Dear Yvonne, M Morton and Miss Petronino,

Thank you so much for supporting our volunteers events-here's what we've been up to this year:

On 9th July 2011 a team of 24 of us made the tow path between Kew and Barnes immaculate, collecting 40 bags of rubbish in the process.

On 21st May 2011 the Trust's team of volunteers, including Tower House School, linked up with Ham and Petersham Association and attacked the Himalayan Balsam that annually encroaches on the native plants along the riverside. The beautiful Hunter's Pond under the timber footbridge to Ham House was cleared of all the juicy invaders, allowing the loosetrife and reeds to thrive!

On 18th April 2011 we headed off to Crane Park and got busy weeding the beautiful wildflower meadows. The meadows were first sown in 2010, and since then there has been a lot of grass that has encroached onto the areas. To ensure there is as much space for wildflowers as possible, we got busy digging up clumps of grass. The ground was very hard as it hadn't rained in so long, and so the digging was tough work, but once we got going we amassed an impressive pile of grass.

On 26th March 2011 a group of volunteers from Tower House and Mary Mount Schools, travelled to Kilmorey mausoleum in St Margarets. This wildlife garden, multiple winner of Richmond in Bloom awards, needed fresh woodchip on its paths and a little bit of Ivy pruning.

On 19th February 2011 we undertook willow spilling along the Kew towpath. Although the morning was a little grey and drizzly, we soon warmed up by sawing and looping and pruning branches off of the living willow spiles. Whilst one group bundled, another focused on hauling them up the foreshore and weaving them in and out to make a fence.

On 29th January 2011 around 35 people turned up to help us and the Ham and Petersham Association to manage Melancholy Avenue next to Ham House. We were tasked with pruning back the Lime tree suckers and removing bramble to make way for a new hedge. An amazing amount of rampantly spreading bramble was cleared, leaving us with the sight of the first Spring bulbs peeping through the ground!

Thanks for making this happen!

The fundraising team at Environment Trust for Richmond