Chive Talkin'

Nobody to pick up at Camden Mind today but Tom was already hard at work when I arrived at Castlehaven Hub. Nichola had five chilli plants ready to be repotted for my first task. Tom came over to join and soon we had all five healthy looking chilli plants in much bigger pots.

Paul arrived and we got started on the next round of repotting - very new chive plants (baby chives, if you will!). These were more difficult to get out as they were in a tray rather than individual pots. Nichola showed us how to use a dibber to get the plant out without damaging the roots. She made it look a lot easier than it was for us! We knuckled down repotting the chives, every now and then coming across a tomato or some other mystery plant.

We talked Roswell, UFOs, Big Little Lies (the new seasons just came out and it's very good), Game of Thrones (what was all the fuss about?) and more whilst we worked.

All told we potted 23 plants!

Tom was on watering duty and gave our newly potted plants some water then we took the chives back into the greenhouse and tidied up the work bench (I managed to make quite a mess). Nichola showed us the wormery and told us that worms stop procreation when there's enough worms for their environment size. So clever! The worms are busy making delicious rich soil which then gets taken out and used and they continue to make more. Genius!

Whilst we were there a crew from the BBC were picking up their stuff - they'd been using the hub as a base for a new comedy show called Alabama. I'll be keeping an eye out for that one.

Nearly out the gate and Nichola said we could take home chive or chilli plants if we wanted. I needed no encouragement - I've been looking for a chilli plant to call my own! Tom and I took a pot each and we went round the corner to do some fitness which OF COURSE incorporated the plant pots into goblet squats (great thinking Paul).

After a stretch Tom headed off home - a long walk to carry a chilli plant the whole way! And Paul and I headed back to Mind where we had a last minute discussion about puns. I think we nailed it!

GoodGym and Healthy Minds will next meet at midday at Mind in Camden on Wednesday 19th June. The session runs from 12-1.30pm. Details can be found here).

See you next week!

Lucy J

A merry band of three headed to Castlehaven outdoor hub this afternoon from the Healthy Minds coffee morning. We were accompanied by the soundtrack of Lullatone and various lovely piano pieces with names like 'highly organised cleaning equipment' and the like. Paul, Tom and Lucy were met by Nichola who gratefully accepted her gift of coffee grounds from Paul and showed us to our task.

Amazingly - it being June (!) - someone had just donated a Christmas tree to Castlehaven. The owner was surprised that it had started to go brown as it had done so well since Christmas until now. However, after a little investigation it was clear what the issue was: overwatering! The soil in the tree's pot was absolutely sodden and there were no holes in the bottom of the pot for drainage. Our poor tree was drowning!

First things first, prepare the new pot for the tree. This meant shovelling out all the rather ripe smelling dirt from inside the pot we were going to use. Whilst doing this we found a worm. Unfortunately not the right kind of worm for the wormery so we set him free into the raised beds.

Today I saw a little worm , Wriggling on his belly, Perhaps he'd like to come inside, And see what's on the telly. Spike Milligan

Pot ready, we started the mission of getting the tree out of its sodden pot. No mean feat! Some tugging and twisting wouldnt do it so it was time to get the pocket knives out. Tom and Paul took it in turns to cut into the pot until we had enough wiggle room to pull the tree free - hooray! To our surprise under the first pot was ANOTHER POT. The second was much thinner and easier to get off so finally our tree was free.

• A tree-mendous success

The tree successfully re-potted, we can't wait to see it green and flourishing in the weeks to come. We then helped with some dead-heading and went around the corner for some fitness fun - from squats to lunges to shuttle runs to star jumps and more squats!

Great work everyone :)

See you next week!

Lucy J

Chard to find

It was a small group who congregated with Nichola and the Castlehaven volunteers today!

I was first on the scene and soon escorted out to the Hub garden to tidy up some chard planters. The area was congested: plants needed removing before they took hold, which meant only the largest, suitably spaced baby chards retained their turf. The others went to, er, the ant home.

And then Paul arrived, much to my delight, to join us complete with coffee grounds for Nichola's gardens. He wasted no time in settling down to an indoor task or sowing seeds into plant pots to be sold.

