Hinksey Heights, Saturday, 23 September 2023

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This Saturday, Abingdon Green Gym had been asked to help the tree volunteers at Hinksey Heights by clearing around the recently planted trees and doing some weeding.  The trees are a mixture including rowan, oak and hazel and were planted as part of the community scheme to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the University of Oxford's Botanic Garden, so it is very important for the landowner, John, that they are well maintained to give them the best possible chance of surviving.

10 Green Gymmers were assisted by three of the tree volunteers, Mark, Neil and Lucy, and John also came along to help direct us.  He kindly let us have use of the wheelbarrow so that we could transport the tools more easily along the Hinksey Nature Trail to the lower pond area.  The trees are located in the dell and we were able to set up our base using the two picnic benches (quite the luxury!) by the pond.  It is a site well known to us as we have cleared around the trees in previous years.  It was great to see how well they were doing.

After the introductions, John set us to work.  Three scythers, Jim, Barbara and Sally, scythed around each tree and whilst Kevin wheel-barrowed the arisings to an old heap.  It was not easy scything as the grass was lying in all directions!  Carolyn, Dieuwke, Graham, Helen, Lesley and Michele took up rakes and pitchforks to also assist with moving the mixture of cut grass and marestail and then assisted the tree volunteers in weeding around each sapling after checking they were still thriving, removing any bindweed growing up through the tree guards and checking that the stakes etc were all intact.  The tree volunteers replaced stakes and guards as necessary.  It was good to see that nearly every tree was doing well.  It wasn't long before layers were being peeled off in the warmth of the morning sun.  By break time, we had managed to finish this first area.

After break, we then set about repeating the exercise in the second area of planting.  We spotted an apple tree laden with fruit but as Kevin found to his cost, they were in fact crab apples and very bitter to taste!  This was much easier to scythe and just as we thought we had finished, we spotted a wire cage around what we thought was a sapling, only to find that it had not survived.  With teamwork, we were able to remove the bindweed growing up through the wire frame and a new oak sapling was planted to replace the lost one, which Mark had grown from one of the acorns from the oak tree by the Nature Trail.  John was very happy with our work and we came away with a sense of satisfaction knowing that we had managed to finish the job - smiles all round!  It was lovely to see the super views of Oxford on our way back along the nature trail to the car park.  The trail is a permissive path open 364 days a year - see:  https://hinkseytrail.org/ for further information as it is well worth a visit.

Sally.

Photos by Kevin Sally


Helen and Michele contemplate taking a dip!

The Dell before clearing

Teamwork

Making progress

Sharpening the blade

Graham doing a thorough job of weeding

The first area after clearing

Rosehips

Taking a well-deserved break by the pond

'Tis the season of mellow fruitfulness - for crab apple jelly lovers!

One of the humane traps for small mammals in use by a University student researching venom in shrews and voles

Getting to work in Area 2

Lesley, Carolyn and Graham weeding away

Hawthorn berries providing another splash of colour

Last hurrah - a huddle to remove bindweed from the chickenwire cage

Area 2 cleared

Back to the car park

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