We first started helping at this community garden in the depths of winter so it's been lovely to see everything progressing as the days get warmer. In today's spring sunshine we set to work weeding the herb bed so that the sage, chives, lemon balm, mint and rosemary can flourish. After that it was time for some watering and, finally, to pick some herbs to bring home. It was good to see Amina again and kudos to Jade for making this her third task of the day!

GoodGym Merton's debut at Mitcham Orchard Garden saw the team diving right into the deep end, literally, helping with planting around the pond's perimeter. With time to spare we then helped with potting some of the numerous excess raspberry plants ensuring them a berry good start.

Welcome to Alyson and what a lovely morning spent in the sunshine in a beautiful location.

Another opportunity this week to get the GoodGym shirt out and lend a hand with setting up for the Sustainable Merton Spring Brunch, an event focussing on sustainability and community. After arranging the seating and tables there was plenty to do with setting out the food and drink which included some innovative recycled food, reducing waste. During the networking session we picked up a few more contacts for jobs in need of our help in the coming months.

Our second session at this community garden at Canons House, Mitcham, and it was lovely that the trees were in bloom this time and plants were poking their heads through the soil. From shovelling compost and wheeling it to the rhubarb beds, to replanting strawberries, this gave a taste of all the things to come this summer and made for a very fruitful task. It was nice to see new sign-up Bhav again too.

After sorting the potatoes and planting some lettuce it was time for a weeding workout - clearing grass to make way for the sprouting daffs and to allow the little tree some breathing space.

We aim to support Phipps Bridge community garden once a month but the volunteering team is there every week on a Wednesday and Sunday so get in touch if this is something you would like to be involved with more regularly, or keep an eye out for the next session and sign up/join us.

3 GoodGymmers descended upon Canons House Community Garden today, to get their hands dirty helping to prepare the beds for planting. Armed with trowels, forks, and a healthy dose of enthusiasm, we tackled the overgrown beds with gusto. From pesky dandelions to tenacious thistles, no unwanted weed was safe - we cleared, pulled and piled - leaving neat, tidy beds, ready to receive their new inhabitants. There was a lot of Goodgym chat going on as we worked with Paul sharing stories from his extensive experience with the existing teams at Wandsworth and Hounslow with the less experienced members of the reasonably new Merton team - we hope to have created some interest from the other volunteers to join us at a session sometime too.

A huge thank you to Sustainable Merton for having us, it was a pleasure to contribute to such a worthwhile project, and we can't wait to see the garden flourish in the coming months. We're already seed-ing forward to our next visit! Join us if you can: https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/help-with-planting