Abingdon Green Gym x Abingdon Naturalists Society, Barton Fields, Saturday 10th of September 2022

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This week's blog post was written by Abingdon Green Gym Chair, Eleanor!: 

This session saw Green Gymmers at Barton Fields helping the Abingdon Naturalists Green Team with the annual hay raking. The wild flower meadow had been cut by machine on Wednesday and members of the Green Team had been busy on Thursday and Friday raking the vegetation and transporting it to the heaps on the edge of the meadow. The weather had been quite wet on Wednesday and Thursday so the cut grass was quite heavy. However, it had dried out a bit by Saturday when Green Gym arrived to finish the job, under the direction of Green Team leader, David Guyoncourt.

Wild flowers flourish on poor soil, so it is important to rake the vegetation off as quickly as possible after cutting so the nutrients don’t leach back into the soil. There was still a lot to do. Some people raked the grass into piles while others transported it to the heaps at the edge, either with pitchforks or drag bags and sheets.


Everybody worked hard so we were glad of a break. Then it was back to work, and by 12.30 we had cleared the meadow, and even had time to do a bit of a second raking of the bits that had been dropped. The heaps will provide a good hibernating place for field mice, slow worms and grass snakes. We look forward to next Spring and Summer, when the meadow will be in bloom once more.


The meadow pre-raking

Shouldering the hay

Bagging and dragging with drag bags 



Heave ho! 

Yet more heaving and hoing

Making progress...


Its looking good! 

A giant mound of hay, which many a critter will call home


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