Beatriz, Emily Tabitha Pete and Lee worked hard to help pack up all the stock for Traid charity shop in Kilburn

I cycled over to meet Miss J and immediately saw the job at hand upon arrival - the front garden was overrun with weeds and brambles. In fact the side passage and the back garden were too, but the priority was to get clear access to the bins to make it safer for Miss J to take the rubbish out. So I got to work hacking away, getting as much of the roots as I could, which was pretty vigorous work! Thankfully I had some good tools to help me. In an hour and a half I'd cleared the path and filled many bags, but there's plenty more to be done. Miss J was very grateful but would love more help to get the rest done!

Eagle-eyed visitors to Clitterhouse Farm in Willesden will have spotted a recent addition: a shed that’s the brand new home of Cycletastic. They’re a volunteer-led project that both fixes your bike and teaches you how to fix them too!

But the shed isn’t the only new arrival – with summer making way for autumn, rain is also back on the menu. Great for plants (including the many veggies being grown at the farm) but maybe not so brilliant for attendees who don’t want mud all over their footwear.

What was needed was some kind of natural cover for the ground. And that’s where GoodGym came in, rolling out a red (well, brown) carpet of wood chips for the Cycletastic crew.

Braving the September showers, Tabitha, Pete, Josh and Chris got to work shifting the chips from their original pile to all around the shed. Only breaking occasionally to seek shelter from the heaviest of downpours, the team diligently shovelled the chips into waiting wheelbarrows, ready to be rolled to their destination.

Before they knew it, the previously plain ground was decked out in a thick rug of wood chips – all set for the many feet (and wheels) coming its way.

Tabitha Pete and Lisa met at Beer ' n Burger in Willesden Green. Welcome Lisa! whose first time it was at Goodgym Brent. We did a short warm-up before jogging to Kilburn Grange Park where we met up with Amy, Beatriz and Karen and AJ, our host. AJ provided us with gloves and tools and explained what we needed to do. We split into two groups, AJ, Pete and Beatriz went off to tackle the removal of a small dead tree in a garden planter while Karen, Lisa, Amy and Tabitha stayed in the park to collect fallen leaves. We hacked at the tree and were luckily joined by a neighbour Phil who provided us with his big saw, with that help the tree came down in no time. Meanwhile the girls in the park worked really hard and filled 4 huge plastic sacks with leaves, removing leaves from almost all of their area of park. We then dragged all the bags full of leaves and branches to the gardening tools area of the park where we left them for collection. Some of us then jogged / walked back to B n B others who lived closer jogged / walked home. A quick drink to refresh ourselves and collect things from B n B. Well done everyone.

went to the festival to help AJ - lots of lovely stalls, nice people. rap and rock music bouncy castles and nice food :-)

Today I was back helping Ms V with her beautiful garden. As I was more familiar this time I was able to get going with the tasks that Ms V talked me through. I started by chopping back a bit more of the huge fig tree to be able to access underneath it. Then I dug out a type of weed, the brambles, and the ivy. At the back of the garden was more weeding, as well as taking some of the home made compost and putting it around the bottom of the apple tree to help it grow. Once I had started working on the brambles I started to find more and more, and they were very thorny! Thankfully my gloves were mostly thorn proof. I used the shears to cut the long bits of the grass that I didn't manage to mow last time, and then finished off my cutting off the dead heads of the rose bush. All that was left to do was to deposit all the cuttings into the green bin out the front, and I was off on my way, with a very grateful Ms V thanking me for the help.