This morning I had a wonderfully fruitful session helping the volunteers at Phipps Bridge Community Garden! What a lovely way to spend a morning break from the day job - soaking up the sun while getting stuck into picking blackcurrants and with time for sewing mangetout seeds.

Had a very enjoyable morning with katie in the canons community gardening weeding all the flower, prairie, produce and herb beds, and hand watering all the plants as the outside tap is still not working. Hot work in the midday sun! Katie generously bought drinks after for the exhausted workers which was very much appreciated

Five of the team joined a fantastic session at Mitcham Orchard today, getting stuck into a variety of tasks!

We tackled two main jobs: Matthieu and Martina (welcome and well done on your first task) skillfully worked on covering the greenhouse, ensuring it's ready for whatever the weather brings. Meanwhile, Jade and Rhian teamed up with Clare to get some serious planting done, getting pumpkin and squash plants into the ground. They also did a great job clearing fallen plums, setting them aside for pickling!

A debit visit for three of the team and a little bonus job - cherry picking. Yum! Great work by everyone involved, making a real difference in this beautiful orchard.

At this session it was time to plant the tomatoes, do some weeding and watering and pick up the litter overflowing from the bin. The outdoor tap is still out of action, making the watering quite laborious, but Mother Nature topped up the volunteers' efforts with plenty of rain later in the day!

What a way to end a long day! Rachael, Jade and Rhian stepped in to help pack up the Sustainable Merton and Paws Wash gazebos after their fundraising dog walk event.

Having already tackled a much larger gazebo earlier, we organized everyone to ensure instructions were given to pack down each gazebo in stages, like seasoned pros! Practice truly makes perfect, and this was a fantastic workout to cap off our busy day. Teamwork makes the dream work, especially when it comes to getting the cover on ;)!

The afternoon session at Abbey Mills was a buzzing success! With 2 extra pairs of hands on the trainer-pong stand, we had some fun getting passers-by involved in the game while chatting about all things GoodGym.

The extra hands (and efforts) paid off as we collected even more trainers (following those collected earlier in the day) and got a few more players throwing shoes for an entry into the prize draw! We even had a bit of time to explore the other event activities and squeeze in some extra promotion whilst walking around and meeting lots of the lovely doggos returning from their walks. What a great way to spread the word!

Welcome to Erica, thanks for you help and well done on completing your first session. Hats (or shoes) off to Rachael, Rhian and Jade who powered through from the morning session and even stayed for the Sustainable Merton and Paws Wash pack down of the gazebos once we were all done and dusted...