Today 4 of us from GoodGym Leeds joined the Tribe Youth Club & got to work on their community garden. We got so much done & it made such a difference! We strimmed, weeded, planted plants & vegetables and had a general clear up. The sun was shining & there was such a lovely atmosphere. Well done all!

5 GoodGymers went along to the Tribe Community Garden today to support the Tribe Youth Group to give something back to Pendas Community Centre. We raked, cleared, dug up & planted some much needed plants for spring/summer.

The Tribe Youth Group is the Leeds Child Friendly Leeds Youth Group of the Year for 2020 and offers 75 young people in the East Leeds area the opportunity to make a difference to themselves and the community they live in through creative, health, lifeskills and social action projects.

4 out of 5 of us had never been to a GoodGym session before (including me). It was great to meet everyone & to get outside in some fresh air. I can't wait until the next one now :)

The task for today was to clear as much of the bramblage covering the area outside the Pendas Way community centre as possible, with the ultimate aim to try and turn it into a garden.

Alex was ready and waiting at the task, and was prepared enough to have provided mince pies! Katie ran to meet us and we made a start - tools weren't provided at this one so we made a start with a ramshackle assortment of tools (and differing levels of protective gloves) Emma & Liam joined us shortly and we got to work, Emma cutting the brambles as close the the roots and piling them to then try and cut them down small enough to fit into the Litter Free Leeds bags we got from the Pudsey litter pick without shredding the bags too much.

Alex and Katie made a start at clearing the area behind the accessibity ramp and pulled out an entire bush, and our resident naturalist introduced us to an entire colony of snails, plus we discovered for future reference, that their favoured corn based snack is definitely Doritos. Damu joined partway through, fresh from moving furniture and fridges on his bike▵.

We were all enthusiastically invited to take part in the gymnastic session that was about to start, but unfortunately none of us had brought our kit, and we didn't have the right shoes, and who would have looked after the secateurs?!

In all in an hour and a half we managed to make a good stab at clearing the first half or so of the brambled area, but there's plenty more to do when we go go back for a second stab at it.

Some milestones coming up shortly too - the cape of Good Deeds is tantalisingly close as Katie's next deed will be her 50th, and Emma is only three away from 300!

Right, report written - off to get the last few thorn splinters out and find some better gloves!

*why yes, I am continuing to base the pun on a random animal found during the task, thank you for noticing!

▵ yes, I know, comma, but it amused me