Abingdon Green Gym Blog

This session was our second visit of the Summer to Woodhaven. We knew that since our first visit two weeks ago, more Himalayan Balsam, previously concealed by the nettles and other vegetation, would have sprung up. Eight of us were there on a fairly bright morning, but with threatening clouds. As we walked alongside the meadow we saw orchids in flower. We made our way towards the wood and set up our base and then set off in various directions to tackle the known hot spots. The central part of the wood, which  we have worked on for several years, was fairly clear, we were glad to see. A large treeless area on the edge of the wood, which we had cleared last year in a couple of evening sessions, had quite a bit of balsam, but not nearly as much as before. As we stopped for tea break, the rain began to fall heavily, so we donned waterproofs. Suggestions about packing up early began to be heard. The rain eased off a bit and some blue sky appeared. The more hardy among...

The Green Gym Summer programme has been slightly amended - the sessions at  the opposite ends of the Ock Valley Walk have been swapped.  T he Town End session is now 2nd July and the Tesco End is now 30th July.  The revised programme can be seen below or on the  programme page  of our website.

Green Gym today arrived at Manor Farm, Marcham with the single-minded purpose of attacking the Himalayan Balsam now in the flourishing part of its season. This superficially attractive flowering invader is an annual plant imported (I believe) by the Victorians to beautify their gardens.  Unfortunately it has had a devastating effect on indigenous plants. It is prolific along the banks of rivers, ditches and other wet areas where its rapid growth shuts off the sunlight from any other plants and prevents their growth.  Now is a good time to tackle the balsam before it fully comes into flower and scatters a huge amount of seed to provide next year’s crop. Fortunately it has a weakness; generally it is very easy to pull out. The main aim is to give indigenous plants a chance to recover. Today’s Green Gym was a small group of seven, led by Margaret Notley. “Hey, hey, what a beautiful day!” Ursula and James arrive at the field of operations. The hunt begins in ear...

This session saw the first of our visits this year to Woodhaven,  Frilford to pull up Himalayan Balsam. The day was cloudy with a few spots of rain after several days of warm, fine weather. There were twelve volunteers altogether, including three who hadn't been to this site before. We walked alongside the meadow and across the bridge leading to the SSSI area, looked after by Natural England. In the woodland area there was a fallen tree across the path, which provided an opportunity for a sawing and lopping task. The centre of the woodland, which we had worked on for several years, was encouragingly free of Himalayan Balsam so we spread out further and soon found several patches. We worked hard on eradicating these until tea break time. Dieuwke had provided us with chocolate brioches and pain aux raisins, which were a very welcome treat. We found plenty to keep us busy until the end of the session. We are expecting plenty more balsam to have become visible by the time of o...

Saturday 4th June was Fun in the Park day and, as usual, Green Gym had a stall. Like last year we were assigned to the Abbey Close car park along with the other club, society, volunteer and charity stalls.  My overloaded car was admitted to Abbey Close, after I had been cross examined by a security guard who I really thought was going to demand my passport, fingerprints and iris scan. Along with three other helpers, we attempted to erect the gazebo, though we were sadly lacking in both the necessary tallness and competence. We succeeded at last, with a bit of help from the woodcarving stall next door.  The weather was dull and cloudy but at least it was dry. As well as a display board illustrating our activities, we had marmalade and lemon curd for sale and our "stick the pin in the lucky square" game, 20p a go, £1 prize for a lucky square and sweets as consolation prizes.  With eight volunteers helping at various times throughout the day, (Arthur, Graham, Sally, Di...

The Abingdon Green Gym programme for summer 2016 has been published.  It will be uploaded to our website once the current one finishes, but in the meantime, it can be viewed below...

There was no Green Gym session on the Spring Bank Holiday weekend but instead we led one of the Bank Holiday walks, which have been organised by the Friends of Abingdon since Jubilee year in 2012. Our walk was along the Ock Valley to show people some of the work Green Gym does there and point out the flora and fauna and interesting historical features of this very underrated part of Abingdon. Unfortunately, very few Green Gymmers supported the walk this year. There was Colin, minus trolley on this occasion, but with his trusty hand made walking stick, Jessica, a very new member and at the last minute, Lesley with her dog. We were also joined by nine walkers, which was very good for a dull cloudy day. The route took us from the weir behind St Helen's Court, across Drayton Road and along the newly tarmacked path towards Tesco, then on to New Cut Mill. We then turned right along Mill Lane and left along the path leading to Sutton Wick. About halfway along we turned left and w...