Two determined Goodgymmers (Ruby and Sarah) met the lovely Penny, Miranda and Sara from Church Hill Road Community Gardeners, Walthamstow, and successfully wrestled a very stubborn giant New Zealand Flax Plant (Phormium) into submission! The "monster plant" had gone somewhat rampant in the Shernall Road corner of the community garden, and on the advice of the RHS, needed to be removed from the rockery. Ruby, Sara and Sarah dug, chopped and heaved until the giant phormium was successfully uprooted! Vanquishing the monster was hugely satisfying, and Penny seemed both thrilled and relieved that it had been safely removed to make space for a greater variety of loveliness in that little spot of the rockery. Goodgym/Church Hill Road Gardeners 1: Phormium 0!

2 GoodGymers enjoyed the afternoon Sun in Walthamstow helping Church Hill Road Community garden get Spring ready in Earth Hour!

A garden litter pick warmed us up for what was to come in a memorial community garden. The garden has been run by the residents of Church Hill Road since 2006 following a stabbing in the road to bring colour and life from the tragedy.

We then moved onto the lopping down to more manageable volumes of some unruly climbing roses. Removing the dead miclemus daisies that had finished blooming and trimming back a second large climbing Rose bush.

Filling up a large garden waste bin in 60 minutes of action!!

Thank you Abi for your hard work!!

Joel

On an evening that was preceded by persistent 'orrible rain and problems on public transport, it was impressive to see nine bravehearts rock-up to either our base or meet us at the task last night so well done all for battling through the elements to join us. It was particularly lovely to welcome new runner Megan to the crew for the first time. Great have you along Meg and I hope this was the first of many. You were certainly a dab hand with the staple gun.

We also welcomed experienced campaigner Nicky Woodall along tonight. Nicky plays in a brass band in Walthamstow and they have a fabulous performance of The Snowman coming up on Saturday 8th December. They need help with various things and it should be a really fun event. Nicky has posted it as a Community Mission. Take a look and sign up here

Before we get into the deets of the run, here is some news of other events.

*Saturday 1st December *- GoodGym London Christmas Party sign-up here

Three To Go - There are just three Group Runs remaining from now until the New Year restart on Wednesday 9th January 2019. Don't miss them; they will on be 5th, 12th and 19th December

The December GoodGym Longrun will be taking place in our backyard, Epping Forest, on Sunday 9th December. I am sure it will be a fab run with a great crew. All the details and sign-up here

So on with tonight's task. We were back to finish off the construction of some supersized planters near St Mary's Churchyard. There to greet us was the fabulous Penny and a wonderful collection of committed residents who joined with us in accomplishing this tough, technical and hugely rewarding task.

With many of us already au fait with what needed doing we all slotted into various roles with ease and many roles there were to slot into. Here are some of the things we did: - Transporting over a dozen or so large planks of wood - Measuring and sawing a bunch of the planks - Fixing fence post caps on - Building large planters - Installing a membrane in the bottom of the planters - Treating the wood - Barrowing compost over and filling the planters with it

Phew!

It was a sight to behold watching these industrious folks beaver away and how quickly everything took shape. Before you could say:

"Q. What does a carpenter do after a one night stand? A. The second nightstand."

we were standing beside three perfect planters with a 4th well underway to construction.

These beauties will be here for a long time to come and I can't wait to see them fully planted and resplendent in all their glory when we eventually reach the Spring.

Well done again to everyone who made it and sorry for anyone who's plans were scuppered by transport of other unforeseen problems.

Next week we are helping out a local school so do, please join us if you can.

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It was great to see another good turnout from Waltham Forest's finest tonight and before I get into the run report, I want to say an extra special hello to our pair of first time GoodGymers, Leoni and Sophie. Great to see you both.

I was very excited about tonight's task, I always like the idea of doing something that has a degree of permanence about it and tonight was one of those tasks. Up at our familiar stomping ground of Walthamstow Village, near St Mary's we commenced work building some large planters to improve the public space in this historic conservations area.

In short, this task involved shifting some large planks of wood about, measuring and marking-up, sawing, drilling, screwing, fixing etc. Basically, this was a good old-fashioned DIY job. Local resident and Parkrun Legend, Penny, met us at the task. Thankfully, Penny had our task all planned out, and we got cracking straight away. We were joined by a collection of other helpful residents as things got going.

With a good turnout and a limited amount of tools, we split the group so that some were on the task while a bunch of us went to do some drills. We then swapped over halfway through, thus maintaining raised heart rates and body warmth as the temperature plummeted.

Everyone involved did great tonight, it was a technical task and we got one full planter made and another well on the road to completion. These bad boys are going to be in situ for many years to come so you never know maybe one day you will bring your grandchildren here and tell them that you built them 👷‍🏗️

We are back here in two weeks to finish off so don't miss out and sign-up today

Also, next week we are back to finish off our bulb planting and a spot of gardening at George Mason Lodge, you can sign-up here

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