on the areas indicated by Rod, while some people went to rake up the material which had already been cut. Rosie, Barbara, Michele and Carol setting off   Working on the fen Jim's expert scything Rod trampling down the cut vegetation on the bund For the rest of us, there were creeping thistles to be pulled up, a seemingly never ending task, and a very small patch of hemlock to be cut back before it could seed and spread. The weather was warm and there were a number of butterflies around, mostly ringlets. We also found cinnabar moth caterpillars on rag...

Blog by Sally.  Photos by Eleanor, Kevin, Margaret, Michele and Sally On another bright sunny morning, 11 Green Gymmers led by Kevin, turned out for our session at not one, but two of Oxford Preservation Trust's ("OPT") sites at Boars Hill - Old Berkeley Golf Course and the adjoining Abraham Wood.  Hannah Brockwell, the Green Spaces Manager at OPT, had kindly arranged some permits for us to park at the Peking University HSBC Business School on Berkeley Road, which can get busy with walkers and the verge is badly rutted in places. We worked under the direction of Rod d'Ayala and were joined by one of the Ashmolean Natural History Society of Oxfordshire's Flora Guardians, Richard, who monitors the rare ivy-leaved crowfoot ("ILC"), which happens to grow in the flushes on the old golf course site. Rod briefed us on the various tasks that he wanted us to do.  One group worked in Abraham Wood, pulling up small balsam, which is an invasive non-native and is beg...