Abingdon Green Gym Blog

This week's blog post was written by AGG Chair, the wonderful Eleanor D.!:  Eleven of us braved the sub zero temperatures to work on Boundary House Fen under the direction of Rod d’Ayala.  It was very cold but sunny as we set off for the part of the fen where Rod wanted us to work. Jim and Adrian scythed while the rest of us raked up reeds and transported them to the watercourse. Being frozen, the ground was not too soggy.  We worked hard until tea break time and soon began to warm up. The fen looked very beautiful with the frost on it under a blue sky and we were glad that we hadn’t stayed huddled indoors.  There was some discussion about whether to drag the tarpaulin into the sunshine, but it was pointed out that the sunny area was by now also the soggy area!  After the break we continued with the work, piling quite a lot of the cut material into piles under some trees. A robin was very appreciative of our work and hung around for the goodies we had uncovered....

This week's blog post was written by the heroic Helen and Henry!: This week, Green Gym assembled on a chilly December morning in Boars Hill. After layering up and donning our wellies, we headed over to Jarn Heath, the area nestled between Jarn Mound and Matthew Arnold Field. Sally briefed us on the tasks to be done, which included cleaning the stone bench between Jarn Heath and Jarn Mound, and clearing a glade in the wood by removing bramble and hard raking the woodland floor to expose the soil seed bank; OPT’s aim is to create favourable conditions for brown hairstreak butterflies.    Long sleeves and gloves were very welcome whilst clearing the bramble, and helped take the edge off the cold, though it wasn’t long until our activities warmed us up! We raked our trimmings into   dead hedges at the periphery of the heath, taking care to avoid smothering any holly bushes or honeysuckles. With our arms hurting from “rake ache” we then packed up the tools and headed back home...

This week's blog post was written by our brilliant Green Gym chair, Eleanor D.!:  A large group of Green Gymmers, fourteen in all, assembled in the yard at the Riding for the Disabled centre in Southmoor.  Our main task was to clear a ditch with a stream running through it so the water could flow freely, and this would prevent the fields from being flooded. There was also some help needed with fencing and Graham went to give a hand with that. There were a lot of leaves in the ditch and these needed to be raked out. Some of us scrambled down the bank and set to work removing vegetation from the stream bed , all of this while standing in about eight inches of water. Others stood at the top of the bank and raked the cut material through the fence or cut back brambles and overhanging branches. We were spoilt at break time with coffee and tea provided for us by RDA as well as delicious cakes.  As well as about nineteen horses, some of which you can see in the photos, RDA has t...

This week's blog post is a joint effort from the dazzling Eleanor D. and the chivalrous Kevin T.: This Saturday saw us once again at Boundary House Fen working under the direction of Rod d’Ayala.   Kevin, the session leader drove along the road and parked next to the fen, which saved us having to carry the tools from the greenkeeper’s compound.  It was a lovely, sunny morning, which made all the difference.  The scythers set to work cutting the reeds, as directed by Rod while the rest of us raked them up or moved the existing heaps on drag sheets to the pond and the stream. Meanwhile, Jim had already started work scything the vegetation on the bank above the fen.  We had four scythers in total to make a concerted effort - the ground was very muddy with the heavy rain making it a bit tricky moving the cut reeds, but we seemed to establish a system of going in teams for best effect!   At tea break time, Michele, who had been delayed by a malfunctioning central hea...

This week's blog post was written by eminent chair Eleanor D.! This site in Old Headington, managed by Oxford Preservation Trust, was a new one for us. It consists of a long abandoned allotment site, which will be transformed into a nature reserve.      There were only nine Green Gymmers at this session, but we were joined during the morning by some local residents. The site was completely overgrown so the work was only just beginning. Charlie from OPT listed the tasks that needed to be done.  Vegetation had to be cleared from the path leading down to the site, widening it sufficiently for working cars to get down there. Adrian had already done some cutting back, so there was plenty of material to be carried down to the site, where some people set to work constructing a dead hedge at the top end bordering the back fence of the neighbouring garden. There was also a huge amount of bramble by the gate, which needed cutting back and an old compost bin made of palettes to...

 This week's blog post was written by the wonderful Kevin T!:  The Abingdon Green Gym have been going to Cothill Fen for a least a dozen years which is when I started, and is a popular site, although many a member have got a boot full of muddy water (me included) from the swampy parts of the Fen! Stef Wilson from Natural England was there to instruct us on the morning's tasks, which were mainly to move the cut reeds onto the causeways/dams to filter the water coming off the farmland and streams. Reed raking and cutting is one of the AGG's regular jobs on any of the fens we work on, so everybody knew what was required. The rain held off making the job reasonably pleasant, and we spread ourselves out on each side of the pond dragging or pitch forking the reeds where needed. We had one scyther keeping us going and a couple of us lopping the new growth of alder that had sprung up this summer. It was quite a strenuous work. There was also a requirement to assemble the floating p...

This week's blog post was written by AGG Chair, Eleanor D.!:  Once again we were at Hinksey Heights Nature Reserve, this time working in a completely different area from last. John Brimble, the owner, showed us two places next to the approach road to the golf course, where he wanted the brambles and some willow trees cut right back. He was planning to use the cut material to fill in some gaps in the hedge where people were cutting through from the footpath.      We split into two groups to tackle the upper and lower areas. The brambles in the upper patch were very thick and we realised the scythes and slashers would be needed as well as loppers. We were entertained during this task by two sheepdogs being trained to round up sheep on the other side of the fence.      After the break, during which we discovered that the tarpaulin that people were sitting on was no longer very waterproof, most of us went down to the lower area leaving Adrian to finish off...

Thirteen Green Gymmers assembled in the greenkeepers’ compound for our session on Boundary House Fen. We had been asked by the Head Greenkeeper to be on the fen by 10a.m. as there would be a “shotgun start” to a competition, with golf balls flying off from all the tees on the course, so mindful of this warning, we made our way to the fen, where Rod d’Ayala was waiting for us with instructions.      He showed the scythers the areas which needed cutting, while the rest of us had to rake the cut reeds into rolls to be transferred on drag sheets to build up a wall along the ditch on the edge of the fen. Once a passage had been cut to the stream, we also needed to rake the cut reeds into the stream. The idea is to make the water spread out across the fen.      Fortunately, the weather was mild and sunny, unlike the previous day or the following day, and we enjoyed sitting in the sunshine for our break.  Judy Webb had arrived with the cotton grass plants whi...