Park Row property

During last week's session Andrew discovered balsam growing in the grounds of one of the houses along Park Row. Having obtained permission from the owner we returned this week to clear it.

It was a very hot day but fortunately there was only one large clump of balsam plus a few patches hiding amongst the nettles. With the help of a local youngster volunteering as part of his Duke of Edinburgh award scheme, we were able to clear it all fairly quickly.

Bridge House to Nightingale's Bridge

We were pleased to find that there weren't many plants growing along the banks at Bridge House and someone had already chopped down some of the undergrowth at the far end of the grounds. This only left a few dozen plants which needed to be cleared near to river bank.

Further downstream, we found a few plants amongst the nettles and again at Nightingale Bridge there were a few more. We did see a couple of big clumps on the other side of the river which we'll need to revisit on another occasion.

Meanwhile Andrew had found a large patch in the grounds of one of the houses on Park Row and did his best to clear them single-handedly.

Nightingale's Bridge

Upstream survey.

Last week we had a look at the field behind St Peter's Church. There were a few plants growing but no large clumps apart from one near to Church Road on the opposite bank of the river. There were also a few visible behind the houses on Mill Lane.

Today, Monday, I took a stroll upstream. I cut an access path (Start of path) through the undergrowth down to the river downstream of Black Rocks. In previous years this area has had quite a lot of balsam scattered amongst the undergrowth. This year I saw only a few plants. The opposite bank did have a few and there seemed to be more on the field edge behind.

I then walked upstream and waded across to the group of little islands upstream of Black Rocks. Two years ago when we first cleared the area it was densely colonised by balsam. Last year were fewer, and this year there were just a few isolated plants. However the field edge on the opposite bank was still bad, acting as a reservoir for recolonisation.

Meadow Mead and Glebeland 2018

After a late start to the season, balsam is now four to five feet tall in places. We cleared a couple of large clumps off Meadow Mead before moving to the other side of the river to clear a large clump by the Community Orchard. We also found scattered plants at various places along the river bank, some only reachable from river level.