:"Everyone's feelin' pretty ...it's hotter than July" - Stevie Wonder

S.W.A.M.P. session - Monday 7th July 2025

Thankfully, a much cooler day greeted our S.W.A.M.P. team of community volunteers, in this long, dry summer in north Norfolk.

Successful Crassula removal

As the pond dries out naturally, we are able to see where our Crassula removal has been successful, and where we need to concentrate our work on in the up-coming weeks.

It has been suggested (via scientific studies) that heat in the enemy of Crassula and certainly where the pond is at its driest, this seems to be the case. In the past few weeks we have been able to dig down low enough to get below the roots of the invasive plant (tricky and hard work with all the flint and stones in the ground) but with obvious results.

The work is hard (and manual) and the Crassula is unforgiving - without constant attention it will return and suffocate the pond.

We are also confident, to a degree, that our little toadlets are now making their way from the pond, so we can carry on with our work without disturbing them.

Bagging up the dried Crassula

A separate task on this evening was removing previously dried and bagged up Crassula for removal to our 'pit'. With the kind and generous help of Charlie Ward (and his mechanical device) we were able to do this so much more efficiently than previous car-loads into a trailer and beyond. Thank you, Charlie!

Bye bye Crassula!

It was agreed that progress had been made this evening ... the Crassula was malleable enough to be sliced and rolled or hauled up by hand in reasonably sized chunks.

Crassula waiting to dry - to be bagged and removed at the next session.

Well done, everyone! A thoroughly good session!