A couple of us went to the Warwick Percy’s allotment by the river between Leamington and Warwick to assist “Bee friendly” in clearing Himalayan balsam from the site.

[Bee Friendly](https://sites.google.com/view/beefriendlywarwick are a fairly new, locally based environmental group, committed to making land in their care more amenable to wild bees and other pollinators, which are, of course, fundamental to the survival of life on earth. They have recently rented the allotment space we worked on with a view to restoring wild native flowers to it which can thrive in a meadow liable to flooding. This is a difficult task at the best of times but will be impossible to achieve with the existence of invasive species such as the balsam, which grows very quickly, depriving other flowers of space and light.

We managed to clear a large proportion of the weed but I suspect there is more work needed that we can assist them with.

After an hour of fairly intense activity by the dedicated, we tucked into some pizza which Bee Friendly kindly provided.

Thanks must be given to Sara for organising the workparty & telling us more about the group and the other volunteers from Bee Friendly, as well as Sam who came from Good Gym.

I look forward to returning and seeing the progress that has been made. In the meantime we wish Bee Friendly every success.