Abingdon Green Gym Blog

This week's blog post was written by Abingdon Green Gym Chair, Eleanor D.!:  For this Green Gym session we were at Abbey Fishponds in Abingdon. This Nature Reserve, between Radley Road and Audlett Drive, is looked after by the Earth Trust. There was plenty of scything and raking to be done and some people who hadn’t been “scythe trained” got the opportunity to try it out. Cutting the long grass and reeds gives the wild flowers a chance to come through and a good patch of ragged robin the attractive pink flower in the photo, which thrives in damp places, had been established.  A less popular task was pulling up nettles. Some of us went to cut back the vegetation from the path through the reserve and the tarmac foot and cycle path running alongside. A resident with a bike was very grateful for the cutting back of an elder tree overhanging the path. The flowers were not wasted, however, and are currently being turned into elderflower cordial. Tea break was a special occasion as w...

This week's blog post was written by Green Gym Chair, Eleanor D:  This Saturday we were at Dry Sandford Pit, a site managed by BBOWT. It is a former quarry and has sandy cliffs containing many fossils from the Jurassic period. There is also a calcareous fen, grassland and woodland. There were twelve of us in the work party, and we welcomed new member, Sam.  Our tasks were to dig up sycamore and hawthorn shoots which were encroaching on the grassland, clear around the gates and cut back vegetation encroaching on the footpaths. Uprooting sycamore seedlings was much harder than it looked at first as we found many were sprouting from a hefty root, so the tree popper was needed for some of them. The hawthorn we dug up was not all wasted as a couple of people took some home, hoping to plant a garden hedge.  The weather was sunnier than expected and we were soon quite warm. Buzzing insects were also a bit of a problem. After our break on a sunny bank, most people set off on a to...

This Saturday we were lucky enough to have the perfect weather for Green Gymming - blue skies, sunshine, no breeze, and plenty of good company!  We met Sally, our session leader, at the carpark of Hinksey Heights Nature Trail. Although the weather forecast had predicted a chilly start, it was already almost t-shirt weather when we arrived. We had three main tasks for the day, which Sally helpfully explained as we walked down to our campsite for the morning: 1. Create habit piles from dead wood near the beginning of the trail  2. Collect tree guards which saplings had outgrown ready to be collected by the Hinskey Heights tree team (taking care to also collect the wooden stakes, and the plastic ties which need to be carefully recycled) 3. Cut back some of the dead brambles by the stream to stop them choking up the stream, and creating nature piles from them As soon as we set down our tools Sally lifted her hand and told us to listed: a cuckoo was singing close to us in the woods...

This week's blog post was written by Abingdon Green Gym Chair, Eleanor D!: Sixteen of us gathered by the bridge over the weir for our session at the town end of the Ock, where it joins the Thames, and we then made our way to base camp on the woodchip path. One of the tasks was to renew the path, and the Town Council had left us a pile of woodchip at each end. The nettles in the area between the woodchip path and the main path were already growing fairly high and threatening to swamp the young trees, so another task was to clear around them. Then, of course, there was litter picking, so some people set off to do that. When the nettles had been cleared, there were plenty of fallen branches to cut up and put on to habitat piles. We discovered some wild garlic and even a fritillary, which we had planted a few years ago before the lockdown. In the Autumn we used to plant bulbs and rhizomes of early Spring flowers such as wild daffodils, wild garlic, wood anemones and fritillaries, which...

It was a lovely spring morning for the Abingdon Green Gym volunteers as we started our session up at the Hinksey Heights Golf Course, complete with blue skies and sky-larks singing. It was so clear and light we could see the Dreaming Spires easily from the top of the hill that we were working on. We had a healthy turnout of a baker's dozen, and we started off with a walk around one of the fairways which was being re-opened in order to check what work needed doing for the day. Ably led by our session leader for the morning, Sally, we had a few tasks this session: 1. Collecting up old tree guards and stakes to be re-used elsewhere on the site.  2. Creating some dead hedges to redirect walkers away from the fairway and directly onto the Chiswell Valley footpath.  3. Cutting down some overhanging greenery which was trailing down to head-level for cyclists and walkers.  There were hundreds of tree guards along the side of the fairway, which we collected and wrapped up inside o...

This week's blog post was written by courageous Session Leader, Kevin: We had a dozen or more volunteers that turned out on a cold and frosty but sunny morning at the Riding for the Disabled. This is our third visit to the RDA. The task was the same as the last two trips, which was to clear a long and deep ditch which had been blocked, and which was causing flooding in the pass and making the fields/paddocks unusable. This time we finally finished the job and what water that was in the ditch was flowing nicely on its way - hurrah!  The staff at the RDA are very appreciative of our efforts each time we come, and not only do they give a hand but also supply lovely refreshments of home made cakes, tea, coffee and water! At the same time we get to know more about the RDA which has 16 horses at present which work with disabled adults and children. An addition to there complex is a new indoor area which they hope to organise shows and completions!  The bogged-down ditch James gettin...