Compacted soil is a barrier preventing air, water and nutrients from reaching plant roots. The soil in Elm Vale community garden has got very compacted after the recent cold weather and relative lack of rain, so what was needed was aeration!

So we got to work aerating the soil with trowels. We were joined by Murray, all the way from Fulham for his first ever good deed. Welcome Murray, hope to see you again soon.

Congratulations to task owner Phil who's just got married. It was a long courtship - 47 years!! - but he's finally been persuaded to tie the knot.

Elm Haven is a unique space for the community to come together to grow fresh produce and learn more about gardening.

It was a cold but dry day as we swept leaves from between the planters to enable volunteer Dave to get to them, as he showed off his skills with a lawn mower.

It was like a conjuring trick, how he was able to make a large pile of leaves vanish into his mower, to be composted for future use.

A special welcome to Yumei, arriving for her first good deed! And if all goes well, she's about to do her second deed the same day. Nothing like hitting the ground running...

Last week, we swept the paths at Elm Vale community garden clear of leaves. This week, we were asked to sweep leaves onto the path!

This made sense though, as we were raking leaves away from the planting areas, from where they were mulched by an on-site gardener using a lawn-mower, and taken over to the composter.

Recycling works really well in nature.

At the same time Kemi Badenoch faced Kier Starmer in her first Prime Minister's Questions, there was no Question that it was Maxim's first GoodGym task. Being between jobs, he found time to make his way over from Somers Town to help us with the perennial autumn task: leaf sweeping!

The paths in Elm Village community garden look beautiful with their covering of leaves, but they can't be allowed to mulch. Instead, they make good compost material! Using a rake, a broom, and leaf grabbers, and making many trips to the composter, we completely cleared the path of the tree's debris.

Except, as we left, we thought we'd missed a couple. No - they were new falls! We might have more of this to do by next week...

This week we were joined at Elm Haven by another volunteering group. We weeded and swept the path, to get it looking much tidier.

Welcome to Adam, from just over the border in Westminster, taking on his first ever GoodGym task. Together we shovelled compost from where it mulches on one side of Elm Haven, into wheelbarrows to transport it into beds in the middle of the site, where it will help provide a bed for future community food growth. Again we were watched by a local robin, waiting his chance to pounce on any worms exposed by our work.

When that was done, we helped Jackie and task owner Phil with the weeding.