2 GoodGymers arrived at Loris Community Garden this morning to help Myra from the Hammersmith Community Gardens Association with a little bit of tidying up and planting. We were off to a bad start, as the tool shed lock was jammed... some WD40 came to the rescue, courtesy of Beth who quickly ran home to grab it.

Once we had access to the tools, we could get to work. Today we concentrated on a couple of tasks: 1. Removing broken branches from trees damaged in last month's storms 2. Digging up lots of green alkanet - a task which a great deal of GoodGymers are VERY familiar with!

Clare began trimming the damaged trees, removing smaller broken branches with secateurs before requesting a saw to deal with larger branches. There was a very impressive pile by the end of the task - well done Clare!

Beth focused on removing green alkanet from around the daffodils by the pond. At this point, Myra brought an absolutely beautiful tray of hyacinths from her van, which she wanted to plant in the gaps between the daffodils. Myra started planting whilst Beth removed the green alkanet, before we finished off the planting together. We made a great team!

At the start of the task Myra had noticed a small clump of daffodils growing in the compost heap, which Beth set about trying to rescue. After a little perseverance and some gentle digging with a trowel, they were freed from the compost heap and re-homed by the pond. Meanwhile Clare had finished pruning all the broken branches, so assisted with the green alkanet effort.

We worked away in the drizzle for about an hour before calling it a day. Thank you to Myra for having us! The next session at Loris Gardens will be on Sunday 10th April - you can sign up here if you'd like to join us.

Four goodgymers met the Friends of Furnivall Gardens this morning - we all commented on how fortunate we had been with the weather today (which makes a change from recent weather at these monthly sessions!) Welcome to Uliana who joined us for her first goodgym group task.

There were two jobs:

1. Moving a sapling, which had been planted in the middle of a nice patch of green space, closer to the river

2. Scarifying and mulching around the base of one of the older trees

We split into 2 teams, with Uliana and Beth taking on the more manual task of digging the sapling up whilst Clare & Laura began scarifying.

Team sapling came up against many obstacles as they dug, finding bricks, an old milk bottle and some chunks of lead around the tree. Many passers by (including the 4-legged variety 🐶) stopped by to check out our handiwork and have a chat with us. Under the direction of Jane, we made good progress digging out the sapling. The real challenge was getting the supporting posts out of the ground, as these were set much deeper.

Over in the middle of the gardens, Clare and Laura first took off the top layer of turf surrounding the tree. Clare bode us farewell after some excellent scarifying work, so Laura took on the role of chief shoveler, filling the wheelbarrow with mulch to spread around the tree's base.

As Uliana and Beth were digging, they were approached by a passer by who inquired about the weekly goodgym group runs in Hammersmith and Fulham. This lovely passer by was in fact Elizabeth, a pre-pandemic H&F goodgymer. And, what an absolute hero - Elizabeth had a little time to spare before meeting some friends, so rolled up her sleeves and got stuck in! 👏

With the enthusiasm brought by Elizabeth, we managed to dig out a new hole for the sapling, and free the supporting posts from the sapling's original spot. A couple of planting attempts and a wide variety of tools were required to get it settled into its new home, but we did it!

We grabbed a quick group photo before Elizabeth and Uliana headed off, then Beth lent Laura a hand to finish mulching the tree. Excellent job this morning everyone! That's two very physical tasks completed - no doubt we will all be a little achy tomorrow. We will be back at Furnivall gardens the same time next month (the first Saturday, sign up here). Hopefully see you all again soon!

A group of Good Gymers along with other volunteers spent a couple of hours wrapping hampers for refugees. The charity is aiming to have 100 done to give to refugees in Wandsworth and we definitely made a dent in that!