Wed 31st Oct 2018 - Play Lane Millennium Green, Ryde. GG # 759.

Mark's Photographs.

We undertook our annual management of the butterfly meadow this week. This area was cleared by us back during several sessions in 2008 http://iowgreengym.blogspot.com/2008/12/wed-3rd-dec-2008-millenium-green-ryde.html

Many thanks to Mark for the editorial and photographs this week. You may like to look at this link to their own web site... (Green Gym gets a mention...!)

Blog – Play Lane Millennium Greenhttps://playlane.org.uk/blog/

Wed 24th Oct 2018 - St Mary's RC Primary School, Ryde. GG # 758.

Bob's Photographs.

The "before" photo of the pond taken at 10 am.

The "after" photo of the pond taken at noon...!

Alison's Photographs.

Work on the pond area begins.

There really is a pond in there...somewhere..

Trimming back the undergrowth to improve access.

The extensive root system on the pond plants.

Wow..we have, at long last, found WATER.!

GG is always a team effort 😀

Mark's Photographs.

Although we hadn't been to this venue since 2016, this would be our sixth visit here overall. Our main focus of attention was the pond area which had become almost totally overgrown by the undergrowth and pond plants (see photos above)...! For the children to be able to go "pond dipping" we needed to find the pond, clear it out and cut back the rather overgrown surrounding area. As this is a man-made pond, special care had to be taken that the tools were not allowed to puncture the liner which would result in the loss of water. The original pond plants had grown out of all proportion and it was hard going to drag them out due to the extensive root systems. The above photographs demonstrate beautifully the improvements made in just a couple of hours. With around half of Team GG working on the pond, the others were very gainfully employed across the school site - working on trimming back shrubs and making good the rutted footpaths. Although the wind was a bit on the chilly side, we were protected by the surrounding trees and when the sun came out it was a very pleasant day. Many thanks to Sue and her son, Flynn, who supplied us with copious amounts of tea and coffee plus the all important biscuits 🙌.

This session was made possible through a Footprint Trust project sponsored by Southern Water.

Many thanks to Alison and Mark for taking the photographs this week.

Wed 17th Oct 2018 - Riverside Centre, Newport. GG #757.

Alison's Photographs.

Mark's Photographs.

Hard at work on just one of the many flower (weed?) beds.

When undergrowth becomes overgrowth.

Mark was doing his Widow Twanky's Laundry act

washing all the Hi-Viz jackets after the session..!

This week we had a return visit to the Riverside Centre to continue the work we started two months ago. Due to the Quay bridge still being out of action and no access via Hillside, it was a bit of a trek to go around via Fairlee to get access. The next problem was that the car park was filled to bursting point so....it was time to dig deep into the pocket and feed the parking meter. The things we do to go along to GG sessions...! Mark explained that we had the full run of the site as there is hardly a flower bed or hedge that doesn't need attention. Once we had all donned our hi-viz jackets it was off to try and tame the jungle. One of the most overgrown areas was the top car park where the undergrowth had become overgrowth (see picture above). Come tea break the refreshments were rolled out to us on a trolley - tea, coffee and bacon or sausage baps which were welcomed by almost all (we do have a couple of vegetarians in our numbers!) Then it was back to work but, by then, the mizzle had turned to drizzle and then on to rain - so a wet end to the session. Considering the problems getting there, parking and the dull weather, we had a good turnout and a lot of work was achieved.

Many thanks to the catering staff who looked after us so well at tea break and to Alison & Mark for the photographs.

Wed 10th Oct 2018 - Community Orchard / Wetland Walk, Adgestone. GG # 756.

Mark's Photographs.

Raking in the orchard.

Dredging logs out of the pond.

Now we are well into October, most of our tasks are to tidy everything up now the summer growth is over. The rangers had been in before our arrival and strimmed down the grass and weeds, all ready for us to rake and pile. Collecting it all up will deny the ground of the nutrients so that the area will be meadow-like next year. Some light pruning of the various fruit trees was undertaken although the pear trees were left for another time. Other GGmers were involved with dredging logs out of the pond, using a grappling hook and relocating cut material left behind by the electricity workers when the cut back under their pylons. The weather could not have been more perfect with sun and a noon day temperature of around 20C...which is some 5C above the average for this time of year. Everything was looking very spick and span at the end of the session - well done everyone..!

Many thanks to Mark for contributing the photographs.