A confession: I LOVE doing path clearance! There’s something really satisfying about arriving on site to what looks like a narrow, overgrown, impassable track and by the end of the day leaving a wide, clear path.
It’s just as well, because the Glasgow Mid-Week Group’s been doing a lot of path work recently. A couple of Mondays ago we were working in Johnstone clearing a walking/cycle path at the end of Miller Street. The path is fairly well used but Nature had put in a good effort trying to reclaim the track back.
Now we’re starting to see things!
The group worked hard slashing back vegetation and cutting overhanging branches and, of course, there was a LOT of Himalayan Balsam growing beside the path – we pulled out plenty of that!
The Balsam is in flower and will soon start seeding – each flowerhead can release up to a 1000 seeds that then spread widely or float downstream to form new colonies. Pretty though it is, Himalayan Balsam in a non-native species that colonises and causes erosion of riverbanks and out-competes our native plants. Snapping the heads off the plants may stop it from seeding this year but the stalk will branch into 2 or 3 next year doubling the number of flower heads.
So remember Kids try to pull up the whole plant by the root next time!
All nice and tidy