On a lovely warm Saturday morning, Sharon of the Friends of Ham Lands welcomed 5 Richmond GGers to do some good in the sunshine.

We first walked a good long way from the meeting point to the riverside on the other side of the Ham Lands, to find our target site. We needed to be near the river as our focus for the task was on “bashing” balsam.

Himalayan Balsam is an invasive species which grows rapidly in wetter areas during the summer months, blocking light for other plant life and generally causing a nuisance for native flora and fauna.

The great news is that bashing balsam is great fun. It’s very satisfying to pull up the plants, which can grow at least 10ft tall, and we made good progress, cutting a wide swathe through a densely growing area and building a huge pile of the bashed balsam.

The only problem was stinging nettles, and those who had come in shorts soon regretted that choice. We did our best to cut them down with loppers as we went, but a few stings and rashes were picked up along the way.

We finished up and headed out separate ways this time - the Swiss Bakery is closed in August. We’ll be back (and the bakery open again) in September - sign up here: https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/goodgym-richmond-helping-the-happy-ham-landers-3b829ff3-0842-4cc9-96a6-49a17d3d149e

A glorious sunny morning welcomed a grateful eight to the Ham Lands today, as we welcomed two new joiners for our monthly session helping the Friends of Ham Lands in their habitat preservation.

We set up in the same location as last month, near the Thames Young Mariners, and Sharon briefed us on the morning's task to cut back and clear the wild clematis and giant dock which had clustered (to make my punny title work) in one particular area.

The team selected digging tools and shears and got stuck in, digging out the clematis by the roots and cutting down the giant dock low to the ground, being careful to remove it without dislodging too many of its seeds.

We made fast progress as everyone worked steadily, clearing the low lying clematis and clusters of dock and filling sack after sack, which were regularly dragged to the undergrowth to be emptied on a compost heap.

Sharon was on hand with refreshments and we stopped to wet our whistle with the best cuppa ever to be served from a plastic cup, before a final push to finish off. Shear delight!

As usual, we rewarded ourselves for our efforts with a visit to the famous Swiss Bakery for coffee and snacks. Big shout out and warm welcome to Alex and Ann - hope to see you both again soon!

Next time at Ham Lands is on 12th July. You can sign up here: https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/goodgym-richmond-helping-the-happy-ham-landers-4b814934-05f6-47e4-a6b2-cf6839ee6cc6

It’s been a very spring like Saturday morning, no coats needed, but we needed the tough gloves to tackle the brambles. We were tasked to tackle an area in the Ham Lands which was overgrown with brambles and Goodgym along with the Friends of Ham Lands did a great job clearing the area. After a little tea break, we cleared our area and then went off for a coffee in the sunshine.

GoodGym Richmond’s Monday 11th November Group Run was a ‘second Monday’ task at our sponsored plots in Buccleuch Gardens.

Despite the cold and the dark evening we got a huge amount done: repatriating fencing; sweeping cleaning and cobweb dusting in the Arcade; strengthening the ‘twiggy barricades’; weeding and leaf removal on and around the Arcade lawns.

However the evening was really about celebrating Ken’s 100th ‘official’ GG Good Deed, although we know he has really done many more.

And we also salute his incredible input as a task provider to GG Richmond, inviting us to help with improving Petersham Common and teaching us about bats, hedge and fence building , horse troughs, planting, drainage, ecology, woodland management, haloing and so much more.

So we salute Ken Mackenzie. Environmental hero . Richmond’s Green king.