Mill Road, Marcham, 12th July 2014

By Andrew -
Only five of us arrived for our first Himalayan Balsam pulling session at Mill Road, Marcham. However, our group included Robert Wilson. who we hadn't seen at Green Gym for some time, so it was nice to welcome him back.

Having parked in the farmyard of Manor Farm, we set to work on the ditch running along the right hand side of the lane. We had cleared this pretty thoroughly last year so we were disappointed to see that so much had come back. Looking across the fields, we could see a line of solid pink, where the balsam was growing thickly beside the stream.

The weather was fine and sunny, in fact a bit too hot so we tried to keep in the shade. It was a daunting task with so few of us to tackle it. We put up our notice board and some passers by stopped to look at it. In fact two jogging ladies actually took leaflets.

We had our break in the comparative luxury of the barn, where there were some plastic patio chairs to sit on. James and Ursula joined us for coffee, which was great, as they had been unable to come to sessions for a while. Then it was back to work and we were pleased to see by 12.30 that we had cleared the ditch and quite a bit more besides.

We have another session here on 28th and hope to have a lot more helping hands than this time.
-Eleanor

Himalayan Balsam

Robert proudly holds up a prize specimen

Tea break in the barn at Manor Farm

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