Scything is always a GoodGym favourite, and we had the perfect heatwave task this Wednesday of scything nettles in the shade of the woods at Aston's Eyot.

There are lots of muntjac deer who call Aston's Eyot home, and they eat their way through absolutely everything, leaving much reduced biodiversity. To try and counter this the Friends of Aston's Eyot are creating fenced areas throughout the nature reserve which the deer can't break into. In those areas the flora and fauna will have a chance to recover, increasing the variety of plant life, and providing food for a wider range of bugs and beasties. The next area to be fenced is within the woodland, but the nettles needed clearing before the Friends of Aston's Eyot could decide the exact outline of the protected area. Always happy to oblige, we scythed and raked away for an hour clearing a woodland glade ready for fencing.

Breakaway teams lopped low-hanging branches of some trees overhanging a pathway, pulled creeping thistle (prickly!), and re-scythed the young nettles starting to pop back up where we chopped them back earlier this year.

Welcome to GoodGym Maria!

We scythed up a storm at Aston's Eyot last night. Working our way along and beyond the fence we built last summer we cut a swathe through the nettles, raking them out as we went to let light get through and hopefully give some other plants a chance. Forming a scythe-rake-remove production line we were a pretty efficient work crew! Some veteran GoodGymers had their first go at scything, plus we were pleased to welcome 2 new GoodGymers to the crew: Welcome to GoodGym Weronika and Eleftherios.

Find the Friends of Aston's Eyot website here.

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.