It had been a dismal morning of heavy downpours but the rain clouds made a speedy disappearance and blue sky and sunshine appeared just in the nick of time for our mission.

Mr P showed us through to his garden and explained how it had become overgrown with weeds and he could no longer see the patio, let alone make use of it. He asked us to clear as much as we could so that he could get out safely in his wheelchair to enjoy the outdoors again.

We eagerly got to work, yanking away at never-ending bindweed, pulling up weeds and grasses and lopping away at thicker brambles and branches. It made for an incredibly satisfying mission, and it wasn’t long before we could see the patio and were able to clear it from the forest of bindweed that had taken over.

Karen continued with Project Hacking, whilst Samia got to work on Mission Bagging It All Up. It took quite a while to reign the bindweed and brambles into the bags, but with a bit of good-old teamwork, we managed to tame them and wrap them into compact parcels of bindweed. Along the way, we discovered the satisfying snap of the branches that had been lopped - had they been brandy snaps, Mary Berry would have been very impressed with the sound of the snap.

Bindweed pulling lived up to its highly addictive reputation so it was hard to find an end-point to call it a day - but after a little over an hour and 7 bags full, we summoned up the inner strength to walk away from the remaining warriors.

@GGWandsworth mission accomplished: attack of the bindweed pic.twitter.com/51ABh5X35b

— GoodGym Richmond (@GGRichmon) September 23, 2018

Hopefully Mr P can enjoy his garden again - and thank you to the mysteries of the Great British Weather for transforming itself in time for our mission.