Love it or loath it (the bridge, not the location!), no-one can deny that every session at the community allotment at Hogacre Common gives us a good stair workout! Hogacre is tucked in between railway line and flood plain. The access is across a pedestrian bridge with many steps, making deliveries to the garden challenging.

Items we have been asked to carry across the bridge in the past include sofas and horse manure, so tonight's task of shovelling woodchip into boxes to carry across was pretty easy by comparison. We used the first loads to spread woodchip around the boggy entrance to the site, then refilled the boxes and delivered them to the garden gate for use around the beds and pathways.

Meanwhile, Django the spaniel kept a watchful eye on the GoodGymers weeding and mulching the garden beds; everyone's favourite supervisor!

Welcome back Axelle!

Over the last 2 years the Warneford Hospital has been building an eight-bed psychiatric intensive care unit (PICU) to enable young people experiencing the most acute phase of a serious mental disorder to receive specialist help closer to home. The new Meadow Unit opened late last year, adjoining the Highfield Unit where we've been involved previously.

The gardens at the Meadow Unit have been designed and planted but over the summer months have become swamped with weeds. De-weeding is the perfect job for a GoodGym flash mob - many hands make light work! Starting in the furthest section of gardens we gradually worked our way back to the external gates, freeing geraniums, hydrangeas and pretty grasses from encroaching weeds. Lots of careful checking of "weed or deliberate?!" ensued as we did our level best not to pull up anything that should be there (including the intentional thistles). We cleared numerous trugs and wheelbarrows full of weeds, tried our best to keep our chat quiet by the ward windows (not easy with many back for their first task post summer holidays and lots to catch up on!), and learnt plenty about about plant identification.

We very much hope the garden thrives as it gets more established and is a joyful feature for service users and staff.

Welcome to GoodGym Charlie!

On Wednesday we were asked to help the Oxford Preservation Trust with work at Iffley Glebe. We had a few tasks to take care of: * Maintaining the ancient wall by weeding all the little plants that start growing in the crevices and end up damaging the wall structure.
* Lopping back the low over hanging branches of the large sycamore tree near the entrance so the tractor can get under it to complete the meadow mow.
* Cutting back and pulling up nettles closely along the wall where the tractor can't reach.
* Clearing the area around the gate to the storage garage, which was overgrown with brambles.

Many hands make light work of such tasks, particularly hands which are enthusiastic loppers and weeders! Sadly we didn't catch sight of the fox family who are raising their cubs on the Glebe, but we did get to listen to bell-ringing practice from Iffley Church.

Welcome to GoodGym Philip!