Today, a crack team of thirteen adults and two six year olds met at 10 am in the Village Green carpark to clear Himalayan Balsam from around the edge of the Village Green and to do some litterpicking.
If you have not come across Himalayan balsam before, it is an invasive annual plant which was introduced to the UK in 1839 as a garden plant. It has pink flowers which are attractive to honey bees. However, it has no natural enemies in the UK, it spreads quickly, and it tends to shade out native plants and create a mono-culture.
Fortunately, it is has very shallow roots and is easy to pull up, and so it is possible to clear areas relatively quickly. Since it is an annual plant, pulling it up and removing it before it seeds is a very effective method of controlling it.
Last year it covered large areas around the fringes of the Village Green and, at the request of Mark Illingworth, Alwoodley Parish Council parish ranger, Friends of Adel Woods spent a morning clearing Himalayan balsam from the northern fringe of the Village Green (see 31st May 2025). We pulled up thousands of plants in an hour and three quarters, and today it was pleasing to see that with additional work by Mark, the areas cleared last year are still free of the plants.
Nevertheless, we were not able to clear all the Himalayan balsam last year and today we came in to clear patches around the Village Green and among the trees between the Village Green and Crag Lane.
The objective in removing the Himalayan balsam is to give native plants a chance to thrive.
All but one of us (Rob) started off by clearing an area of hundreds of plants on the northern boundary of the Village Green. This was quite a tricky job because there were many long brambles amidst the balsam and it was necessary to use loppers and secateurs to clear a way to reach the balsam.
Having cleared this area, we split into two teams.
One team joined Rob who had started pulling up the balsam between the Village Green and Crag Lane.
The other team were despatched to clear balsam from around the western edge of the Green. By 11.30 we had fulfilled all our objectives for the morning!
Join Friends of Adel Woods!
Friends of Adel Woods were formed in 2009 to help maintain Adel Woods and encourage people to enjoy them. We meet one weekend morning a month to carry out various jobs or ”work parties”, and we also put on educational events such as bat walks, fungal forays and birdsong walks.
We are a very friendly group and welcome new members who want to help preserve our special woods, enjoy fresh air, exercise in the woods, and make new friends.
If you would like to take part in our activities, keep an eye on our Home Page. You don’t need to book to come along to one of our work “parties”: just come along!
If you would like to join our email mailing list, please get in touch by leaving a comment on this website – you should be able to see a comment box at the bottom of this page.
Friends of Adel Woods 