Slopes of Stinchcombe
I heard during the week that the Joint Woodland Management Committee were holding a balsam bashing work party in one of the areas they manage on the side of Stinchcombe Hill. This is the second year they have been actively controlling it.
Quite an unusual site for Himalayan Balsam. Firstly, there is no flowing waterway nearby, which is the usual vector for spreading the seed.
Also, there was copious dog’s mercury on the floor, which is an indicator species of ancient woodland. The site was also very steep.
Rather annoyingly, dog’s mercury looks very similar to balsam, although it’s still fairly easy to spot. There were not great plantations of it (which there were last year apparently). So keeping on top of it for the next year of two should eradicate it completely from this area.
In the afternoon, the house in the walled garden held an open day with tea and cakes and you could walk around their amazing garden.
As ever, it was a good opportunity to catch up with people. Bumped into Richard and Tess who were at the green drinks last week.
Ending up chatting with them so long, I walked back and had drinks in their back garden until the early evening.
