It was a clear, dark night at 7pm in evening, 10 GoodGym runners were on their way to Unique Roots, a holistic outdoor health & wellbeing project which develops gardening skills, urban farming skills, physical fitness, confidence levels and mental health for the community as a whole.

When the runners arrived, it was clear to see that the flowers and vegetable beds had been starved of love over the winter.

After speaking to Pam, who manages the Centre, the runners understood that the flowers and vegetable beds had been starved of love throughout the winter as no one was able to tend to the garden.

Don't put the kale on me

Kale it back

Any remaining fruits and vegetables that had once thrived in the care of the service users so well – spinach beetroot, and kale – had been left to fend for themselves in the wild. The mission of the group was clear: To infuse some much-needed TLC into over grown beds and restore its reputation of being a healing, spiritual gardening space.

I kale you not

With the usual tenacity and spirit they bestow on every voluntary task, the group of 10 set upon their mission to cultivate what had been abandoned. They cleared the beds of bushes and weeds, rooted up kale, beet roots and topped up the soil. Planted some plants and bulbs. The group swapped stories: Andy gave Nicola tips and tricks on how to plant bulbs and position them to grow. And Martin, well Martin sampled the kale. Well, someone had to, right?

The group swapped stories: Andy gave Nicole tips and tricks on how to plant bulbs and position them to grow.

Mission accomplished we bid Pam farewell until our next meeting and ran back to Solutions for our fitness session, check out our insta @goodgymcroydon.

Still time to volunteer at Evolve's Big Sleep Out 2019

Next week we are heading over to Park Hill sign up here