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...

Five Goodgymers went on a trek along the River Crane to tackle Himalayan balsam for the Friends of the River Crane (FORCE). On a humid summer day we dawned our long sleeves and trouser to pick the invasive balsam out from sky high nettles and brambles. It was prickly business. It seems endless but we managed to clear a large section along the Crane and go home to lick our wounds.

Last night’s GoodGym mission took us to a local school to lend a helping hand to the brilliant team at Cultivate London — a charity that promotes urban agriculture, training opportunities, and community green spaces. Our task? To bag up an mountain of fallen leaves so that they can become mulch that Cultivate can use to nourish plants and sell to support their the charity.

We were picking up where GG Ealing left off the night before, and had a target number of bags to hit — challenge accepted! 💪 Armed with wheelbarrows, tonne bags, and sheer determination, we got to work.

Under the seasoned leadership of Maxime, our team got stuck in with the usual GG energy. Everyone brought their A-game and soon enough, bags were filling and wheelbarrows were being ferried across the playground.

The fitness element of the evening didn’t let us rest on our laurels either. We threw in a series of bun-boosting exercises to really feel the burn and strengthen those peachy (clementiney? Watermelony?) butts.

After a huge team effort, and a serious volume of leaves cleared, we ran back to base for a well-earned stretch

**Next week’s task is back at Chiswick House – hope to see you there!