Recently, the Weekday Conservation Team has spent quite a few days tackling Himalayan Balsam. This plant is very invasive, and crowds out native plants as it colonises huge areas, usually along river banks. Luckily for us, it’s fairly easy to pull up as it’s an annual plant – so it doesn’t have time to get a huge root system going. Unluckily for us, there are usually masses of plants to pull up, often mixed in with nettles, often in really muddy/wet/squelchy locations.
Below – the obligatory shot of Duncan sitting about while everyone else is hard at work! Not really – Duncan and Martin did plenty of work that day, honest!
Somewhere in that lot is a whole bunch of keen BTCV volunteers – you have to get right down to pull the plants up from the base, as otherwise they tend to snap off leaving the roots in the ground to potentially keep growing.
Below – the offending plant – it’s quite pretty, and is a hit with bees – but it crowds out so many native species that it’s got to go!
Below – the obligatory shot of Duncan sitting about while everyone else is hard at work! Not really – Duncan and Martin did plenty of work that day, honest!
