Abingdon Green Gym Blog

The main activity of the morning was to complete a bit more of the path around the Ock River walk island – shovels and wheelbarrows at the ready.  A team of four got to grips with this, taking woodchips from the pile and spreading them thickly over the muddy path to better the surface for the many walkers that use it.   Alongside this, Tanya and Laura cleared a foot of space around our newly planted trees to give them a chance of getting some daylight once the nettles grow up above them.  Robert provided a lesson in tool sharpening along the way. James continued in the mission to clear up driftwood from the recent floods further down the path, where a robin came to join him! Also, as usual a litter pick was conducted – Enid went along the whole length of the path up to Drayton Road and found three bags full of rubbish to collect.   After the well earned tea break I found out that our great friend Himalyan Balsam has once again sprout...

This Saturday, we were back at one of our most frequented sites - the town end of the Ock path.  Last time we were here, it was to plant a number of trees.  Thus for this session, one of our primary objectives was to check upon the progress of said saplings, as well as to maintain the woodchip path, also to clear a number of weeds and invasive sycamore growth, and not forgetting the obligatory litter pick! It was perhaps our largest turnout of the year thus far - 17 of us, 18 if we include baby Charlie, our youngest member!  With such a significant number, we were able to allocate several volunteers to each task and to make a good amount of progress on each. Upon arrival, having transported our tools from the meeting point by the weir to the work area, the first job was to erect the new sign/leaflet holder that Robert had constructed.  Very impressive it is too, it took pride of place beside the start of the woodchip path, alerting passers-by to our presence and ...

This was our second outing of the year to the Abbey Fishponds site and we picked-up where we left off last month, with many of the tasks ongoing from before.  We were instructed on our details at the beginning by site warden, Marjorie White, which were; to continue laying the woodchip path, to resume the removal of a fallen tree, some cutting back of overgrown foliage, hedge maintenance and litter-picking. We thus decided upon our tasks and split into smaller groups in order to accomplish them.  As well as the Green Gym volunteers and Marjorie, we were joined by Mike and Pete from the Fishponds group who oversaw the path-laying and hedge work respectively. The weather, as usual was kind.  Not as warm as recently, but a comfortable temperature for working, and crucially, no rain, despite the skies being somewhat overcast. The initial aim with the path-laying was to use up the whole of the woodchip pile that had accumulated at the Radley Road end of the site.  Th...