Abingdon Green Gym Blog

 Blog by Eleanor, photos by Julio, Michele and Sally It was a cloudy, but fairly mild day when thirteen of us met in the greenkeepers' compound at Frilford golf course. We made our way down to the fen, where Rod was waiting to give us our briefing. The fen before the start of work He told us where we were to scythe the reeds and where to stack the cut material.  Starting work Among the reeds The stream running through the fen needed to be filled with vegetation in order to spread the water out over the fen. Roger scything along the edge of the former stream, making access easier. Rod surveys the scene Judy Webb, the resident naturalist, arrived with her net, making a sweep of the woodland and fen for insects, bugs and beetles. Judy with her net At tea break time, she showed us some of her finds, which you can see in the photos at the end of this blog.  Tea break Then we carried on with the work, and you can see in the photo below how much we had done. After photo The fen ...

Blog by Sally.  Photos by Julio, Michele and Sally On Saturday, 17 May, we returned to Matthew Arnold Field, one of the Boars Hill sites which is owned by Oxford Preservation Trust.  This is an area of acid grassland, which is quite rare in Oxfordshire.  It used to be grazed by a horse, which sadly died of old age a few years ago.  We are working with Hannah Brockwell of OPT and under the direction of consultant ecologist, Rod d'Ayala, to help restore it to a rich meadow.   We had a good turn out of 14 Green Gymmers, including Simon, who also volunteers with OPT.  The morning felt a little chilly to start with given recent high temperatures, but it was nice and bright and it soon warmed up.  We met in Jarn Way and went through the various tasks we'd be given, which were primarily to remove Alexanders to prevent its spread, a robust biennial umbellifer, which can grow to 1.5m and is out-competing native plants; to scythe emerging bramble and bracke...

 Blog by Eleanor, photos by Sally and Eleanor Although Parsonage Moor was on our programme, we were asked to work on Lashford Lane Fen instead as there was more work to do there. There were fewer volunteers than usual, only about nine. However, the weather was really sunny and warm. We set off on our long trek to the fen. Carolyn and I volunteered to cut back vegetation from the sides of the path and trim overhanging branches while making our way down to the main work site. Having arrived at the fen, the rest of the group set about sharpening scythes and picking up rakes and started work. Preparing to work Working on the fen Carolyn and I arrived just in time for tea break, having worked our way along the path, cutting and clearing. Enjoying the sunshine at tea break There was a lot more to do, so the scythers and rakers carried on. Reeds to rake up and carry Meanwhile, Carolyn and I set off back along the path to finish clearing. Carolyn pulling up nettles While working we frequen...

Blog by Sally, photos by Julio, Margaret, Michele and Sally On Saturday, 3 May, we returned to Cothill Fen, which is under the stewardship of Natural England.  Stephanie Wilson from NE met us in the Cothill School car park from where it was a short walk along String Lane to get to the first gate leading to Cothill Fen.  Kevin was our leader for the session, having swapped with Eleanor.  We had a super turn out with 18 Green Gymmers, too.  It was another glorious spring day and everyone was in good spirits, looking forward to the morning ahead, as we set off. Looking across Cothill Fen and the new interpretation board Steph from Natural England gives the briefing We had three main tasks - the first was to do some scything of reed, sedge and rush to prevent it from becoming too dominant and blocking out light for other plants; the second was to pull up cleavers or goose grass as it is sometimes called from the wood where the bluebells were flowering.  We had to be...