23 people ran between 4-7k to help shift soil for community growing patch, and create a butterfly friendly haven

What a night- 2 nice runs, some heavy lifting in the daylight, and a lung full of Saharan dust. Magic..... well maybe not the last one. It was great though and our hard work benefited two great causes- the Camden Butterfly Trust and Maiden Lane community food growing project. Lets hope the work we did will result in more butterflies kicking about, and help local people get more healthy food in their tums. Nice.

The long run

The long runners headed to a patch of land near to the Royal Free where Jim, founder of the Camden Butterfly Conservation Trust is taking over a Street Flower Bed and starting to grow wildlife friendly plants. In the last decade butterfly population numbers are down by as much as 75% and Jim is working hard to change this (sign the petition on the link). This particular site has been mismanaged over the years due to sites annual strimming. It destroys everything- there isn't a single flower seen during the summer. Jim wants to sow a wildflower meadow here to help wildlife flourish. He needed us to help weeding the area so he can get on and start planting.

Here's new runner Cordelia's account of the long run;

The Goodgym Camden group are very welcoming! I was brave and went for the longer run to the Butterfly area and a couple of the runners were very understanding when I was at the back of the group... Was a great introduction for me to group running, which I'd never tried before. Was also good to get my hands dirty with the weeding! All in all a great experience, going to ache tomorrow though :)

Short run to Maiden Lane

The shorter run group headed to Maiden Lane estate to help Les in the Community Food Growing Patches. Les works with lots of local people and volunteer groups- teaching them about food growing and permaculture. The orchard we were working in is a pretty interesting place with fruit trees and strawberries growing next to a busy railway line.

Broken beds

He needed some help shifting soil from two broken beds on a roof garden down to some raised beds in the orchard. It was a tough workout with lots of heavy barrow lifting down steps and lugging big heavy sacks onto the orchard beds. We pretty much smashed it- with both beds empty and all the soil transported down to the orchards.

We finished with a 3k run along the canal together- keeping it nice and social on the way home.