Abingdon Green Gym Blog

 Blog by Eleanor, photos by Julio It was a cold, frosty day when eleven brave Green Gymmers met in the car park of Dry Sandford Pit Nature Reserve for our first session of 2025. Our task was to work on the fen, scything and raking, cutting back sprouting trees, and in some cases, uprooting them with the tree popper. This will help preserve the ecology of this alkaline fen. We set up our encampment on the grass just above the fen and climbed down into it to start our work. A frosty fen  We had to take care crossing the areas of water, making sure they were not too deep. The sky was grey and cloudy, with no sunshine to warm us up. Starting work Raking Barbara scything More raking Carol carrying cut wood More work Our hands and feet were really cold and we were glad of our tea break especially as there were some Christmas goodies to share. A welcome tea break. Then it was back to work. Adrian showed no mercy and kept us hard at work until 12.30. We climbed out of the fen and jump...

Blog and photos by Sally We returned to Boundary House Fen on Frilford Heath Golf Course for the last session of 2024 to continue with the cut and rake of reed, rush and other vegetation, working under the direction of consultant ecologist, Rod d'Ayala.  The weather was not promising as the air was thick with moisture when we arrived, but it did not rain and it was not long before layers were being removed once we got working and the weather brightened a little - our spirits were not dampened. With eight trained scythers on the team, we managed to cut a lot of vegetation.  Rod reassured Lesley, "The Lone Raker", that she did not have to rake up all the cut vegetation as he would be helping, too and that it would be enough for her to rake it into sausage-shaped bundles as we would be returning in a few weeks' time.  The priority was to get the vegetation cut to allow light to seeds and other smaller plants, preventing them from being smothered, thereby increasing biodi...