With light evenings comes the return of tasks in Oxford's green spaces, and one of our favourites is Aston's Eyot. Tucked between the Iffley Road and the river, the Eyot was a rubbish dump in the 19th Century, but it's now a thriving nature reserve managed by the Friends of Aston's Eyot.

Wednesday's task was nettle removal. Scything and pulling the nettles allows light to get through for wild flowers, and removing them reduces the richness of the soil, which wild flowers prefer. This should all help increase the biodiversity of the area. Scything is always a fan favourite at GoodGym, so there were plenty of volunteers for that task. Henry very competently assembled the new scythe, and Axelle did great work pruning back an elder tree which was getting a little thuggish. Some of the GoodGymers were lucky enough to spot 2 muntjac deer on the way home - it's always surprising and delightful how much nature can thrive yards from busy city streets.

Great work team!

Welcome to GoodGym Emma and Ines.

Last night was all about BOG creation on Aston's Eyot, with bonus tasks of scything and pond sculpting to keep us all happily occupied. (Make a bog, get 2 tasks free.) The Friends of Aston's Eyot are very proactive about habitat creation across the nature reserve. We've previously helped dig ponds, make boggy patches and built hibernaculums (hibernaculi?) in other areas of the Eyot. This time the pond and bog areas had already been dug by a digger - somewhat more efficient than by hand! - just leaving some finishing touches to be made by volunteers. The bog area had been lined already, just leaving the task of filling the soil back in on top. Luckily Trev and Henry had wellies on, which made wading around in swampy mud a lot easier for them, while the rest of the group shovelled and ferried soil from heap to bog. Our scythers, Axelle and Venetia cleared the nettles from the perimeter of the bog very efficiently, while the rest of us got artistic, sculpting/reprofiling the sides of the recently dug pond so that it has a shallow slope instead of a cliff edge into the water - better for frogs and other critters to get in and out.

Despite being up against the failing light we made good progress on all tasks. Great work team!

Welcome to GoodGym Kate and Jamie.

Aston's Eyot is a delightful nature reserve tucked off the Iffley Road. It is owned by Christchurch College but the Friends of Aston's Eyot rent it for the princely sum of £1 per year and are tasked with its upkeep.

This evening we were greeted by Ruth and she explained our task. Some young hedgerow plants and wild flowers have been being nibbled by the deer who live in the reserve. We were to make the fencing around them a bit higher and sturdier, trimming and tidying as we went. Hopefully the deer won't be able to leap over the new, higher fence!

Armed with stakes, bamboo, cable ties and various tools we set to work and soon had built a handsome enclosure, hopefully ensuring a better outcome for the young plants.

There was also a bit of nettle scything to be done, because what is a visit here without scything?!?

The return run was glorious, along the river and across the lock. An excellent way to celebrate Global Running Day!

Aston's Eyot is a 32-acre island in Oxford. It might not be obvios that it's an island, but it’s delineated by the River Thames, the River Cherwell and Shire Lake Ditch. It has been a Victorian rubbish tip, leased to bottle diggers for a period from the mid 1980s, and in the early 21st centrury a bit of a tangle o'bramble. Now it’s a mosaic of woodland, open area and scrub, and a haven for wildlife. The site has been sensitively managed by the Friends of Aston Eyot for the last decade, and they now have an official lease from Christchurch (who own the land).

This summer the Friends have been working on creating a wildlife pond and boggy area, which we have helped with on a number of Wednesday sessions. So far we've reprofiled the edges of the pond, moved piles of logs to create hibernaculums within a newt's crawling distance of the pond, and helped dig an area next to the pond to create a boggy habitat. Last night we split into digging and scything crews (there's always nettle scything needed on Aston's Eyot) and got straight to work. Diggers worked up a sweat and dodged Victorian broken glass to get the bog patch so nearly ready to lay the tarpaulins which will keep the moisture in. One more digging session and it'll be ready. Scythers and rakers channelled their inner Poldark (but with better scything technique, of course) to chop down the nettles and thistles popping up in the meadow areas. Mind the daisies though! A third wildcard task was to move a pile of nettles a few yards so that meadow plants could be sown in their current location. We approached this with long sleeves and trepidation given that the nettles seem to have recovered their viscious sting after the recent rains (what we assumed was a growing immunity to nettle stings turned out to be that they lost their mojo in the heatwave). We needn't have worried too much as it seemed that the nettles had been in situ for quite some time and were a dried out tangle. Of course, we still managed to acquire the odd sting around our ankles - is it GoodGym without a nettle sting or bramble scratch? - but it was the nettle-ageddon that we had feared.

Corgi family tree in the photos thanks to Holly. Welcome to GoodGym Hannah and congratulations on getting to the 10 Good Deed milestone Sam.

Good to meet you in-person Ivo.

The Aston's Eyot Triathlon: Scything, Digging and log-carrying. It'll be a Commonwealth Games sport one day you know!

We spent our evening working around the new wildlife pond on Aston's Eyot - digging nettle roots out of the area where the Friends of Aston's Eyot plan to create a boggy area, scything and raking up nettles to try and encourage greater biodiversity, and moving logs to create suitable habitats for reptiles to hibernate (and to clear them from a new footpath).

Aston's Eyot used to be a rubbish dump, so there's lots of Victorian trash all over just below the surface, which makes digging and weeding a bit of a treasure hunt. Who could have predicted that we would be unearthing an old laxative bottle and taking it home to use as a vase? Hopefully the digging team won't get prosecuted for their efforts by Christchurch college - the sign prohibiting digging looked pretty ancient!

Scything is a GoodGym right of passage, so we're always delighted to have a chance to show our newer members how to do it. Fortunately this load of nettle scything didn't seem to trigger everyone's allergies like it did when we scythed nettles in June before. Good to know August is better for the hayfever sufferers!

Well done on reaching the 10 Good Deeds milestone Laurie.

Scythes! Spades! Log carrying!

Last night was our first task of the year at Aston's Eyot, and it did not disappoint: There were nettles to scythe and rake, the pond edge to reprofile, and lots of logs to carry over to the pond edge to build a hibernaculum for reptiles to hibernate in.

The pond is a new feature on Aston's Eyot. As it was dug the soil was piled up around the edges and now needed smoothing into a gentler slope. An artistic quartet got to work shovelling and sculpting - with an architect in the group surely the landscaping will be exemplary?!
Meanwhile the rest of the gang ventured into the woodland area and flexed their muscles carrying logs from woods to pond edge to form a pile which will hopefully be an attractive habitat for reptiles to snooze the winter away.
And finally....the scythes were back in action. Happy to report no loss of limbs from over enthusiastic wielding of sharp blades (woo hoo!) and a whole load of nettles were chopped down, which will hopefully allow a bit of breathing/growing space for a wider variety of plants.

Great work team!

Welcome to GoodGym Julian and Laurie - lovely to meet you both.