View the Insta reel of this session here

16 volunteers. 2 hours. 42 bags of waste.

Gale Street Organic Community Garden will never be the same again!

This weekend, we moved a huge step closer to getting this precious green-space OPEN for the community. Having tended to the vegetable beds, dismantled the old shed and raised the rain-water-containers, we are now ready to get the rest of the garden accessible...

...and the garden is HUGE!

Starting in the south-east corner, we battled through the extensive under-growth to unearth myriad waste item, some examples including old carpet, old (like, vintage) HP sauce bottle and conveyor belt material (apparently from the old Dagenham Ford Factory).

Much fun was had and new connections made - with lots of inspiring ideas shared about the potential future of the garden.

Huge congratulations to all involved including our GoodGymmers Steven, Claire and Emma, local resident Lewis and Mary-Ann from BarDag Sports Academy. Nassaba and Daniel from Elevate Together, Severine, Janet and Jackie from Roding Rubbish and Nick, Olivia, Dom, Peter and Michaela from Becontree Heath Litter Pickers

Well done all - see you at a session soon!

Happy GoodGymming,

Steven (B&D Area Activator)

*“You’re keen?“

“Well, I’ve never dug before!”*

Having run Gale Street Organic Community Garden in Becontree for over 20 years, Bridget has had less time to look after this beautiful greenspace recently. Fruit trees, vegetable beds and the shed have all been calling out for some TLC….

… a call that was answered by 8 GoodGymmers last night who were celebrating GoodGym Barking & Dagenham’s very first ever session!

Huge kudos to all GoodGymmers in attendance:

🏃 De, and Claire and Steven get a special well done for coming to their first ever GoodGym session 🏃 Louise came in from Islington especially to help, 🏃 Cecilia's regular weekly running club was cancelled so we were lucky enough to them her come in from Greenwich, 🏃 Peter loved their first time digging 🏃 Emdad cycled in from Barking (watch out for his article about this session in the Barking & Dagenham Post coming soon), 🏃 Jack was on content creator duty (excited to see their first attempt at a TikTok video).

So much was achieved in just 45 minutes – check this out: 3 vegetable beds were measured and marked out and 2 trenches dug, from which 20 feet cubed of soil was removed. Very dry, hard and dusty soil. This is a huge achievement!

“I thought you were all going to chicken out and not come as it is so hot, but you didn’t! You came; you worked with good humour; I’m so impressed” (Garden owner Bridget)

“You’re a powerhouse… fun, and great energy having you guys here” (Task owner Nassaba)

Everybody really enjoyed themselves, experiencing first hand the benefits of spending time doing physical activity in nature. Soooooo much more fun than the gym. And we learnt lots about soil science from Bridget who has degrees (yes, plural) in the subject (urine does actually improve compost - this article was nearly titled "don't take the pi**")

And we’re in demand – Nassaba is working with me to plan many more sessions soon, so keep an eye out on the B&D area page of the website!

See you soon

Steven (B&D Area Activator)

NB – if you are a local not-for-profit organisation that would benefit from GoodGym volunteers to complete practical tasks in outdoor greenspaces, please contact me on steven.champion@goodgym.org