Boundary House Fen - 27th April 2024

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 Blog by Eleanor, photos by Sally and Kevin                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   We met, as usual, in the Greenkeepers' compound, while Kevin, our leader, drove along the road with the tools to a spot just opposite the fen . We had plenty of volunteers, despite the damp and chilly weather.

We made our way to the fen, where Rod d'Ayala met us and explained the tasks. One task was to dig up hemlock growing along the boundary hedge. Hemlock is a plant in the umbellifer family, rather like cow parsley in appearance, but very poisonous. It can be recognised by its blotchy, purplish red stems. Some of us set to work digging it up while the others went on to the fen to scythe reeds, rake them up and transport them to piles or put them in the stream in order to spread out the water.

When we had dug up the hemlock we had to take off the leaves, which could then be piled by the hedge to rot down, and leave the roots in another pile to be taken away later.

We had our tea break under the trees at the edge of the fen, then got back to work for a short time. We were finishing early in order to hold a meeting to discuss plans for the celebration of the twentieth anniversary of Abingdon Green Gym. At midday we collected up the tools and made our way back.

View of the fen




Boundary hedge with hemlock







  

Close up of hemlock





Hemlock pulling

James with hemlock





Pile of hemlock





Scything the reeds


















Scything and raking





Graham and Carolyn loading a drag sheet




Tea break





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