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IoW GG links

To look at the Isle of Wight Green Gym web page (contains details of sessions etc) please use the following link :- www.iwgreengym.org.uk.

The link to Twitter is https://twitter.com/iwgreengym

If you would like to leave us any comments then please use this link iwgreengym@gmail.com

Friday 26 April 2013

Wed 24th April 2013. Pan Mill Meadows, Newport.





This week saw the group at Pan Mill Meadows, with our usual excellent
turnout of volunteers.  Our list of tasks was fairly long, but we managed to
complete them all by the end of the session.  Our main task was to spread
three trailer loads of woodchip round the pathway, as several areas get
very boggy when it rains.  The guys from St Georges did a litter pick, and a
great job they did too filling quite a few black bags to stack in the
trailer.  Other tasks were to repair the chicken wire on the bridge over the
stream, and remove some post and wire fencing which had falledn down and was
looking very untidy - a further section of fencing was removed from the
stream under the bridge.  We also cut back a section of willow which was
overhanging the cycle path, and removed a lot of sycamore from another area
of the site.  We then cut some willow steams and transplanted these to the
area where we removed the sycamore, in the hope they may regenerate.  Our
final task was to clear an area to improve the visibility from the pathway,
and then use the cut pieces to make a low barrier to prevent it being used
as a through route.  The local PCSO officer cycled through and said he had
been there this morning at 8.30 and now he didn't recognise the place as we
had done such a good job, a compliment indeed!

Many thanks to Carrie for the blog information and photographs this week.


There are a couple of items in the County Press this week that might be of interest, see pages 28 and 31 for further details.......

Thursday 18 April 2013

Wed 17th April 2013 - Ventnor Botanical Gardens.



Our second visit in two weeks saw us again at Ventnor Botanic Gardens.  It was certainly considerably warmer than our last visit, and we had over 30 people at the session.  We were working at the back of the gardens in a slightly different area to last week.  Our tasks were to remove bramble and ivy from a small area - taking care there were no nesting birds of course. The second and much larger task involved cutting back brambles, dead trees and dogwood, and stacking all the off-cuts into large piles.  This would open up a view across the garden and they are hoping the dogwood will regenerate some new growth, so you can see the lovely rich red colour of the branches.

Many thanks to Carrie for the blog this week.

Thursday 11 April 2013

Wed 10th April 2013 - Fort Victoria, Yarmouth.



Our venue this week was at Fort Victoria, helping Nick the Ranger.  Once we spotted the wheelbarrows in the trailer, we knew there would be a large pile of limestone chippings somewhere, and we weren't wrong.  However, once several of us set to with shovels and wheelbarrows, the new path soon looked very smart, as you can see from the picture.  Other jobs were to put some protective plastic collars round some of the native trees we planted back in March, and then some path work to clear weeds and any trip hazards.



Carrie's Nature Lesson.



This week’s find by Durinda is a Horsetail (Equisetum Arvense).  This is a perennial plant found in or near watery areas such as marshes, streams, or rivers, and is a derivative of larger plants that grew 270 million years ago during the carboniferous period. The picture shows the first stage occurring in early spring with a fertile hollow stem resembling asparagus.  After these stems have withered and died, the second stage occurs during the summer months when thin green barren stems branch out from the plant.  It is during this stage that horsetail is gathered for medicinal use.  It has no leaves or flowers and was named for its bristly appearance, with the genus name Equisetum deriving from the Latin words equus, meaning horse, and seta, meaning bristle. Other names for horsetail include shave-grass, bottle-brush, and paddock-pipes.
The medicinal use of horsetail dates back to ancient Roman and Greek times. The Greeks used it as a wound healer, a diuretic, and an agent to stop bleeding. Nicholas Culpeper, a popular seventeenth-century herbalist, wrote of horsetail's beneficial properties in stopping bleeding and treating ulcers, kidney stones, wounds, and skin inflammation. Its reedy exterior and silica content have made it a popular metal polisher and natural abrasive cleanser, and one of its nicknames is pewterwort, so named because it was used to scour pewter. English dairy maids used it to scour their milk pails, while early Americans used it to scrub their metal pots and pans.
Thanks to Carrie for the blog this week...!



Thursday 4 April 2013

Wed 3rd April 2013 - Botanic Gardens, Ventnor.


View before.


View after...!



A return visit to a venue we have not visited since August 2011 - Ventnor Botanic Gardens, which is now run as a Community Interest Company. Considering the recent difficult weather the gardens do look really good. Our major task for today was to clear one of the banks at the rear of the garden of a very thick mat of ivy and a large area of brambles.  We also made some gaps between different species of bamboo, so they could thrive more easily, and all the green stuff we removed was soon carted away on the back of a tractor to their compost heap.

Many thanks to Carrie for the blog this week.