A Balsam Bashing Day

It has been Balsam bashing time along the River Cole.  Himalayan Balsam is an annual plant, growing head high, or in my case, even higher.  It has extremely pretty pink and occasionally white flowers. 

Do not, I urge you, be influenced by the pretty pink and white flowers.  This plant is a marauder swamping our equally pretty indigenous wild flowers.  The invader must be pulled up, cut down, bashed firmly, and with both feet, until the roots are squidged flat and the stems squelch, noisily and juicily.  Very pleasing!  Saves pounds in counselling fees.

The work should be carried out before the flowers form and the seeds spread.  One plant can produce 800 seeds.  These can be caterpulted by the plant up to 7 metres away.  Balsam being a damp loving plant, populate the sides of streams, which of course create a liquid highway for seed adventuring.  This presents another opportunity to wade in the water to pull up seedlings along the river-banks.  With the inevitable wet socks to follow of course.  Am I too old or possibly even too small, for waders, I ask myself?

Balsalm bashing has been an annual event along the River Cole over the last couple of years and it has been gratifying to see our natural wildflowers re-occupying their rightful place along the river-bank - confidently by cow parsley and nettles, more timidly from Ragged Robin or buttercup.

What a year it has been for Goosegrass.  Turn your back for a moment and there it is, threading, climbing, lurking everywhere, drooping like fuzzy ribbons of green.  And sticking!  Especially sticking!

This is another annual plant.  It uses tiny hooks on its equally tiny fruit to catch onto passing animals, including humans.  It can of course, be gathered up in quantity and formed into a green ball to throw at one’s companions but that is surely for children.  Adults find it merely an added irritation accompanying this gardening season which is passing by wetly, cloudily and with just the odd day of sunshine to give us hope that the marigolds are not entirely past help.

Other names for Goosegrass are (and I quote with no added comment):

Beggars’s Lice, Catchweed, Cleaverweed, Bedstraw, Everlasting Friendship, Scratch Grass and last but not least, Sticky Willie.