Boundary House Fen - Saturday, 4th April 2026

Blog by Sally.  Photos by Eleanor, James, Julio and Sally

On a fine Easter Saturday morning, we returned to Boundary House Fen on Frilford Heath Golf Course to continue with the cut and rake of the Fen.  We were led by Barbara and Dieuwke, two of our new leaders, who met us at the gate to the Greenkeepers' compound with all the tools that we would need for our session.

We then made our way to our base where we met consultant ecologist, Rod d'Ayala, under whose direction we would be working.  We were last here on 14 February and we could see just how much the vegetation had grown.

Boundary House Fen before work began

Rod briefs the group on the tasks

The main focus of the session was to finish off raking the cut vegetation from our last session and continue scything the pond sedge and rush.  Raking is important to ensure that nutrients do not build up as much of the fen flora does not thrive in nutrient rich soils and also to allow light for the emerging vegetation to flourish.  

The other task was to remove hemlock from the hedgerow next to the road.  Hemlock is a nitrophile and has been spreading in recent years with the build up of particulates from vehicle emissions on roadsides.  It can be distinguished from other umbellifers, such as cow parsley, by its purple-spotted stems.  Hemlock, as famed in Shakespeare's Macbeth, King Lear and Henry V, is poisonous so it was important for gloves to be worn when handling the plants.  James, Ursula and Dieuwke were our brave volunteers for this job.

A close up of the rank vegetation that needed scything.

The rush and pond sedge had flattened in the wind and been trampled on by deer so it was tricky to scythe and the four scythers, Barbara, Jim, Simon and Sally, had to do the scything dance in order to get behind the vegetation to cut it, whilst our 6 rakers and pitchforkers worked to clear the fen of the cut material - Carol, Eleanor, Kevin & Carolyn and Julio & Rhian.

Jim and Simon scything

Barbara and Sally scything

A broken egg shell which looks as though it had been eaten by a bird or mammal

A fen is nothing without water, being fed by underground springs.  What makes this fen calcareous or alkaline is that the spring water percolates through a layer of chalk.  The geology of Frilford Heath and its Golf Course is complex - with layers of gravel, sand and chalk - so monitoring its hydrology is important.  Here is one of the dipwells on the Fen for this purpose:

The three Hemlock slayers - James, Dieuwke and Ursula

Ursula uproots a large specimen - the purple spots on its stem signifies that this is hemlock

A hive of activity on the Fen

Rakes' progress - Carolyn and Julio hard at work

It was soon time for break and, it being Easter Saturday, and Barbara and Dieuwke's first session as leaders, we enjoyed some homemade flapjacks from Barbara and some mini eggs from Dieuwke.

Break time! 

Rhian and Eleanor having heaps of fun

In order to keep the Fen as open as possible, we had to consolidate heaps of vegetation - Rod's mantra is to pile it high not wide.

Julio, King of the Castle - trampling down the heap of cut vegetation

A brown-lipped snail

This might look unremarkable, but this is a wondrous sight.  Compared with when we first started restoring the Fen, this is a large patch of brown moss.  What's that, you might say?  Brown moss thrives in Fens - it shows that our restoration efforts are paying off.

A close of up the brown moss patch shows some marsh lousewort emerging.  This is an ecosystem engineer, which suppresses the growth of reed, which if otherwise left unchecked would crowd out the Fen preventing more delicate plants from flourishing.  Note the difference in colouration from green to purple, even though it is the same plant.

Some Easter colour provided by the gorse

When the piles of cut vegetation got too big, we put the arisings onto the heap in the stream (which acts as a ditch).  This benefits the fen in two ways - it helps re-wet the fen by slowing the flow of water and allowing it to divert sideways and as it rots down, it builds up the base of the stream, so gradually raises the water table.  Fens (like all wetlands) are an incredible carbon store, but they need to be kept wet, so it is important that they do not dry out.  Whilst the scythers cut as much vegetation as they could, the rakers raked as hard as they could and just before we had to pack up to go, the scythers took up rakes and pitchforks to help with the clearing.  We left the site looking a lot greener and were pleased at how much we had achieved in just a few short hours.  Rod stayed on site as he was being joined by two colleagues to continue where we had left off.

The Fen after our morning's work

A close up of the area after our efforts

We collected up our tools and Dieuwke cleaned the rake heads and tines of the pitchforks, as everything else got packed away.  Barbara and Dieuwke were thanked for leading us as we all wished each other a Happy Easter. 

Happy Easter everyone!