Horsenden Farm is like a neutron star of West London - its gravity pulls in the GoodGymers from areas near Ealing and they just cannot escape its allure. This Saturday the farm stole three people from GoodGym Hounslow: Gus, already a Horsenden regular, and two quite new adventurers: Pezhman and Maxime.

Maria from GoodGym Ealing was another novice to the most popular Saturday session in the area. Gaby and Simon were well acquainted with the farm, meadows and woodlands of Horsenden Hill, but new to the volunteering days. Steph Ducat, Sevan and Kash on the other hand, have seen all the animals, tried all the pizza flavours and kept the farm in motion almost every month, moving all sorts of things that needed moving: from unglamorous soil and manure to heavy objects like safes and logs.

Today's task was on the heavy-duty side. Nick, being in charge of volunteers while Elsa was away, thought GoodGymers might be perfectly suited to remove wood and fence panels from the area that was going to become an enclosure for fell ponies - the newest addition to the farm!

"When the ponies arrive, they will be helping us move the logs from the woods." - Nick
"What the GoodGymers will be doing then?" - Kash
"You will ride the ponies!"

The fence parts were to be stacked against one of the sheds (the one that still had some space behind it). There was one problem: the panels were very big and very heavy, also awkward to carry with hardly any grip. Pezhman came up with an idea to use ropes, which was trialled. Eventually, the most utilised tools were muscles and brains. Once all the panels were miraculously fitted around the shed, leaned against three walls, the heaviest log made its way out of the future pony enclosure on a wheelbarrow.

The GoodGymers completed the challenging task with 30 minutes spare (before the pizza oven started!). No one felt like sitting down and relaxing - that part happens at noon! Nick offered our team a bonus task: wheelbarrowing woodchip from the car park and dropping it alongside the greenhouse. That kept us busy until the pizza gods summoned their priest to fire up the oven and feed the hardworking folk.

That is the way of Horsenden, the ritual that happened regularly in the past and will happen again in the future. Make sure you are a part of this tasty and rewarding future and sign up for the April session now!

The drizzly Saturday morning in February brought GoodGymers their first session of the year with HANGOT - a wonderful organisation whose members plant fruit trees in public green spaces to encourage biodiversity and foraging for food. The volunteers walked through a bit muddy towpath to one of the farther orchards - the Blackberry Corner hidden on the other side of Grand Union Canal. Hint: you can reach it if you cross the canal using Hanwell Lock No 92. On the way there, a cyclist squinted at us, trying to decipher (from a sign we carried) what we were protesting against. Disappointingly, the sign that Clive later stuck to the ground, was only announcing that the orchard trail volunteers were working in the area - no demonstrations planned.

Well, a different type of demonstration happened at the Blackberry Corner. The task owner, Mirjam, and another volunteer, Lydia, both gave the GoodGymers a great explanation of how to do today's task: pruning the trees. Gaby, Simon, Maria, Liuba, Harvey and Kash learned the following rules:

• Cut out the shoots growing inwards
• Cut out the watershoots that are growing straight up
• Cut out the shoots that will rub onto other branches when they grow
• Always spray the tools with Dettol solution between pruning different trees to avoid infections (it's just like between operating different patients)
• Cut the shoots at an angle so that the rainwater does not collect in a horizontal tree wound
• For larger tree wounds (when you need to cut out a thicker branch), rub some soil onto them - you don't need any expensive products to protect the wounded area
• Don't prune the trees in the summer when the trees will produce lots of sap and will bleed too much

According to Mirjam, there were no restrictions on trimming the trees in the winter.

If someone tells you you cannot prune when it's freezing cold - you can. Well, maybe not when it's minus fifteen degrees because you'll freeze off your fingers. That's what Monty Don says, and I trust him.

Lydia and Mirjam, while agreeing on the theory had slightly different approaches to pruning: the former was more careful in choosing which shoots to trim, the latter more bold. The GoodGymers from the school of Lydia appeared more cautious about their choices.

While all the GoodGymers chose the pruning task, Clive's team was installing extra protection around the trees to defend them from rabbits. By the end of the winter, there is no food around and the furry residents of the meadow are desperate enough to go for the bark. HANGOT needed to make sure that rabbits would have to choose the other trees than the orchard ones.

Later in the year, with longer days and more growth in the spring, we will hold more sessions with HANGOT - both on Saturdays and evenings on weekdays - so watch this space for more listings!

The January conservation day at Grove Farm started with blue skies and bird song above the volunteers' heads - a setting that felt like a perfect day to start an adventure with GoodGym!

Maria took advantage of such a beautiful morning to come to her first session at Greenford's nature reserve for an environment-friendly workout with GoodGymers Sevan, Kash and Liuba.

Mike, who was leading one of the Grove Farm teams today, took the GoodGym four to the lower part of the area where wood anemones bloom in the Spring. The white flowers come out only if the space is cleared of brambles that otherwise block the sunlight for other plants. You might have guessed by now what our task was: a bramble bash! Mike gave us instructions and listed the safety risks (including slippery ground and Kash swinging her hedge trimmer), then left for a short time to fetch two new Grove Farm volunteers.

Liuba and Maria were meticulously cutting the brambles with loppers while Kash harnessed the power of Mike's power tool to clear big expanses of invasive plants. Sevan was the only person with the rake and it was his job to move all the trimmings away from the path and build a dead hedge. In case you are curious, a dead hedge is a fence-like construction made of cut logs, branches, sticks, stems, etc. that slowly decomposes and makes a fantastic habitat for insects and small mammals - it becomes a hub for biodiversity!

By the time Mike came back with reinforcements, the GoodGym team made great progress. After two extra volunteers joined with loppers and a rake, the slope above the lower woodland path was rapidly cleared. The team took a break to savour tea and biscuits Anna brought for everyone, then Maria and Liuba stayed for an extended session with the Friends of Grove Farm and Sevan and Kash ran off to be on time for their next sessions.

If bramble bash in ancient woodland plus tea and biscuits sounds like your thing, why not join next month's session? Sign up now!