Abrahams Wood, Boars Hill, 9th September 2017

By Andrew -
This Saturday we were at Abraham’s Wood, Boars Hill, one of the properties owned and managed by the Oxford Preservation Trust. We were also joined by two OPT volunteers. Our tasks were to pull up balsam just beyond the lower end of the wood, cut back vegetation form the path by the upper gate and remove laurel growth. Abraham’s Wood was once a private garden, where laurel, a non native species and favourite of the Victorians grew in abundance.

We set to work on the laurel, while some people went to tackle the balsam, taking a small roll of carpet so they could safely climb over a barbed wire fence. We piled the cut laurel on to the dead hedge, which we had built on a previous occasion. If laurel is left on the ground, it simply takes root and sprouts again.

After a welcome tea break, we set to work again and some of the group went to clear the path by the entrance. Once again we were fortunate with the weather and were pleased with a morning’s productive (or possibly destructive!) work.
-Eleanor








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