The third session with Clean Up River Brent this summer eventually brought us a new chapter in the river’s story: planting! After hacking the unwanted plants last month, Andrew, Steph Ducat, Sevan and Kash were back at the Gurnell / Sixty Trees Way in Greenford to prepare the riverbank soil for the plants that had finally been delivered to Ben from CURB. The Ealing GoodGymers were joined this time by Maxime from GoodGym Hounslow and balsam bashers Andres and Mark.

While the team was getting into wellies or waders on that hot July morning (it was already 30 degrees!), Ben lined up the boxes with plugs and a bag of reeds in rows. The plants were arranged in the order in which they would be placed on the riverbank:

• Juncus - their grass-looking plugs would be planted directly in the gravel, where the water was shallow; their superpower is to filter the junk out of water - they are amazing at fighting the river pollution!

• Iris - those flowering plants can tolerate either very dry or very damp environments (depending on the variety); their beautiful flowers easily attract both human and pollinator attention.

• Typha a.k.a. bullrush - according to Ben, those were the plants whose dark brown spikes looked like cigars; we couldn’t tell that from the appearance of the young plants yet, but could imagine them as a typical wetland inhabitant that is great at accumulating toxins from polluted water.

• Reeds - or Phragmites; those aquatic plants can easily grow taller than a person (maybe not taller than Ben); their roots are excellent at filtering out impurities from sewage water, which sadly enters the River Brent.

• Hemp agrimony - this herb’s fluffy florets are irresistible for pollinators; despite cannabinum in the name it’s not the cannabis you may be thinking about.

Ben was hoping for three outcomes of our successful planting session:

• Improvement of water quality

• Habitat creation

• Boosting the riverbank’s aesthetic appearance

Before we got to planting this Sunday, we had to spend some time preparing the soil, which, despite being so close to the water, was quite dry in the hot weather - and full of tangled bramble roots! That’s why we’ve left some of the planting fun for another session in two weeks. Fancy joining us in this biodiversity quest? Sign up now!