Five GG Yorkies joined some Sustrans volunteers for a tree planting task.

Xavier Brice, the CEO of Sustrans was also getting his hands dirty and it was great to chat with him about the nationwide partnership we have with Sustrans.

There were 9 fruit trees to plant including apples and plums. We had to dig holes that were twice the size of the pots, lay down two scoops of "fungus helper" and then put the tree in with extra soil, stomp the soil down and top with woodchip. We then had to bang in wooden stakes using a giant hammer and secure the baby trees to the stakes with cable ties.

With that done in super quick time we started on the second task which was to start building a wetland area further along the path. This task required us to remove all the small trees and some of us got to use a brand new (and very exciting) tool: the tree popper.

John baggsied the popper first and started levering out cherry trees, elders and willow, then Becky snuck in and grabbed it whilst John was taking his trees to the habitat pile. He came back to Becky yanking out a pretty big tree..

It's big, but not as big as mine!

Babs and Debbie were focused on one truly gigantic root and were determined not to be beaten. The wetland area will be dug out at another task on a later date, so keep your eyes peeled!

An unexpectedly giant group turned up to do good!

September is here, the nights are drawing in and it's definitely getting darker, but that didn't stop an amazing 43 runners (including 4 brand new ones and Grace from Barnsley) from turning up to help out at Low Moor Allotments. Luckily there happened to be allot to do, and we were met by no less than 6 members of the Low Moor Allotment Association who were all ready to guide us around the site and show us what needed doing.

The general timing rule was that everyone was to meet back at the shed at 19:05, but that message definitely wasn't conveyed to every single group (my fault!).

Individual group reports are still coming in.. but prepare for some emotional experiences from tonight's run!

Becky's group

We did not know about the timing and lost everybody. We did lots of balsam bashing and we discovered that the seeds explode in your face. Debs found a lettuce which was initially not that exciting but after the group were abandoned, she felt that the lettuce might be her only remaining friend.

Leanne's group

Mostly brambles and nettles and Leanne got a slug on her leg. There was some dispute about whether Aidan was touchy feely with the brambles or whether the brambles were touchy feely with him but it transpired that the brambles initiated and Aidan did not consent.

Lizzie's group

Our group was tasked with what seemed like a jungle. We hacked, sawed bits down, raked it etc. We found potatoes, raspberries, blackberries, apples and a newt (which nobody ate). It was a total treasure trove! By the end we had two huge piles of cuttings and we could see the apple tree all the way at the back of the allotment.

Mitch's group

We proceeded to work our way through our alloted allotments (which were mostly brambles and nettles) although three shears between four people did prove to be a challenge at first. Through the work there were many interesting discussions including how effective arson would be and whether a certain plant was rhubarb or cow parsley (...it was cow parsley). Our dedication did mean we were late for the workout and made up our own rules.

Tim's group

We wrestled with nettles, definitely did not use a strimmer, made a big pile of stuff to set fire to, found a bathtub and Lucy beat me in a lopping race!

...

At 19:10, most groups were back and we took a group picture anyway, before heading back across the allotments to our fitness session. I sent Stef on a recon mission to locate Becky, Debs and John but he came back with several others instead. In fact he came back with everyone else except Debs, Becky and John.

We commenced with a team fitness challenge involving lots of planking, squats, lunges and hill reps, which everyone was definitely very excited about. Katie broke the mould with her 'arms in the air' downhill running technique (see photo) and we all made a mega ar-m-chway to cheer Lucy in at the end.

Tim hung back to bring in our lost heroes, which was even harder because we had deviated from the planned route, navigation madness. Anyway, everyone made it back in one piece - phew!

Please say a big thank you to the runners for all their work this evening. All of us were very impressed with what was achieved! - Angela, Low Moor Allotment Association