Time to pull some balsam

The longer summer goes on, the more of the dastardly Himalayan Balsam appears on the riverbanks. This pretty pink but invasive plant can spread its seeds far and wide and grows so fast and tall that it crowds out other native species.

Luckily a top team made it down on a muggy evening at Elmbridge Meadows to help the Friends of Berrylands Nature Reserve. Mountains of uprooted plants quickly built up over our hour as Rachel, Sabir, Emma, Jade, Tom, Emily, Claire, and Dave pulled them up.

A few bramble scratches and nettle stings, but we made it out alive.

It’s a strange but quite satisfying task and one of the most interesting and rewarding things that Andrew, representing the group, explained, was that the patches that many of us worked on last year have had notably fewer balsam plants returning this time around, so what we are doing is definitely making a difference.