Elizabeth Dayrush Memorial Garden, Saturday 24th of September 2022

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The Abingdon Green Gymmers had a pleasantly chilly start to their session at the Elizabeth Dayrush Memorial Garden, and whilst it is not frost-and-flask weather just yet, it was definitely cool enough for many of us to don our toasty warm green gym fleeces! We met on boars hill by the side gate to the Garden, and awaited the (quite large!) gathering that was due for the morning whilst admiring the hips and haws that were making the place feel all autumnal. 

We had three main tasks to tackle, all of which were ably explained by Sally, our Session Leader for the day:

1. Scythe the reeds and longer grasses around the pond to allow better access
2. Remove as much of the Crassula helmsii from the pond as possible
3. Clear the lower branches, brambles, and nettles away from the footpaths, an disperse the cuttings on the dead hedges and nature piles around the site 

Now firstly, a note about Crassula helmsii! This type of Crassula originates from Australia and New Zealand, where it grows in muddy ponds and does not die back in the winter. The plant is a ferocious grower, and when left to its own devises in the UK, will completely dominate a pond and block the sunlight from reaching other native plants. The plant was listed as one that must not be allowed to grow in wild UK ponds in 1981, and banned from sale in the UK in 2014. Unfortunately, it has made its way into the pond in the Garden, and needed removing. This was a finickity job, as the plant stems have a tendency to shatter into little pieces (from which they can regrow!), and the roots shoot down all the way to the plastic liner of the pond. We tried several different approaches to clearing it, from to Adrian's scrupulous pulling to Max and Liz's 'rolling' approach, whereby they hacked away at the base layer of the pond and rolled up the Crassula wholesale! Max managed to spot a dark little frog, and noticed the beautiful abandoned pond-snail shells. 

The scythers, including Olivia and Barbara who took part in the scything course a few weeks ago, got to work to make sure that all of the pond dippers could access the pond. They did an excellent job, and by the end of the session Graham and Jim had their work cut out in raking up all of their cuttings! 

In the meantime, Helen, Henry, Lesley, Carolyn, Jennett (who we were very glad to welcome from the Oxford Presentation Trust), Ursula, and James - along with Rod D'ayla, who joined us to offer some helpful direction - got to work on cutting low-hanging branches, nettles, and brambles. Helen and Henry managed to find the most spectacular fungi hidden amongst the trees, which we're still struggling to identify, but which could be a Dyers Polypore. 

By the end of the morning the sun had made itself known in earnest, and we had all shed our fleeces. Next weekend, autumn will have sent in in earnest! 

Finger post directions

The team is briefed 

In the pond 

Further in the pond

The pond is now growing more Green Gym members than Crassuli

James welcomes new AGG volunteers

Pastoral reclining from Adrian

Its beginning to look a lot like autumn

Break time 

The weather was really warming up 

Friends chat on the bench

The mystery fungi 

Max's shells 

Morning sunshine through the leaves


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