Abingdon Green Gym Blog

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...

At our Cothill Fen session we were joined by members of the 4 th  Abingdon Scouts, both boys and girls, with their leaders and some parent helpers. Sadly, the weather was not kind to us at first. After making our way along the footpath to the site, we had to shelter under a tree from the heavy rain. Fortunately, the rain eased off and Steph Wilson from Natural England briefed us on our tasks.   The Friday Cothill volunteers had done some scything of the reeds and we were asked to rake these up and put some on the reed causeway across the water and the rest into drag bags, which were then transported to the woodland on the other side of the boardwalk.   Some rotten fence posts needed to be replaced and Steph took a group of Scouts to be introduced to the art of bashing in new ones. Another task was to pull up nettles and one type of thistle and Margaret showed a group which to pull and which to leave. We all worked hard until break time, when Steph explained the importance...