Large clumps of balsam always grow by the Church Road bridge and scattered throughout the undergrowth on the Meadow Mead side of the river opposite the community orchard. When river levels are low, these areas can be reached from the river bed though care must be taken to avoid deep spots and the bank can be a bit tricky to climb in places. It’s also possible to cut a way down from Meadow Mead though fallen branches and occasionally dumped garden waste can make it hard work. Despite these challenges, on a very warm Midsummer’s Day we cleared the riverbanks by the community orchard then returned to wade up the river to access the big clump by the bridge. The balsam was fairly tall and a few flowers were starting to appear.

Looking downriver from the bridge

Balsam cleared by Church Road bridge 

Nightingale’s Bridge and Hilly Fields

We met at Nightingale’s Bridge where balsam could be seen growing on the mud banks on both sides of the river and on the bank just upstream from the bridge.  The water level was low so it was easy to cross the river to reach a large clump on the east bank where access has been made more difficult by a new barbed wire fence.

The edges of Hilly Fields remain mostly clear of balsam after we cleared it a few years ago so we  crossed to the far corner where we always find balsam. It was not as bad as the first time we visited this area but there was still a lot of tall balsam growing amongst dense nettles. 

On the way back to the bridge we stopped at a place where we’d seen a few balsam growing on the river bank behind the fence. As usual there turned out to be a lot more when we looked more closely so we finished our morning session by clearing those. 

Black Rocks and beyond - June 7th

A group of five volunteers walked upstream from St Peter’s Church to Black Rocks where the few scattered plants seen a couple of weeks ago were revealed to be accompanied by many more hidden in the undergrowth and along the riverbank. Fortunately the river level was low so we were able to reach most of them with a bit of wading and a bit of scrambling over and under fallen branches.   

After clearing this area, we continued upstream toward the little islands in the river, clearing a few small plants on the near bank and some larger ones across the river on the way.  The islands themselves were very overgrown with a variety of plants including balsam and there were some dams created by fallen trees which had also become home for balsam. We were able to clear the majority of these.

Water crowsfoot growing in the river at Black Rocks