Paul finished before me, such was my perfectionism in wanting to give the new, soon-to-be bushier plants a shot at survival, I practically took a ruler to the little leafy rows. Paul proceeded to take his foliage waste, and later mine, along with Nichola to the worms, who would make good use of it all, along with brown paper. When feeding the wormery, Nichola discovered there were more ants than she would have liked and set about searching for the Queen Ant. But she was nowhere to be found. Hunting down a Queen Ant in a giant pile of dark soil isn't the easiest task.

And so Paul and I decided to blitz the watering as it was the last of our May runs, and so a team effort saw me (small, and wearing trainers ) clambering over timber to fill watering cans before passing watering can after watering can to Paul (tall, able to access the higher plants) to give the garden a real bit of hydration on this delightfully sunny day.

Park Life

And so we said our cheerios and headed off to the park for this week's fitness session. Paul wanted to work on fitness for multiple goals, and so we tried out some plank shoulder taps to help get him back to rowing, before whizzing through burp-free burpees (good for the heart) and standing hip extensions to, well, support the hips. We finished with a good stretch and made our way back to the tube, me navigating by instinct ("I feel like we are going in the right direction, Paul, yes, I sense we are.") and Paul opting to stick with Citymapper ("Mmm. I'll check on my 'phone, and just get software confirmation, I think.")

And then we were at the tube, back to bustling, vibrant Camden Road, and said our cheerios - plants watered, seeds sown, and, as always after gardening with Paul, I was clued up on everything from the author of Gulliver's Travels, to the latest gadgets for the best drinking water. Another wonderful Wednesday.

GoodGym and Healthy Minds will next meet at midday at Mind in Camden on Wednesday 5th June. The session runs from 12-1.30pm. Details can be found here).

Coffee morning means new recruits...

It was the first Wednesday of the month, which means GG effectively gate-crashes the popular Healthy Minds coffee morning in Barnes House, in a bid to head out to the day's task with some new recruits.

Established GoodGym/Healthy Mind-ers Paul, Tom and Neil were in attendance making the recruitment of first timers Kenny and David that little bit easier.

Litter-picking galore

And so a good sized crew of 8 of us in the end headed out, marching the short route just around the corner, expertly led by Neil, to Castlehaven's Des Res area where task owner Nichola had carefully laid out bundles of litter-picking kit for our mission today. We distributed litter-pickers, gloves and buckets before heading to our favourite mural for some mobility exercises ("Warm up your lats, folks, we need to warm up your lats, and hip flexors for litter-picking."). And the pun requests started... (today's pun, btw, is brought to you courtesy of Tom, although Kenny deserves a very big shout-out for her brilliant suggestions en route back to Barnes House).

We then divided into two teams to take the two main sections of the park. Tom, David, Paul and I headed in one direction, while (other) Tom, Kenny, Cynthia and Neil took the other section of the park. Between the two teams, a lot of rubbish was collected - the teams blitzed both park areas and had full buckets come 1pm. Impressive.

Full-on fitness

And so we met next to the sports pitch for today's serious fitness session. First up, was our favourite greyhound-and-hare game. Neil and Cynthia started us off, with a 45-second start, power-walking a lap of the park. After a set of jumping jacks, the rest of the team set out and tried to catch them up. But alas, Neil and Cynthia were too fast even for speedy pacer Paul, and they returned to our race start with their leaders title in tact, before we all gathered to cheer in the runner-up walkers.

Then it was mine and David's turn which was truly a battle of the wills, ("I'm walking at my own pace, I won't be speeded up by anyone" vs pushy PT: "I'll see about that."). But we retained our leader title. And then we gathered in a circle to play "Name a body part you want to work." Kenny kicked us off nicely with hamstrings (single leg deadlifts if you don't mind - go, team); Tom continued with a request for a delts exercise (impressive), and Cynthia completed the requests with 'something for the back'. What a collaboration. We were un-stoppable today.

Before we knew it, it was 1.30 and we headed back to Barnes House, feeling like our lower body in particular had been put through its paces, but with our spirits high.

