5 GoodGymers have supported Food4families with 3 tasks.
Monday 14th July
Written by Jenni H
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!
Monday 9th June
Written by Jenni H
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
Saturday 29th March
Written by Jenni H
We met Yin at Ardler Road allotments to help her out with some jobs on the Food4Families plot. They grow fruit and veg which is donated to local groups.
It was a lovely morning to be outside and getting stuck in! Jessica joined us for the first time, and she and Jenni took straight to pulling weeds out, to make sure that everything had space to grow.
Chris got to work on digging trenches to plant potatoes, and after weeding and planting potatoes, Jessica helped with getting everything watered too!
After an hour and a half, we had completed all the jobs needed for today. We'll be back again to help with more jobs throughout the growing season!