Sunday 26th January 2020
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Report written by Emma Wilkins
Seven hardy GoodGymmers gathered for our community mission in the typhoon conditions of Cardiff this lunchtime. We'd been invited to the StarGarAllot - a fantastic community project. As this was our first time at the project, we were met by our task contact who showed us the way, having travelled to the allotment by bike.
Camilla introduced us to the other volunteers and explained that this was a community project aimed at addressing food poverty. The aspiration was that the group would develop skills and capability to grow fresh produce and that the allotment would be for the community. The volunteers had been successful in securing funding for a polytunnel but needed a patch of land dug, levelled and primed ready for the tunnel to be built.
The kind volunteers spotted the shivering GoodGymmers and provided us with a warming cuppa before we got started. Mikey and Ted got on with the forking to break down the soil whilst the rest of us started double digging - apparently this is a technique to dig out earth in a big trench and move it to the other end of the patch, refilling it with other freshly dug earth.
Knee deep in glorious mud, the team made steady progress before a reinforcement arrived in the form of Pete 'Wales' Gillibrand who provided moral support and encouragement (and a little bit of digging) to help us finish the task! We'd cleared a significant patch of ground and whilst there was still more to do, we agreed that it was time to call it a day. We'll look forward to helping the project at a future community mission.
We worked with the community volunteers to clean the equipment and took a few quick photos to show the good progress we'd made before heading off for much deserved and very welcome hot showers. Well done team - a terrific end to a GoodGym packed weekend.
We have a community garden at Star hub and a community allotment at Pengam Pernanent . We run workshops and a children's holiday gardening club.
See moreSun 26th Jan 2020 at 6:30pm
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Cardiff
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