Here is an ongoing list of useful links to the websites of organisations, individual web pages and reference documents. The page is intended primarily as a working tool for members of Chipping Norton Green Gym. Suggestions for inclusions are welcome, with preference given to items more directly relevant to actual work carried out by our group.
Bees
For a fascinating, detailed and beautifully illustrated view of the “Wonderful World of Bees”, visit buzzaboutbees.net. If you would like to try a short quiz based on information given in the pages of the website, click here.
Here are three more related links:
Make your garden bee-friendly About bumblebees Bees learn fast
Inns (Invasive non-native species)
Himalayan Balsam identification …. and two Green Gym photos of it
Poisonous plants Hemlock (Conium maculatum)
(1) identification (2) removal and disposal * *source, a Californian “Weed Workers’ handbook”.
Ivy (Hedera helix)
During Green Gym sessions, we sometimes remove ivy from trees. But how necessary is it to do so? See what the Royal Horticultural Society says, here.
What to do about ivy on walls and monuments? Remove it and risk damage to stone or leave well alone? There is a churchyard case study here
Common Ragwort (Jacobaea vulgaris, aka Senecio jacobaea)
Ragwort is a valuable source of nectar and pollen to many insects, and a food plant for some caterpillars, but can be dangerous to livestock.
There is a brief description of the plant, associated risks, and non-chemical control here. For fuller information on ragwort, with a “Facts or Myths?” section, visit ragwort.org.uk .
Trees
The Woodland Trust The Cotswold Tree Warden Group I Dig Trees (TCV project)
Fitzalan Wood, Chipping Norton (created by Green Gym in 2014-15):
Fitzalan Wood trees planted 2015-21
Pdf list of U.K. trees in English and Latin: by common name by botanical name
Ash dieback : scientific name Chalara fraxinea, or now, more correctly, Hymenoscyphus fraxineus. The following illustrated description dates from 2013, a year after this disease arrived in Britain, and states that it more commonly affects mature ash trees. This is not the experience on our affected worksites. What is ash dieback?
In 2019, official publications seem to accept that the fight to check the spread of the disease is lost and seem to advise against unnecessary felling as there is a chance that this may destroy trees which ultimately prove resistant or give clues to recovery.
Wildflowers
Chipping Norton Green Gym has worked on tree planting and garden and orchard development and maintenance, covering flowers, fruit and vegetables. At the town’s Fitzalan Wood, created by our group in 2014, we are increasing biodiversity and enhancing amenity value by sowing and planting suitable native wildflowers to supplement existing species which have sprung up naturally.
Ongoing plant survey Wildflower planting in Fitzalan Wood
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Happy Birthday
“Chippy” Green Gym is just one of around 140 in the U.K. The first one was founded back in 1998 and in February 2018 they invited us to join a twentieth birthday celebration.