Boundary House Fen, Saturday 16th of July 2022

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This week's blog post was written by Chair Extraordinaire - Eleanor D.! 

When we arrived at the golf course, we found that the gate we usually enter by was chained up on both sides. It had obviously been rammed and damaged so we had to park on the verge. Meanwhile, Kevin had driven further along with the tools so he could park by the roadside next to the fen. 


There were reeds for the scythers to cut, while the rest of us raked up the reeds that had already been cut and put them in the stream and the pond or on heaps at the edge of the fen, according to Rod d’Ayala’s instructions. The weather was very hot and the fen itself has no shade, so by tea break time we were all flagging. 


A few of us were sent to search and destroy any Himalayan Balsam in the wooded area, which gave us a short welcome break under the trees but sadly (I never thought I would say that!) we didn’t find any so it was back to the fen. We must have done too good a job on the HB last Summer. 


 Judy Webb was also there, collecting interesting insects to study. She said that the biodiversity of the fen had greatly increased in the years we had been working on it. By the end of the morning we were all pretty tired and as we made our way back to the road, we were looking forward to a cool drink and a rest.

AGG in action

Lost in the reeds

Judy busy examining 

Scythed to perfection

Blue skies ahead

Meaty legs 

What a forkful! 

Adrian the Scyther 

The busy team

Oh to be in the shade of the trees...

Biodiversity! 

The finished product 





Up to the knees in nature! 

Scything a way through

A little fan beetle 

A cinnibar moth caterpillar, which eats ragwort 

Invasive hemp agrimony ready to be DISPOSED of 

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