Abingdon Green Gym Blog

 Blog by Kevin, photos by Kevin and Michele, blog posted by Eleanor They say a picture paints a thousand words, but I'm not sure we can say that about Boundary House Fen, as the Green Gym tasks are the regular controlling of the reed beds to let more flora and fauna spread. We had six scythers available to cut the new reed shoots, to prevent them from establishing themselves in the fen. The fen, as you would expect, was very boggy, which makes movement a bit arduous when moving the cut reeds, some on to the stream to make the water spread out across the fen and the rest piled on the periphery of the fen. We were joined by Judy, the resident Biologist, with her net, to catch and log insects on the fen. Judy also spoke at coffee break time on the progress of the plan to dig a quarry nearby to excavate sand. This would have disastrous effects on the fen as it would affect the water table and cause flooding or lack of water as the fen has to have a delicate balance of not too much and ...

Blog by Eleanor, photos by Kevin, Michele and Sally Our main task this session was to renew the wood chip path, which curves round from the main path to the northern branch of the Ock and back again to the main path. This path, very popular with dog walkers, had suffered badly in the very wet Winter. The weir The Ock We were delighted to see that the Town Council had provided us with two heaps of wood chippings at both ends of the path. We had brought the Green Gym wheelbarrow and Dieuwke had also lent her own. The first job was to rake fallen twigs and small branches off the path, starting at the western end, which was the muddiest. There was the usual litter picking to be done and Carolyn nobly volunteered to do this. Sally had brought her scythe to clear vegetation off the edges of the path and to clear around the young trees. Some trees we had planted a few years earlier needed the tree guards, mats and stakes to be removed. Meanwhile there was loading of the barrows with woodchip,...

 Blog by Eleanor, photos by Kevin and Michele This Saturday we were back at Hinksey Heights Nature Reserve to carry on with work along the nature trail. It was a beautiful, sunny day, promising to be very warm,  as we set off from the car park along the track leading to our work site. We made our encampment by the pond, where there are two picnic tables. There are a number of diverse habitats along the trail - grassland, large ponds, a stream, woodland, wet woodland and fen.   There were still some brambles to be cut back by the path and along the side of the dell. This had to be done carefully so as not to disturb nesting birds. Next to the path was a massive oak tree (quercus robur) where we saw a warbler of some kind. We could also hear a cuckoo nearby. There was a lot of scything to do in the dell and raking up the grass and moving it to heaps under the trees. We were glad of our tea break by the pond, and it was difficult to get back to work. There were a number of y...

 Blog by Eleanor, photos by Sally, Kevin and Eleanor It was a beautiful, sunny day as a good number of Green Gymmers met in Berkeley Road for our task on the Old Berkeley Golf Course next to Abrahams Wood. We were also joined by three Oxford Preservation Trust volunteers. The site was looking at its best, covered in buttercups and the hawthorn blossom out. Our main task was to scythe and dig up rushes growing along the watercourse at the bottom of the valley, to encourage ivy leaved crowfoot. The dug up rushes would then be made into bunds which would make the water spread out into pools. Another task was to clear around the lower gate into Abrahams wood. Ivy leaved crowfoot We set about our various tasks, scything, raking, digging and clearing. After tea break some of us went on a tour of Abrahams Wood to see the bluebells before it was too late, as they were almost past their best. This is a great site to see English bluebells (hyacinthoides non scripta) between mid April and ear...