Four goodgymers went to Ardler Road allotments to meet Jeremy to help with looking after the plot growing fruit and veg for food4families to give to local organisations.

Jenni and Noor, joining us for her first task, walked to the allotment, Sam went for a run along the Thames on the way and Chris met us at the task.

There was planting, watering, weeding and some maintenance to be done on the site and the team got stuck in!

Chris showed Noor and Sam how to plant the cornichons, although the soil was very dry and tough! The rain we'd had earlier in the evening hadn't managed to get into to ground, so Jenni got to work with watering and pumping from the well.

With Noor and Sam now experts at planting, they got to work with planting some calabrese and giving them some protection from slugs with cardboard collars.

Chris helped Jeremy with some maintenance of the supports for the taller crops, but with a shortage of tools to cut string, the pair had to get inventive and make use of any spare twine they could find on other poles to be able to get the plants to stay on their bamboo canes.

As always, the mares tail weeds were creeping in, so after watering, Jenni got to work pulling these out. Hopefully they will stop popping up soon!

After 45 minutes of work, everything we had on the task list for the evening was completed! We love coming to the allotment, we always learn so much and its great to help such an important cause... we'll be back again soon!

We met at our regular meeting place, joined by Nick for his first task in Reading, and headed towards the Thames.

Armed with litter pickers and bags, we headed along the path and collected as we went. There seemed to be an abundance of empty cans along our route!

Time past fast, and after an hour we had 7 bags full.

Thoroughly deserving, we sat down for a picnic alongside the river.

With temperatures soaring to 32 degrees in Reading today, our five goodgymers were very glad that we had a low energy, walking based task to complete!

Superstar Sam had done a 5km run before, and ran to join us along the way, extra kudos for her! Great to see Jacqui again after she came to GoodGym Reading's first ever Monday task!

With 200 leaflets to deliver for Thames Hospice Superstore, this week we were distributing them around some of the houses just outside Reading town centre.

We got our steps in going up and down paths to do our posting and we soon managed to get through our stacks of leaflets!

Five goodgymers met outside Siren bar on a lovely evening for a litter pick. Sam joined for his first session in Reading, having been to other areas before and Holly came for her first ever session!

3 of us ran the short stretch down to South Street, with Chris and Jess kindly volunteering to walk and bring the litter pickers.

At first glance, it didn't look like we would have much to do, but as we set off along South Street we soon filled up our bags with lots and lots of litter! We decided to leave the lone shoe Jess found in case it's owner comes along for it soon...

6 bags of litter taken off Reading's streets and a nice evening in the sunshine, what could be better?!

Sam, Jenni and Chris helped out at Reading Repair Cafe's monthly drop in session. The repair cafe helps people to repair their broken items, from sewing, to soldering!

Sam and Jenni were on the welcoming desk, getting people's items in the repair queue, while Chris got to work on fixing a vacuum cleaner he'd brought in. Sam had also brought a hairdryer and a blender in and was able to repair both!

Sion also joined us and helped out with some electrical testing of a carpet cleaner, with everyone learning how to PAT test electronic items too!

Throughout the afternoon, there was no end to people coming in with items and most of them were able to be repaired!

With recording everything that had come in, we were able to help save 46kg of items from being thrown away, reducing 202kg of CO2 emissions! Not bad for an afternoon of learning and helping!

Chris and Jenni met with Jane, Yin, Elaine and Jeremy at Ardler Road allotment to help with maintaining their plot for food4families. It was great to see how much everything had grown since our first visit in March!

There were plenty of jobs to be done; pulling out the mares tail (a nasty weed), watering, planting and harvesting the fruit and veg that was ready.

Between the team we collected a huge bunch of onions, 250g of strawberries (the ones that weren't chomped by the slugs and woodlice!), a handful of gooseberries and a load of rosemary. All of this will be taken to the Weller Centre and New Beginnings to help feed the local community!

We'll be back again soon, as there will always be more jobs to do! Perhaps next time we'll be digging out potatoes or picking beans!

Join us next week for our monthly litter pick when we'll be heading to London Road/South Street