Abingdon Green Gym Blog

 This weeks' blog was written by Eleanor D As Monday 8 th  May was Coronation Big Help Out Day, we moved our session from the usual Saturday. The weather was not promising. It was already raining as we met by the bridge. We were at the Town end of the Ock and had been hoping to renew the wood chip path, which was in a very bad state after the Winter rain, but unfortunately the Council were unable to get us any wood chip. However, there was a pile of old wood chip from last year, so Kevin and I set to work patching up the worst parts. Sally cleared vegetation from around the young trees, which we had planted as small whips two years ago. You can see that many are doing pretty well. Lesley, Dieuwke and Carolyn set off to clear litter and James and Ursula decided to make a protective “doughnut” around a hazel tree whose bark was being chewed by the muntjac deer which inhabit the area. At break time we enjoyed some Coronation shortbread provided by Sally and cake left over from a ...

 This weeks' blog was written by Eleanor D This Saturday we were at Dry Sandford Pit, which is managed by BBOWT. Our tasks were to widen a path to be used by the stock trailer by cutting back the encroaching vegetation, mostly brambles and briars, to clear a corner by the cliff face next to a gate and to cut runnels in the fen. Most people went to do the first task, while Kevin and Philip tackled the second, which required using the tree popper, and Jim set to work on the fen with his scythe. Break time was fine and warm and we enjoyed relaxing in the sunshine. After the break some people went to rake up the vegetation the Kevin and Philip had cut. There was also a lot of clearing to be done on the fen where Jim had been scything, but unfortunately only one person volunteered for that task so it remained unfinished. The fen is a rare habitat, so BBOWT tries to discourage the public, particularly dog walkers, from accessing it. We have helped to do this by constructing barrier...

 This weeks' blog was written by Kevin There were a Dozen volunteers or more, plus Becky from Wootton who joined us for the first time and was very effective and made good progress, apparently she had, had some experience in conservation work. The jobs to do were clearing some young horse chestnut trees and some low hanging oak tree branches to open up the area into the copse below, also some scything and lopping of brambles from last year, plus pulling blackthorn saplings that have started to spread. I brought 2 scythes along as I knew 3 of the members (one with her own scythe) had recently completed a scythe training, so put them to good use. Meanwhile the main body of the volunteers tackled a large patch of bramble bushes. The final task was the blackthorn which I tackled, with an ingenious tool which can grip the base of the saplings and leverage them out root and all sometimes! which was useful as we intend to replant some of the small plants at another site to form a hedge/ba...

This weeks' blog was written by Margaret A sizeable gang of green gymers met with Steph and Judy from Natural England to conduct a variety of activities on the site of Cothil Fen. We were informed of the tasks and split up into groups to get going - on offer were digging up wild gooseberry & wild currants, clearing of bramble from around lizard habitat log piles, a fence installation to mark the boundary of land ownership and collection of any cut material (from a volunteer group that had cut material the day before). We collected up the tools needed for our respective tasks and set off to the far edges of the site, meeting back together again at tea break time for a well earned rest and chat.  The blue bells were nearly out in force and in the later stages of the morning a few of us that had completed a patch of currant digging went on a wander to view them, coming across the team installing the boundary fence which had been just been completed. All in all a good mornings work...