Abingdon Green Gym Blog

Two consecutive Saturday sessions were held at the Frilford Heath SSSI in less-than-ideal conditions.  The recent heavy rainfall made the site somewhat boggy and had accelerated the growth of the himalayan balsam. Himalayan balsam is an invasive non-native plant that grows rather out of control in this area if left unchecked and crowds out the native species.  The orginal intention of these sessions was to clear away any hazardous tree branches and other obstructions to enable us to easily pull up the balsam later in the season.  However, the plant was found to be coming through already - somewhat earlier than expected, so that much of the effort was taken up in removing the young shoots. Undaunted by the miserable weather, a reasonable turn out enabled us to make good progress on the site and further visits to Frilford later in the year will give us other opportunities to eliminate this alien invader! -Andrew  Frilford Heath SSSI  ...

Two reports for this session: Today's session was at the town end of the Ock Walk, the main task being to put new, stronger and taller stakes and tree guards on the trees we had planted in January 2011 in the area enclosed by the woodchip path and the main path. Three of us went in the direction of Drayton Road to clear up litter. We were lucky to find the Ock Valley Flood Group clearing large items from the river bed and they were able to take the more bulky items, such as bits of bike and shopping baskets. The rest of the group put the new tree guards and stakes on the young trees. They succeeded in finding 36 of the original 50 trees still standing, consisting of oak, beech, silver birch, cherry and rowan. Since the attendance was good, the work was completed in record time. -Eleanor The plan was to improve the chances of the 40 plus young saplings/trees that were planted last year, by clearing the area and putting bigger protective supports around them. Not to forget th...

In a slight change to the new spring 2012 programme, this week we visited Southern Town Park for a morning of bramble cutting and litter picking.   There was much for the nine volunteers to do - plenty of overgrown brambles to clear and again, much litter to pick.  Several large fly-tipped items were discovered including a burnt bicycle and a couple of old bed frames.  These were removed and thanks to our efforts, the park now looks somewhat more attractive than before we arrived.   There is now a break for Easter, and the green gym will resume on Saturday 14th April to continue our work at the town end of the Ock River Walk. -Andrew Assessing our hard work!  an area of bramble clearance  another fruitful litter pick

A beautiful spring morning greeted the 10 or so Green Gym volunteers who met for Saturday's session.  The main task this time involved litter picking along the Tesco end of the Ock River Walk.  Some additional work was also carried out, tidying up the woodland adjacent to the river, and clearing dangerous tree branches in preparation for Himalayan Balsam pulling later in the Spring/Summer.  The banks of the river tend to become rather overgrown with this invasive non-native plant later towards the summer months which we attempt to eradicate due to it suffocating the native wildlife. From the outset it was apparent that there was an almost overwhelming amount of litter to be cleared from the area.  However, due to the hard work of all involved, good progress was made throughout the morning and several bags worth of recyclable and non-recyclable waste were collected, much improving the appearance of this busy area for at least the i...

Today we joined the Barton Fields Green Team to help with various tasks on the site. We split up into small groups, with some of us weeding the wild flower plots we had planted last year, some scalping the turf under the trees ready for new planting or fetching water for the wildflower plots, while others worked around the ponds or put up nesting boxes for the birds. At the end of the session we scattered seeds such as meadow cranesbill and field scabious on the wildflower meadow. We have enjoyed helping over the past few years to create and maintain this wild flower meadow and pond area in Abingdon, which will encourage and conserve a large variety of flora and fauna. -Eleanor

Here are a few photos from the pond digging sessions at Drayton Road Allotments:

This Saturday saw our second visit to Drayton Road allotments to continue digging a pond. Last week we had made good progress in clearing the trees and preparing the site and we had even begun digging. This time, with fewer able bodied diggers, our progress seemed discouragingly slow, and on top of that, our wheelbarrow got a puncture. We kept at it, however, having voted down suggestions of bringing in a mechanical digger, and with more womanpower arriving after the break, the task seemed less daunting. Just before the session was due to finish we finally struck water! The water table is alarmingly close to the surface on this site and many allotment holders have dug wells on their plots. The finished pond, which will not be lined, will be filled from below as well as with rainwater when we get some rain. We will need to assign a couple more sessions on the new programme to finishing the pond. -Eleanor