15 of us ran to the Community Gardens maintained by Bath Organic Group. We did some composting and create a new bark chip path that ran around half of the garden. We had lots of fun being outdoors and were really pleased with how much work we got done.

Well done Alison!

We met outside the leisure centre and I shared the latest news with everyone. A massive well done Alison for running and doing so well in the St Illtyds Way Ultra Marathon at the weekend! I also shared a summary of a recent Community Mission where some of us ran to help set up Larkhall Community Festival. It was a lot of fun and we will be back to help them out again soon!

After a warm-up we were on our way. I lead the group through town and along Upper Bristol Road. It was a short run meaning we had more time for volunteering at the task.

We love gardening ... it really grew on us!

We met our host Tim at the gardens maintained by Bath Organic Group and he gave us an overview about the space. The garden has been running for nearly 30 years and is run completely by volunteers. They grow a variety of fruit and vegetables. Anyone is welcome to help improve and maintain the garden. They have volunteering sessions each week, on a Tuesday and a Saturday. They are a really friendly and welcoming group of volunteers who are always looking for more people to get involved.

Tim gave us an overview of our tasks for the evening and I split us into teams as we had lots of work do to!

A chip off the old block!

A big task was to create a new bark chip path around part of the allotment. There was some fantastic GoodGym team work on display here to make sure we managed to get the job done in time!

Taking a break with a rake!

Some of the volunteers were loading up wheelbarrows with chipping and whizzing them around to be laid. A team spent the evening weeding and clearing the path ready for the new chips. The final part in the production line was a team of volunteers using rakes and spades to shape and mould the new path on the newly-cleared ground.

We glove to do gardening tasks!

Our hard work here was really useful. The chipping makes the pathway clearer to people so they can see where to go (and to not accidentally walk over any plants!) and makes it safer than walking on the mud which can get slipper.y Also, the path makes the space seem much more tamed and reminds people that it is a tended community garden and not just a patch of land.

A big heap of work!

The other big task last night was sifting and working the compost heaps. There are several areas of the garden dedicated to creating compost to help the garden grow. One team worked on the compost bins by the entrance.

We learnt how there is roughly a 1-year lifecycle for the Bath Organic Group compost where any discarded vegetation usually takes 1 year to mulch down into usable compost. Our task, specifically, was to shift all of the most 'mature' compost into a separate container and separate out any roots and shoots into the 'less mature' container.

We managed to move an enormous amount of earth in a very short space of time and this means that other volunteers can focus on other areas of the garden when they next come to volunteer.

Many hands make light work!

Another composting team had a similar task of moving compost into a separate container. Their pile was sightly different in composition and it was a lot harder to dig in and shift the earth! Their target was to reach an elusive carpet which marked a dividing line between two different sections of compost. They didn't quite manage to work all the way down to the carpet but they got super close and managed to move a huge amount of earth!

Tim was really pleased with the hard work we had done and he very generously offered us some apple juice that was grown and pressed at their orchard last Autumn. In fact, it was made with apples that we helped to pick back at the end of last year! We appreciated the sugar boost for the run back home.

Thanks!

Thanks a lot to Tim and the volunteers at Bath Organic Group for organising for us to come down for this task. We will return! Thanks to Emma for backmarking for us and thanks to Una for the pun this week!

Upcoming runs

• On Sunday 26th May we are volunteering with The National Trust to help on the Bath Skyline Walk
• In June there is an exciting race in Cheddar Gorge that some of GG Bath have already signed up for
• In June we are also helping at the Saltford Festival
• Next week: we are painting furniture at St Johns Court