Abingdon Green Gym Blog

Blog by Sally.  Photos by Carol, Julio, Margaret and Sally Twelve Green Gymmers turned out on a sunny spring morning to meet Stephanie Wilson from Natural England at Cothill School car park, where we were able to load our tools onto the back of Steph's van and make our way along String Lane, an old drover's road, to Cothill Fen, where Steph briefed us on the tasks for our session.  The Fen is owned by Natural England and sits adjacent to Parsonage Moor, which is owned by the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust (or BBOWT). Cothill Fen is one of the rare alkaline fens where specialist flora and fauna have evolved over millenia to adapt to the slightly less acidic conditions than are found on normal fens.  The spring water that feeds Cothill (and other alkaline or calcareous fens) percolates through a layer of chalk.  Sometimes, the chalk calcifies on the surface to form tufa, which is a bit similar to the limescale that builds up in our kettles. T...

We were back at Boars Hill again, this time working on Old Berkeley Golf Course and Abrahams Wood. We met by the gate in Berkeley Road, with Roger leading us for the first time. We made our way down to the runnel in the valley, where Rod gave us our instructions. He wanted us to scythe the rushes and rake them up and make dams and shallow pools. The aim is to rewet the area by allowing the water to spread out. This will be good for plants such as the rare ivy leaf Crowfoot. There wasn't much raking until the scythers had scythed, so he asked some of us to go into Abrahams Wood and cut back the laurel and rhododendron. There is always plenty to do, and the wood, once a private garden, is gradually returning to native woodland. The ground was covered with English bluebell plants and one or two flowers were already out. The wood will be spectacular in a few weeks' time. Meanwhile, the scythers and rakers were in action Simon and Philip began to build a dam across the runnel and di...

Blog and photos by Sally 11 volunteers, including ecologist, Dr Judy Webb, returned to Frilford Heath Golf Course on Tuesday, 17 March in order to complete the cut and rake of the main area of Two Pines Fen, which is where a number of orchid species and other alkaline fen specialists plants thrive and to remove invasive scrub, which threatens to dry out the fen.  St Patrick must have been smiling on us as it was a glorious spring day.  With the variety of tasks on offer, we all had our hands full making our way to the fen from the Green Keepers Compound with the various tools needed.  We can only work on this Fen midweek when there are fewer golfers and maintenance work is being undertaken by the team. The Green Course was closed for maintenance, so Simon made his way to that side of the fen to tackle willow, using the tree popper and mattock to extricate them from the ground.  The hollows will form shall pools for insects to breed in and also for plants that prefer ...

 Blog by Eleanor.  Photos by Eleanor and Kevin There were only ten of us this session at Southern Town Park as the Atom Science Fair was on. Despite the cold start, it was a sunny day as we met in the car park at the Youth Football Club.  We made our way down to our wild flower patch at the southern end. There wasn't much to see at this time of year, but an early cowslip was in flower. Cowslip We had some weeding of nettles to do and some of us set to work on that while Carolyn, Graham and Kate set off to do some litter picking and Kevin went to clear twigs and branches off the western footpath. Carol clearing scrub We had brought a number of plug plants - violets, meadow cranesbill, dark mullein and betony, but decided to have our tea break first. Tea break We started on the planting, putting the violets near the front, then dug patches for the other plug plants, where nothing interesting appeared to be growing. Planting the plug plants Dieuwke planting wild flowers We a...