15/04/2026
🦆Managing The Moat — A Battle Beneath the Surface🦆
Managing the water in The Moat is one of the biggest and most challenging tasks we face each year.
Every spring and summer, thick layers of duckw**d, blanket w**d and silk w**d begin to smother the surface. It might look like a thin green layer from the bank, but try to push a boat through it and you’ll soon find yourself stuck fast — because underneath, it can actually be feet thick.
Just when we start to get that under better control, along comes parrot feather. It might sound exotic, but in reality it’s an absolute menace. It spreads rapidly, takes over everything in its path, doesn’t oxygenate the water, doesn’t feed wildlife, and isn’t even particularly pretty… unless you count being pretty efficient at trapping unsuspecting humans in boats out in the middle!
The real challenge lies in the life cycle of the w**d itself. Each year it grows, dies, and sinks to the bottom, turning into fertile silt. That silt then becomes the perfect breeding ground for next year’s growth — meaning the problem returns thicker and faster than before.
Last year, the committee invested £1,500 in something called Aqua Plankton, and it really is remarkable. It doesn’t work overnight, but these natural microorganisms feed on the built-up silt at the bottom of the Moat. Less silt should mean less w**d, and we’re hopeful that this year — or next — we’ll begin to see the real benefits of that investment.
Alongside this, the wonderful Charing Parish Council recently installed a new culvert over at Clewards Meadow. It’s a simple but clever piece of engineering that will play an important role in managing water flow — more on that in a future post.
For now, here are some photos showing the plankton being introduced over the last couple of days, along with just some of the huge volumes of w**d we’re currently hauling out.
As always, everything you see here is the result of many hours of volunteer effort — often muddy, tiring work — but all done to protect and preserve this historic and much-loved waterway for everyone to enjoy.
