Abingdon Green Gym Blog

This weeks' blog was written by Eleanor D Once again we were at Boundary House Fen, continuing the work of reed cutting and stacking. We were joined by new member, Harry, who is hoping to go into environmental conservation work and who reduced the average age of our group by a few years! It was a fine, sunny day but with a chilly wind as we headed for the fen. One task was to rake up the brambles in the lightly wooded area just above the fen itself. There were some old heaps and Jim was already busy scything the remaining ones. Dieuwke and I set to work raking and stacking them on top of an existing heap of reeds around a tree. The others went on to the fen, the scythers doing to remaining reed cutting and the others raking, stacking and filling the stream in order to spread out the water. During the break we watched a pair of mallards, who had made themselves at  home on the fen. Then it was back to work, with me opting for the gentler task of scattering the seeds of Marsh Lousewo...

  This weeks blog was written by Eleanor D A good number of Green Gymmers met in the car park by the village hall for our session at Sunningwell. This is one of our favourite places to work. We were joined by a new Green Gymmer plus two volunteers who joined us, as the Barton Fields Green Team session had been cancelled. Their loss was our gain! There was a variety of tasks for us. One was to cut back brambles and ivy from the churchyard wall next to the gate to the field, then to continue cutting back along the edge of the field  right up to the churchyard  wall. This would allow sunlight into this area and enable wild flowers to grow. There were a lot of overhanging branches to be cut as well. Another task was to work on the wild flower area which had been started the previous year, clear patches of grass and put in new plants. Finally, there was hedge laying to be done at the top of the  field. This is a skilled task involves partially cutting through the stems ne...

This week's blog was written by Eleanor D This Saturday we were at Dry Sandford Pit, which is managed by Berkshire Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust. The reserve used to be a quarry and there is an area of sandy cliffs containing many fossils. There is also a fen, grassland and woodland.  At this session our task was to clear vegetation from in front of the cliffs. We set to work cutting down brambles, briars and small sprouting trees while the scythers tackled the long grass. We transferred the cut material to an existing brash pile or on to a dead hedge blocking entrance to the fen. This was to discourage visitors from going on to the fen, especially with dogs, as there are rare species of orchids there as well as nesting birds in Spring. We had to watch out for passers by as a well used footpath runs alongside the cliffs but, as it turned out, there were hardly any walkers, mainly because we had taken up all the spaces in the small car park! Not long before the brea...

 This  week's blog was written by Eleanor D A good number of Green Gymmers turned out for our session in Abrahams Wood and we were later joined by a local resident, David, who had helped us at Jarn Heath in December. We were lucky with the weather, which, though grey and cloudy, was dry and not too cold.  The wood was just beginning to look Spring like, with snow drops and daffodils coming through, catkins and the first shoots of bluebells. We also found a “wigwam” of branches, no doubt built by children and a neat little camp fire laid outside, which, fortunately had not been lit. Rod d’Ayala had a new task for some of us to do, namely, layering hazel. This involved bending hazel branches down on to the ground and securing them in place with forked sticks or two crossed sticks. This will enable roots to grow from these branches and new hazels to spring up. The other task was, as usual, getting rid of laurel. Abrahams Wood used to be a private garden with a lot of laurel,...