Abingdon Green Gym Blog

A return to Cothill and the conditions were somewhat milder than on our last visit here!  Upon arrival, we met with Judy Webb from Natural England and transported our tools down the path to the site before receiving instructions on the morning's activities.  A new gate had been fitted at the entrance making site access somewhat easier than previously. The tasks were a continuation of our previous work at the fen - raking up cut reeds and stacking them into piles and cutting and removing trees from the perimeter of the site that have begun to encroach upon the wetland.  In addition there were some new sprouts from the cut trees to attend to - all necessary work to maintain this rare habitat. While we were busy raking, cutting and stacking, Judy set about recording species around the site and conducting her survey work.  A number of plants and insects were noted and we were careful to work around the spots where the rarest and most unique of these were present. F...

A happy return to Abbey Fishponds with a big turnout! It was a beautiful morning with bright sunshine although cool.  Kevin was leading, with directions from site warden, Marjorie. Tasks included laying woodchips on paths, cutting and slashing parables, planting and weeding, cutting and stacking wood, and litter picking.  Also it was sad for us that it was Erin Hill ’ s last day with us. She has been a great volunteer but has now completed this part of her Duke of Edinburgh Award.  -Barry In addition, the Green Gym Team (the Loppers and Slashers), with brains refreshed by the morning's work in the open air, won the Friends of the Museum annual fundraising quiz in the evening. -Eleanor Now that’s definitely ready for some planting... What’s this fungus up to? The fungus made the tree unsafe and it had to be cut down. James cutting and stacking the remains of the tree. Rihanna and Erin, our Duke of Edinburgh volunteers, laying a chipp...

This week  eleven of us  met up at Wood haven, Frilford  Heath, a lovely privately owned woodland  managed by Natural England. The weather was sunny and warm. Our tasks were to  clear the fallen branches on the ground and remove  any   branches  overhanging  the paths .   The wood was  then  stacked  into piles  to  act as  habitats  for various woodland creatures . Our other  task was  to   begin removing  the invasive Himalayan  Balsam  plants .  There were hundreds of small seedlings covering the ground ,  and we will return later in  the season to carry on with this  task.  The aim is to pull up the HB before the flowers turn to seed, explode, and popu late even more of the woodland, thus preventing ou r native species of flowers and fauna  to survive .   -Lesley The group at arriving at base camp Margaret with som...

Despite the windy weather there was a good turnout for the session at the Tesco end of the Ock Valley Walk.  We proceeded to our usual spot to commence the work programme. Litter picking is one of the main tasks on this stretch of the path and the pickers collected many bags of assorted recyclable and landfill rubbish. Brambles were cut back from the main path and were easier to see now that the summer growth of nettles and other foliage had died back. With the rain keeping off and our backs to the wind we had our well deserved break of cake and hot drinks. For the second part of the session, we continued with clearing and stacking the fallen branches, most of it residue of vegetation that was washed down from the flooding in the winter of 2013/14. Also we diverted our attention to the early signs of Himalayan Balsam shoots, emerging from the undergrowth. Although very small, their distinctive leaf (once you zeroed your eye in) could be...

This was the second of our two Spring visits to the Town end of the Ock Walk and this time there were more than twice as many of us as the previous week.  Some people went to finish off the work on the woodchip path. With two wheelbarrows this time as well as Colin's trolley this didn't take too long.  Other tasks included getting rid brambles that were beginning to sprout in some areas and to trail through trees at one end of the woodchip path, inspecting the young trees and clearing the area around them and making piles of dead wood and fallen branches. There was some litter to be cleared, though not so much as usual, as the council contractors have been sending someone to clear it in the past few weeks. The tea break was made more special with a delicious cake that Petra had made for us. Then it was back to work, with a lot more work to be done on the brambles. We also decided to rake the dead vegetation off the ground in the young tree area to encourage new gr...

The new Spring programme for 2015 has been issued, and can be viewed below.  A larger PDF version can be found on our website  HERE

Seven of us, an unusually small number, assembled for the first of two sessions of renewing the woodchip path at the town end of the Ock River Walk.  We had decided to leave the path work until March in case there were winter floods as there had been for the past two years. The Town Council had left us two large piles of woodchip at either end of the path and some of us began spreading it on to the eastern end path and shovelling it into our one wheelbarrow while the others began raking twigs from the path and roughing up the surface so the woodchip could bed down better.  We were very glad when Colin arrived with his trolley, enabling us to shift a lot more. We made remarkable progress considering there were only a few of us and by the tea break we had progressed more than half way. Having exhausted the first pile, we decided to move to the other end of the path. By 12.30 there was only about one fifth of the path left to do next week, though there would be other tasks ...