What a celebration, goodgym CYMRU, we hit our EIGHT anniversary. Starting back on May 23rd, 2017, running to a community garden space, and here we after 8 years running to one of our regular community growing spaces Global Gardens.

We are very proud of how many community green spaces we have helped over those 8 years, and hope to continue the fight to keep Cardiff as green as possible.

Our groups tonight had cyclists, walkers and runners all making their way to Global Gardens. It was a great run through the park, a great way to spend our celebration run before the weather changes. Michael had both his goodgym and global gardens hat on tonight, as he got everyone into the site and ready to volunteer. Although the weather was due to change, there was still plenty of watering to do. The polytunnel needed a good soaking, as did plenty of potted new plants that were dotted around. We also had a second group tooled up and ready to get back to the removal of brambles and bindweed, people on wheelbarrow duty to run the weeds back and forth to the designated compost pile.

We had some returns tonight as we welcomed back Benjamin and Lucy, with the lovely baby Eliza and goodgym bunny. (is this a new mascot?)

After 30 minutes of volunteering (and baby holding), we were done and it was time for our group photos. We made our plans for afterwards to continue the celebrations with a few drinks and some food, and a catch up with each other.

You gotta roll with it - You get take your time - You gotta say what you say - Don't let cricketers get in your way.

10 wonderful goodgymers got together to help our lovely community orchard. You can see their facebook page here, originally set up as a response to park vandalism this project will hopefully be one for future generations to come.

As we are still going through one of the driest Springs for decades, goodgym made the plan to help the orchard trees survive, some planted only last year and some more recently this year. Michael went to speak with the wonderful Mel in her Cafe - The Secret Garden about the task and pick up some aqua rolls.

To increase the challenge, we asked runners to try part of the run with the aqua rolls - Darren was nearly rolling in the deep, as Emily rolled straight past him. Jonathan was certainly ready to let the good times roll.

Each aqua roll holds 40 litres of water, and as the tap for the orchard use was 350m away from the orchard, these would make the task at hand a lot easier. With nearly 50 trees to water this would take a spectacular 500 litres of water to get enough down into the scorched soil. Thankfully the trees are all mulched so the water won't evaporate easily.

We split into teams of water runners and water givers, two aqua rolls, watering can and a lot of energy. With 5 trips back and forth, three people each time, we covered a total of 5km alone on the task and over 500 litres of water. Each runner had a break whilst the team got to watering the trees, and importantly remembering which trees had been done.

After a lot of strange looks from the cricket teams playing in the field, and some questions from them as we left, the task was complete and we were making our way for a catch up in the local.

Tonight was our return to the Grow Cardiff project at the Grangetown Medical Centre, we hadn't been here for a year when the project first started. During this time, they had managed to secure some money to create a more accessible site, so we were welcomed with a brand new flooring and the start of the new beds.

We met Chris and had a brief chat about the time inbetween our visits, before getting to the list of jobs for the evening.

• Move slabs to the rear of the centre.
• Infill compost bins with green waste.
• Water the fruit trees / plants behind the medical centre.
• Litter pick around the centre.
• Move surplus building materials to the rear of the centre.
• Sort area under the Cherry Tree, level the soil,
• Remove rubble from borders.

A lot of work and what looked to be a great workout on a glorious sunny evening. No time to stand about, lets get to it!

Before we had even arranged the garden jobs, Jonathan and Neda were out litter picking in the sunshine. Gold Star to you both....⭐

Su and Imy were onto the borders, taking out any large stones and moving them to the large middle planter. Lucy was sweeping and cleaning, Adam (after breaking the rake) was on leveling duty with Dylan.

Darren and Andrew were with wheelbarrows, moving bricks, slabs and rubble from behind the polytunnel to behind the medical centre. Martin, took to the green waste compost area and filled it, then joining the wheelbarrow crew to build their very own Jenga stack.

It was a great evening helping and we certainly kept ourselves fit tonight. Well deserved food after the run....

Join us next week as we will be keeping with the Nature theme this month over at Cwtch Together.

Last night, the GoodGym crew took to the streets near Roath Library for a litter pick that was anything but trashy! Our team of litter legends included Michael, Darren, Lucy, Jonny, Dave, and Martin, who were ready to clean up and have a wheely good time.

Jonathan stumbled upon a collection of empty cans, and we couldn't help but say he was can-do attitude personified.

By the end of the evening, the area around Roath Library was spotless, and our team felt like they had truly cleaned up their act. Thanks to everyone for making this litter pick a bin-credible success! Let's keep running and picking, GoodGym!