Goodgym Islington returned to Caxton House for the first time in over 18 months last night- a long time considering this lovely community centre used to be one of our regular tasks! The team have been busy renovating the inside of the halls for new groups, and the outside for very exciting gardening and neighbourhood growing projects. It is wonderful to come back to help with their ambitious plans!

Area activator Simon, Caitlin, Steve and Steve met up at the Arsenal Community Hub for a chat and a warm-up, before running the 1.5 mile route to St John's Way, Archway. We caught up with the rest of our group at Caxton House, where we were greeted by a crew of volunteers, who were already busy wood chipping.

Our main task (a large ongoing project), involved filtering through a huge pile of collected branches and tree cuttings, and chopping the thinner pieces down to an even smaller size. These sticks are then fed into a wood chipper, to be made into mulch for future growing projects.

Emily and Steve also helped with digging out some old planters around the back of the centre, just by a collection of freshly grown fruit and veg. The soil in the planters is still good (despite being full of weeds), so we moved the compost over to a new location with better exposure to the summer sun. We were able to complete a full wheel barrow load (involving a push up and over a gang plank) before finishing up for the evening (we will certainly return).

Before heading home, our hard working Goodgymmers enjoyed some fresh drinking water, biscoff biscuits and some delicious, home grown cucumelons (tiny, sharp tasting but very tasty cucumbers). Super refreshing!