On Saturday, six GoodGymers met inside the Walled Garden of Thorlands for our penultimate 2021 session with Simon. There was a festive surprise for Sam and Simon as Hayley made an appearance after many months away. It was great to see a friendly and familiar face. It was also great to see she was doing well.

We had the usual suspects: Nathan, Rebecca, Laura and Lindy come to lend a hand as we continued with clearing and sorting out the boundary between the Kitchen Garden and the Forest Garden. There were plenty of tasks to do:

• Hayley stayed behind in the Walled Garden to help out Bridget turn the compost heap over.
• Rebecca started off with raking leaves before Simon requested her help to put up promotional posters of the event on Saturday 18th (after 13:30) for a celebration of Thorlands Garden in 2021 with mulled wine, mince pies and wreath making!
• Nathan loves a bit of mattock and fork action as he continued (as he has done for the past month or so) to dig out the roots from the Forest Garden.
• Laura (being the tall one) took the loppers and secateurs to trim back the buddleia tree. Short back and sides - to make it look fresh!
• Lindy after knowing she wasn't suited in wellies (so she can't be a farmer), took on the role of being a lumberjack this time. There were a pile of tree logs that needed to be cut into smaller and more manageable sizes to make a makeshift bug/insect hotel.
• Sam helped out where he could and cleared the concrete area for where the market stalls will eventually be.

Overall, it was a very productive session and the Thorlands winter period is all about maintaining, cutting back and preparing the space for Spring. This coming Saturday is the final session of 2021, so sign up if you are free to see out 2021 at Thorlands!