Six eager GoodGymers were the reason why Joseph, the owner of Grape & Honey Farm, abandoned his 60 kg of freshly made damson jam and 80 litres of damson wine (”fermenting as we speak”), to meet our team in Greeford and let us into the urban garden. Joseph is a good neighbour of the community site, now managed by Heston Lions, where vegetables are grown and donated to places like the foodbank in Acton. He showed us around and explained what needs to be done in August.

- Who has small fingers? - Joseph
- Me. - Kash
- Have you ever pollinated a dudhi? - Joseph

Joseph explained the difference between male and female flowers and how to pollinate them, then took us into the polytunnel to surprise us with an abundance of produce. He told us about how many vegetables an urban garden could produce in the summer, and that it was impossible to keep up with that amount if not attending to the harvesting task every day.

- This garden could feed a family of 80. Do you have a family of 80? If I lived here, I wouldn’t need to go to the shop to buy fresh food. I’d just put a chicken coop in here.
- Do you have chickens?
- I had a few hens and four cocks. But the cocks kept crowing in the morning, and I couldn’t sleep, so I curried three of them.
- Do you mean: carried them? Away?
- No. I've put them in a curry. Cooked.

Luckily, we didn’t have to deal with chasing and converting noisy cockerels into meals. The main task was to pick up excess courgettes, marrows, cucumbers, and tomatoes. Gus, feeling like a combine harvester today, after scouring for blackberries through thorny brambles at the earlier session, committed to that job. Sevan and Steph also stayed in the polytunnel - to weed the veg beds and tie the okra and tomato vines to stakes or even to a system of strings hanging from the metal arches - a network carefully designed by Sevan, who had learned that method at Western Road. Steph and Gus later joined the rest of the team outside.

The outdoor team, busied with weeding, consisted of Jules, Max, and Kash. It was yet another surprise comeback from Jules, who this time donned her red t-shirt. For Max, the urban garden afternoon session was his first GoodGym task. He had joined us for the team lunch at Horsenden earlier, and for a chatty walk through the woods to the afternoon task - the best way to get to know us!

One of the Heston Lions joined us that Saturday: Superna, who brought us water and snacks, then got busy harvesting and watering the plants. It was nice to see her again. We are hoping to see more Lions - and even more GoodGymers - at our next visit to the Greenford garden!

The first day of August brought a pretty solid team to Horsenden Farm, including a wave of new joiners: Rene, Laxmi, and Mairaj. Welcome to GoodGym Ealing - we hope you enjoyed your first task!

Worked on tasks, got along really well, supportive people all around, will attend more sessions. Very helpful and friendly team. - summarised Mairaj in his report

Elsa equipped us with wheelbarrows, shears, loppers, rakes, and even a slasher (which Steph Ducat quickly booked), then led us up Horsenden Hill to a place called Wells Meadows. The meadow was recently scythed, but it has not been raked yet. There was also a corner covered by a huge patch of brambles that, despite bearing delicious, ripe blackberries at that time of the year, were still considered undesirable plants. Our job was to clear the area so that Friends of Horsenden Hill could create a wildflower meadow.

Jamie’s and Gus’s cunning plan included cutting and eating their way to the most juicy blackberries. They found plenty of allies in their war against brambles: Ramona, Sevan, Steph, and, later on, Mairaj. Raking - which turned out to be more of a cardio workout than many may have expected - was handled mostly by Rene and Kash. Laxmi became a jack of all trades, raking, harvesting blackberries, and chopping brambles.

The session at Horsenden couldn’t be considered complete without bringing to life the slogan animals 🐮 + pizza 🍕 + craft beer 🍺. Even though we must admit that animals were hiding today, the GoodGymers didn’t have trouble finding the beer stall and the pizza oven.

What have the new GoodGymers learned today?

• GoodGymers can get quite competitive about the size of the brambles they pulled.
• Brambles produce blackberries.
• Brambles have thorns.
• Thorns scratch.
• Thick gloves protect you from thorns.
• Long trousers and sleeves also protect you from thorns (forget this one - even veteran GoodGymers never seem to learn that fact!).
• If you arrive late for the task, ask for the person with red hair.

We are back at Horsenden Farm next month, hoping for more animals, more new faces, and fewer scratches! Sign up now!

We had perfect conditions for our return visit to Chiswick House last night, which was good news as we had a huge job to do!

The carriageway into the grounds is lined with beautiful plane trees. Fun fact - did you know London Planes can grow to 35 metres and live for several hundred years? Which means they need a bit of care and attention.

We were met with Chris, Chiswick House's gardener, who explained the job was to cut away the shoots from the trees' trunks. Or epicormic growth, if we're being fancy!

We cleared away the clippings and then got to work giving the trees a good pruning, able assisted by Chiswick House's excellent range of dog visitors.

There were some excellent techniques getting as much as humanely possible into the ton bags, and some very professional lopping on display too. Great work everybody!

Next week we're back to do one of our favourite tasks - washing the Turnham Green mural. Fingers crossed the weather is kind to us...