Abingdon Green Gym Blog

This Saturday, we were at the Ock Path, Town end and 10 of us met at our usual spot in the St Helen's Court car park.  We had a number of tasks including clearing nettles and brambles away from the paths, clearing litter and also cutting overhanging branches from trees, which we are not able to do earlier in the year to avoid disturbing any nesting birds. We also cleared lots of nettles from around the trees that we had planted.  Someone has removed stakes and guards from some of the trees, but we found evidence of damage caused to the trunk of one of the young trees by deer scratching. Himalayan Balsam did not escape our attention either, and we managed to pull this where we found it. Rosie assisted by Graham cut back an ash sapling which was growing out of the foundations of the bridge over the weir, to stop it from causing any further damage to the structure and also from causing a nuisance to passers-by. We were very lucky with the weather again with lots of suns...

There were only nine Green Gymmers for the reed raking session at Cothill under the direction of Steph from Natural England and Judy Webb, so we realised we would have to work extra hard. We made our way to the far side of the fen and set up base camp under the trees. The large ash trees there would, sadly, need to be felled because of ash dieback. The reeds had been scythed the previous day by the Friday volunteers and our task was to rake them up and stack them alongside the stream to form a barrier and on the other side by the deep water area. Walking on the fen while judging where it was safe to tread without sinking, especially while carrying a pitchfork full of reeds, was quite an adventure. There’s a photo of Roger looking remarkably cheerful considering he stepped in well above wellie height. After the tea break, Judy took a couple of people off to collect seeds from rare plants, which could be spread around the fen. They found the remarkably large caterpillar, which you ...

Here are a few more photos from our recent session at Boundary House Fen, provided by Sally, with the final image by Kevin:

Fourteen Green Gymmers met in Frilford Golf Club car park for our reed raking session at Boundary House Fen under the direction of Judy Webb. We pooled cars and drove to the usual gate, but here we encountered our first obstacle – the gate hadn’t been unlocked, so we had no choice but to leave our cars on the verge and carry all our tools and equipment. We reached the fen, with occasional stops to stand in reverent silence while somebody teed off. Rod d’Ayala had been busy cutting the reeds and our task was to rake them up and either transport them to heaps on the edge of the fen or pile them into the stream to raise the water level and allow the water to seep on to the fen. Another task was to cut back some trees which had started to sprout from the stumps. Rod and Judy showed us an area of reed which was left uncut as marsh lousewort was growing there. This plant parasitises reeds and thus is useful for reducing reed cover and enabling other fen plants to thrive. After our te...