At first we were unsure if all the balsam had already been bashed by another volunteer group as we arrived to piles hung from trunks here, there and everywhere. Once we moved a bit further into the undergrowth we found an abundance of red rooted aliens to pull! Unfortunately they seemed to be surrounded by an impenetrable wall of nettles too so we had to carefully pull around them while also getting pestered by mosquitoes despite a good soaking in bug spray beforehand. It wasn't long before we had made a good dent and were ready to head off. Before that though we had quite the scare pulling a furry thing from the undergrowth that the balsam had grown into. It turned out to be a teddy bear and not a previously alive furry thing fortunately. Giorgio Beverley Hills bear was actually a bit of an antique as came from 1998. Selling for £9.72 on Ebay in mint condition but alas our Giorgio was very much not in mint condition and did in fact have balsam growing out his head and a host of worms and bugs!

There were several jobs to choose from the help Ms S access her garden more. I selected clearing the passionfruit flower which had overtaken the greenhouse so you could hardly get in the door. This meant Ms S couldn’t access the tools for her garden easily. It was a tough job as the plant had twisted itself around everything and was between all the glass panes and frame. Some of the plant had been cut so there was also a lot of dead leaves falling off everywhere. It took 2 hours to really make a dent in the greenhouse and clear approximately half leaving a good clear space in the entrance to access. There was still quite a lot of plant at the back of the greenhouse and behind the shelving but unfortunately I ran out of time to get it all out. Hopefully we might be able to do a return visit to finish the task as it was lot for one pair of hands. Ms S was thrilled with the difference it made and even shared some cake with me before I left.