Abingdon Green Gym Blog

The Tesco end of the Ock Valley Walk was this week's venue, and so we assembled in the car park close to Barclay's Bank to commence operations.   The first item on the agenda was to wish Margaret happy birthday and to present her with the card that we had all signed.  Following that, we transported our tools and provisions across the road  to set up for the morning. Colin had got a head-start on the rest of us, having started his litter pick in advance of our arrival.  We were soon underway however, having received instruction from session leader, Sally on the tasks to be done.  As well as the litter pick and some clearance of stray tree branches close to the path, the main activity was, once again, Himalayan Balsam pulling. A number of dense patches of balsam had again sprung up close to the banks of the river - very tall and in flower. We certainly were not going to be short of work. Mid-morning refreshment break aside, it was an intense morning of acti...

We assembled in the farmyard at Manor Farm in Marcham for our second assault on the Himalayan Balsam along the roadside and on the farm land. Kristine had brought her grandson, William so with our oldest members also present, we ranged in age from 17 to 87.  Kate M volunteered to work in the ditch at the side of Mill Road and was soon joined by Dieuwke, who had cycled from Abingdon in an environmentally friendly fashion. We are anxious to keep this ditch clear of balsam and our hard work over the years has paid off as there are now quite a variety of native wild flowers growing there. The rest of us went through the gate into the neighbouring field to work along the field edge and Barry and Enid decided to walk up the footpath beside the field. The Himalayan Balsam in the field had grown very tall and we had soon made some very satisfactory heaps. We had our break in the relative luxury of the barn with plastic chairs to sit on and a large concrete slab to serve as a table...

Today a small but well-practiced group consisting of eight of us returned to Woodhaven, Frilford Heath, under Sally’s leadership to continue to tackle the Himalayan Balsam. It was noticeable that efforts from previous years had been successful in achieving a reduction in a number of areas, but a great deal remained, quite widely dispersed around the site. Accordingly we split into small groups to search it out and pull it up. -Barry Petra soon finds some All the vegetation is in full growth now – Robert is just about visible! Yes, it really is Robert! Petra definitely has found some! What beautiful flowers. But they’ll have to go...... Time for coffee – the shade is very welcome. Janet is finding lots... Forget-me-nots - I think! The native plants look very healthy. We will try to remember where these hazel nuts are if we come back later in the year.

Our task for this morning was to clear around the young trees we had planted over a year ago, as they were in danger of being swamped by nettles and goosegrass. We also needed to clear vegetation back from parts of the woodchip path, hunt down Himalayan Balsam and pick up litter. We didn't have to look far for Himalayan Balsam. We could easily see the bright pink flowers sticking up above the nettles. The problem was, how to get to it through the nettles. On making out way through to one patch, we found a small silver birch sapling, completely swamped by the surrounding vegetation.  At first there didn't appear to be too much litter, but eventually one bag of recycables and another of rubbish were filled, mostly from the Drayton Road end of the site. At  the tea break, we enjoyed cake, allotment grown strawberries as well as delicious biscotti, which Sally had brought back from Italy. Unfortunately there are no photos of these as they disappeared so quickly! B...

Sixteen Green Gymmers turned out on what proved to be a beautiful sunny day to pull up yet more Himalayan Balsam.  We parked as usual at Woodhaven and made our way past the meadow and across the bridge to the SSSI land. However, this time we were concentrating our efforts on land belonging to the neighbouring property. There was an open meadow with very dense patches of small plants.  Pulling these up required a great deal of bending and patience. Alison from Natural England had also mentioned another patch on the edge of the woodland which was growing on chippings from felled willow trees. By contrast, these plants proved to be gigantic and some were already in flower. We had soon made some very satisfactory heaps. Our tea break was enhanced by some delicious Spanish apple tarts, which Victor had made to celebrate his birthday. Some of us varied the work after the break by pulling up plants on the edge of the large, murky pond, though nobody indulged in any wild ...

On 20 th June, a couple of days  after the 200-year anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, a unit of Green Gym volunteers entered the field at Manor Farm, Marcham in response to a report of massed ranks of Himalayan Balsam deployed in the area and posing a severe threat to the native wildlife. After an initial assessment by the unit leader, Kevin, the unit advanced into the field. Initial deployment First sighting of the enemy. It was soon realised that the enemy had achieved successful methods of infiltration which were going to require new tactics. A drumhead conference was held to review strategy. Note the patriotic Wellington boots. Field rations. The end of the day. An example to the others!  It was agreed it had been a close-run thing and although we had made good progress we might yet have to return and fight another day. -Barry

It was a morning of steady rain when eleven of us assembled at Woodhaven to tackle the Himalayan Balsam. We tramped past the meadow and over the bridge to the Natural England site and set up our base at the usual place under the trees. We were pleased to see that the central part of the wood, which we had worked on for the past few years seemed largely clear of Himalayan Balsam and there were a variety of flowers returning including a number of yellow irises, ragged robin and cranesbill. There were some overhanging branches and a tree which seemed to have split down the middle so a some of us set to work to deal with those while the rest of us started on the Himalayan Balsam at the edge of the wood. Of course, it was not yet in flower but some plants were already quite tall and there were numerous small ones waiting to shoot up. We were glad to stop for our break and enjoy a cup of tea or coffee and cake. The weather had not really improved but we pressed on with our task unti...