The summer season at the walled garden is well and truly over now, and even though this was a beautifully warm summery morning our task was very much an autumnal kind of tidy up.

Basically weeding. Clearing up an overgrown grassy area, and pulling up lots of brambles.

All in all a lovely revitalising session at the beautiful space. Come visit some time 😀

On a sunny Saturday in June, five Goodgymers, including Jason and David from Bristol, potted up to the walled garden at Newton St Loe for a session involving manure, weeds and a lot of broad beans.

We are regulars at the site. It is being transformed into a haven by the charity Grow for Life for people with anxiety, depression and isolation. They learn gardening and horticultural skills in a peaceful environment that can help them build confidence and perhaps even get jobs or set up their own businesses.

Whenever we visit we are astonished at the progress on the garden and this time was no exception. Summer had come with flowers in bloom across the site, the heady aroma of sweet peas, the pungent smell of sage and more. It seemed everywhere was bursting into flower and it was very much the safe, peaceful place that Grow for Life dreamed of.

It is, of course, the result of a lot of hard work, which brings us to our task. Our first job was to tackle some magnificent broad bean bushes. Planted last October, they had already produced a number of crops.. We had to harvest the remaining beans (except for one bush that was to be left) and then strip down the rest of the plant to form a green layer in the compost section we helped create last time we were in Newton St Loe. Secateurs at the ready, I've never put so much effort into preparing greenery for a compost heap - nor have I tried a raw broad bean before. Encouraged by Grow for Life's Wayne - it wasn't bad at all.

Then came a wheelbarrow trip to the stables next door to collect some horse manure to form the brown layer to the compost pile. Wayne was very excited that his previous pile was 70 degrees - allowing the compost to do its compost thing I suppose.

We rounded the session off with some serious weeding at the north wall. A useful tip from Wayne - weeds are the plants we don't like the look of.

We didn't go home empty handed - a posy of sweet peas and a handful of broad beans went down very nicely.

Thanks to Goodgymers Emily, Sarah, David and Jason plus Grow for Lifers Chris, Joel, Jane and Wayne.

Four Goodgymmers and an honorary four-legged Goodgymmer headed to Grow for Life's walled garden in Newton St Loe, in response to a shout for help to prepare for their open day. On arrival, Jo and Jer were tasked with moving an ENORMOUS pile of woodchip to make way for some new compost bays. Meanwhile, Ruth, Jane and Ted were dispatched round the village to deliver open day invitations to all the local houses. Once back at the garden, Jer took charge of building the compost bays out of Grow-for-Life favourite, pallets - ably assisted by Ruth, who proved skilled at finding the elusive end of the wire used to hold the structure together. Jo demonstrated their new-found dry stone walling skills, building a retaining wall for the steep slope at the bottom of the site and Jane got her weight training in by shifting 240kg of bentonite clay out of Wayne's trailer.

Overall, a satisfying and sunny mission. Grow for Life's open day is next week, on 17th and 18th May - do feel free to stop by, the garden is looking lovely. We'll be back with them on 29th June.

We at GoodGym Bath are well aware of the nurturing power of gardening and the outdoors and we certainly put in lots of practice.

One of my favourite missions is at the walled garden at Newton St Loe, which is being restored by the Grow for Life charity. It provides social and therapeutic gardening sessions for people coping with anxiety, depression or isolation. The site will eventually become a haven - as well as providing freshly-grown vegetables, flowers and herbs.

It was a treat to return to the spot and see it radically transformed from my last visit. What had been rows of lettuces of all varieties and other plants had been dug out and replaced by curvacious borders.

Grow for Life's Wayne McMaster, explained that the gardeners really wanted a place they could sit and relax and take in the atmosphere. They pointed out that regimented lines of crops do not make a relaxing environment and so the curvy flower beds were born.

And that's where GoodGym came in. Those beds need a serious amount of mulch if they are going to do their job and raise plants, veg and floral abundance.

Wayne had taken delivery of a huge lorryload of manure and our main task was to add it to the beds marked out across the site. Tanya was given the job of rescuing a host of tiny nasturtiums growing in the plots and then the team reached for rakes, spades and wheelbarrows and - with moral support from Ted the dog - did its best to move the mountain of manure.

Special thanks go to Jason - who came from GoodGym Bristol to lend a hand - and a big welcome to Jenny and Kam, making their GoodGym debut. You wouldn't realise it from the way they "dug" in.

We were also given an idea of how the garden will look when it's finished. Wayne is planning a wide variety of trees to provide fruit, shade and a windbreak for the Grow for Lifers. It was great to write the labels and perhaps we'll be back to help plant them.

We didn't quite move the mountain but we made an impressive dent in the dung. Well done Jane, Emily and the rest of the gang.

OK, so it's almost winter now and it's no longer warm anymore, but we are all grateful for blue skies and sunshine when on a GoodGym mission. This was one of those mornings, air crisp and chilly but warming under a late Autumn sun.

Five GoodGymmers arrived at one of our favourite locations, the walled garden at Newton St Loe. This Grow for Life project has been ongoing for the last couple of years and aims to be completed by 2025. Grow for Life's purpose is to provide social and therapeutic gardening sessions for people affected by low confidence, anxiety, depression or isolation.

In attendance to help was the ever enthusiastic Wayne who greeted Stephen, Jane, Natalie, Mark and Meyrick. Always prepared, he told us what he needed us to do that morning and we set to work.

A considerable amount of wood chip needed redistributing, some of it initially along the top by the main wall, let's call it a 'rampart'. If I could understand some of Wayne's grand vision, there will be trees and a path along here, and it is towards that goal that we added progress.

Elsewhere wood chip needed laying down over well worn paths throughout the garden. Whilst helping with this, barrowing and distributing, I took my eyes of the work that was going on at the top, but I believe Jane (to whom we are very grateful for continuing to organise this mission), took on the mighty bindweed.

Towards the end, inevitably, manure was involved. Horse manure to be exact. We reworked the compost piles, turning them upside down and layering them with woodchip, greens and horse manure before signing off with whatever we wanted to harvest from the garden.

A couple of us trekked over to the Walled Garden for our monthly help-out.

We tended to a few of the new beds, some of which we'd helped build last month. Things have already been growing like crazy. I knew there was a point to all that rain we’ve been having lately!

Having said that, we done a bunch of watering as well, including the epic tomatoes growing in the polytunnel.

And to finish, the old classic: turning compost.

We took away a nice haul of chard, tomatoes and beets for our help. An unexpected but welcome reward for a great morning's work.