Bench-painting and balsam bashing, Tolworth Brook/Surbiton Stream, Berrylands , Tuesday July 2nd, 2013

There's always plenty to keep the Kingston Greenspace Volunteers busy around the Meldone Avenue car park in Berrylands. If it's not picking up 11 rum bottles from the bushes, removing chairs from the undergrowth, or retrieving dumped garden waste, it's painting graffiti-covered benches. Using the famous 'Kingston Green' paint, provided by Quadron Services, a small group of volunteers set about transforming three benches.
Once this task was completed, the group continued to clear invasive Himalayan balsam from the Tolworth Brook, in a bid to reduce the impact of seeds travelling downstream to Elmbridge Meadows on the banks of the Hogsmill River. This stretch was much more badly affected by the plants than had been expected, so it will be necessary to make a return visit on July 14th. Please join us, if you can.

First, the all-important preparation.

Then comes the 'Kingston Green' paint. 

What a difference!

Himalayan balsam grows well in soft sediment at the margins.

Non-native wall species such as Mexican fleabane (Erigeron karvinskianus) and Ivy-leaved toadflax (Cymbalaria muralis), thrive on artificial river walls. 

Rather surprisingly, native Branched bur-reed (Sparganium erectum) is holding up well, despite the fully-reinforced concrete-lined river channel.