On the second weekend of Tiny Forest's Tree Survey, Kash and Sevan found themselves on the opposite side of the borough to last Sunday. They were joined by Steph to see how the Tiny Forest at Southall Recreation Ground would measure up.

It was the third visit by GoodGym Ealing to this site, after the initial planting, then an insect survey 5 months ago. Today, the tree-o were on the hunt for trees that were showing off their metal tags and blue plastic bands, as their health and size was to be reported on. The only problem being... they could only find a handful of tagged trees.

Steph and Kash had some success finding tagged trees on the northern end, while Sevan walked around the southern half of the Tiny Forest, looking under weeds to the bottom of the tree trunks, without finding any at all. Finally, a breakthrough, after a bit of digging, they found that the tags had been heavily mulched over and would need to be dug out. Trees were then individually checked for buried tags, which was pretty slow going.

The feedback asked whether each tree was dead (thankfully none were), it's height, number of stems and thickness of the trunk. Measuring tapes and rulers were in demand as each tree's vital statistics were recorded for a variety of species, such as oak, gorse and cherry, which will help Tiny Forest in understanding the health of this site.

Earthwatch invited GoodGym to a unique task during the Biodiversity Week. This time no muscle or sweating during a mulching half-marathon was required. The GoodGymers were going to be the brains instead! Scientists. Citizen scientists to be precise. They were sent to their local Tiny Forest in Southall to count pollinators and ground dwellers to help Earthwatch understand how Tiny Forests support the wildlife in towns and cities.

Imagine a group of Star Trek scientists beaming down to an unexplored planet's surface to search for signs of life with tricorders - that's us! Or maybe we looked like a jaded bunch staring at their phones instead of connecting with nature. But that couldn't be further from the truth. We needed our devices to run the surveys and upload the results on the Tiny Forest website. Otherwise, we kept all our senses in the highest state of awareness to not miss any butterfly, ant, bee or spider in sight. It was a meditative experience.

Anuj: "I've been told counting butterflies is good for your mental health."
Kash: "But there are no butterflies here."
Anuj: "Exactly"

Maybe we tried too hard to attain nirvana and see the butterflies, and that's why they didn't come. Ijo was close, being blessed by the presence of a honey bee and a ladybug, but no butterflies. She must have practised her meditation techniques before the mission - or maybe she tactically chose the best spot in the Tiny Forest, with a large flowering plant. Beata worked the hardest on her zen but didn't get much luck with butterflies. Steph Ducat decided to connect directly with the other side by lifting paving slabs in the forest and summoning the demons from the underworld: spiders, slugs, woodlice and centipedes.

Although we hoped to find more wildlife in the Tiny Forest, we suspected that the lack of flowers on the site might not have been in our favour. Hopefully, with more good deeds to keep the Southall Tiny Forest weed-free and sufficiently watered, we will accumulate enough good karma to make it a flourishing home for butterflies in the future. Nonetheless, it was an excellent contemplation exercise for connecting with nature and our innermost selves.

Anuj: "I managed to do 15 minutes of calmness at a time, the next time I can go up for 30 minutes!"

It was my fourth encounter with a Tiny Forest and my second Tiny Forest planting event after Paul, the Area Activator of Barnet, invited me to planting the Finchley Tiny Forest two years ago. That was the muddiest task I have ever done that left me with a vivid memory of people having fun while falling helplessly into the mud or getting stuck, having their feet devoured by muddy monsters. The Barnet event was wild, so I was sure the Southall planting wouldn't disappoint me. I took an afternoon off from work and ventured into the heavy rain continuously hanging over Ealing that day.

The first sight that greeted me at the Southall Recreation Ground was the best I could ask for - and I don't mean pull-up bars. I mean friends! Although I haven't convinced any other GoodGymers to forgo all their daily responsibilities to sink in the mud, I found Mani from Southall Transition and Matwinder, the boss at Bixley Field Allotments, under the tiny tent where everyone hid from the downpour. Other people I met under the shelter were mainly from Earthwatch, the organisation behind the Tiny Forest. I was introduced to Hannah, who facilitated today's event.

The rain didn't seem to go away and more volunteers didn't seem to be coming, so we picked up tiny spades and tiny trees and entered the arena of clay soil! Reinforcements arrived soon - a group of volunteers in red waterproof capes. We had 600 trees to plant, so that was the turning point of the event. I secured 40 of the trees, so I can proudly say that:

Over 6% of the Southall Tiny Forest was planted by GoodGym!

Let's see if we can beat that tomorrow in Acton!

Despite the heavy rain, the muddiness didn't fully reach my Barnet 2022 experience, but it was close. Me and other volunteers were covered with intricate patches of mud and the shoes were totally caked in clay too.

When all 600 trees were stuck into the soil, the time for the mulch came. A mound of locally sourced woodchip, matured for more than three months, awaited. Were we supposed to transport all that into the tennis court-sized area? Spoiler alert: yes!

Since I've been injured and not able to run, I was after a workout that would make me feel alive. That was it! Here I was, at the top of a mulch mound, with other gladiators with shovels, our last stand, fighting our way to the bottom, filling endless buckets with woodchip. When one bucket disappeared, another one materialised. Or another two. Or three. Claire, the research scientist of Earthwatch, a real machine, was relentlessly swapping the full buckets with empty ones and cheering us.

Mulch! Mulch! Mulch!

Minute after minute. Bucket after bucket. How could I stop? It was hard work, but I agreed with Claire - this was our definition of fun! When at some point, I saw four empty buckets surrounding me, a thought crossed my mind: maybe people carrying the buckets will tire earlier and drop off? There was no sky and no earth, there was just...

Mulch! Mulch! Mulch!

By my side, Lovely from Shah Satnam Ji Greens Welfare Force Wing UK was what I was to GoodGym today - that one representative to show we can do hard work. And we did!

A miracle happened. I didn't know his name - a nice Punjabi gentleman came to treat the volunteers to hot tea with milk and spices. I looked around, and I saw that the red capes were gone. But that was fine. The hot brew worked like Getafix's Magic Potion. After a tiny tea break, we returned to work and made our way to the grass under the woodchip.

When we finished, the warm samosas brought by Mani were gone. Mani offered to buy me some but I said I would save the treat for Sunday's Bixley Field Allotments session when we meet Mani and Matwinder again. Matwinder was our best cheerleader! Someone pointed out she didn't look too muddy today. Her wheelchair was not off-road ready, so she supported us by cheering instead.

I stayed with Earthwatch till 3 pm and I made it to the group photo to flash my red t-shirt. GoodGym is not done with the Tiny Forest and after a well-deserved rest, will be back tomorrow - at Trinity Way.

A new Tiny Forest is coming to Ealing: at Southall Recreation Ground! Last Saturday Earthwatch gave us a surplus of leaflets printed to advertise the event. In GoodGym we don't like waste - and if there was a chance to convince more people to join the Tiny Forest initiative - we were going to give it a shot.

Steph and Kash met in front of Southall Station for a last-minute call to spread the word about the Thursday planting among the local community. They walked South, through a familiar route towards Western Road, and targeted the letter boxes at houses not far from Southall Recreation Ground.

There was only a tiny amount of leaflets to finish off, so the task was done in no time. Hopefully, at least a few of them landed on the promising ground!

If you would like to join the planting of the Tiny Forest in Southall, come along this Thursday afternoon. Sign up here.