Thank you all, for another wonderful Wednesday lunchtime. And don't forget, we do it all again next week...

GoodGym and Healthy Minds will next meet at midday at Mind in Camden on Wednesday 8th May. The session runs from 12-1.30pm. Details can be found here).

4 runners headed out to Castlehaven’s Horticulture Hub today to join Nichola and the team get some new seedlings settled.

A new route…

It was a glorious Spring day when Cynthia, Neil and I left Camden Road for the haven around the corner that is Castlehaven. I was just about to take us via our usual route, a rather congested, not-so-scenic route, when Neil drew our attention to the fact there was a better way. And better it was. Neil expertly led us via locks and blossom-filled streets to Castelhaven’s horticultural hub.

S’all about the seedlings

Here, we were joined by fellow Healthy Minds member Paul, and expertly guided by task owner Nichola on how to separate dill from strawberry seeds (yes, as fiddly as it sounds), plant Inch Plant cuttings and re-pot baby aloes, all under the watchful eye of brilliant Castlehaven volunteer, Aras.

After finishing the original planting tasks early (well, it is a GoodGym event, what did you expect?), Cynthia and Neil headed outside for more re-potting, garden-watering and finished with a soil swan song-and-a-half – re-potting a vibrant verbena.

Paul, and I, on Team Aloe, completed our task in time too – Paul was expertly on quality control (“What’s wrong with that one?” “Not enough soil. I need to re-do.” “Humph.”) and most importantly, he headed up Project Pun (Me: What can we do with aloe? Paul: Hello, I Love You. Me: What, there’s a song called that? Paul: Er, yes, by, like, The DOORS?”. Paul proceeded to play said song, and the penny dropped - “Oh yeah, that.”). Paul proved to be a most tolerant team mate.

Getting our Spring sweat on

We then headed back to the Castlehaven Park and found a small, secluded spot surrounded by four trees (an ‘auspicious looking spot’, according to Paul). The team were ready for my fitness moves. After some hip mobility drills, they breezed onto static lunges, performed some tree push ups, led by Neil (“Look at Neil’s form, everyone, and copy – his back is flat.") before finishing with some plyometric squats, and two forms of oblique exercises. A waist-whittling session indeed. We then went our separate ways in the sunshine, pleased to have accomplished so much in the hub, and enjoyed such an industrious lunch hour.

GoodGym and Healthy Minds will next meet at Mind in Camden on Wednesday 1st May. The session runs from 12-1.30pm. Details can be found here.

Members of Mind In Camden's Healthy Minds programme took me gatecrashing their coffee morning activity very well today, and came on board readily for a trip around the corner to the fabulous Castlehaven Community Association.

Cardio with your coffee?

It all started with a Gold Blend and a Bourbon biscuit. Healthy Minds members were happily chatting, playing cards and looking at the timetable for the wellbeing activities in the weeks ahead when I descended on them, full of GoodGym determination, hoping to recruit some gardeners for the morning's trip to local Castlehaven Community Park.

Neaves was first to sign up ("Happy to give it a go...Why not?". That's the spirit, Neaves); Tom was already signed up, arriving punctually and changing into workout gear. Way to go, Tom, Jennifer was ready and waiting, and, as a Healthy Mind Sports Buddy, keen to see where the fitness merits lie in gardening. Fourth recruit was Paul, along with de-ionised water, protein bars and bundles of knowledge from everything to the iPhone timer function to the best protein bars. What a team asset.

"Just a little midweek digging"

We set off in the chilly weather, our team spirit fluctuating between apprehension over what might await us for our first task, and joy that the rain had lifted, and the sun was putting in an appearance.

On arrival, Nichola, Castlehaven's Environmental Engagement Coordinator, took us around to the community Hub, where we met the other volunteers who all kindly offered us lunch. We then made our way to an exceptionally well stocked (and well organised) tool and kit area, to be armed with forks, spades, trowels and gloves. And garden kneelers (see what I mean about well stocked).

And so we made our way around to the borders of the garden, and, following some excellent health and safety instructions from Nichola (can't be too careful with a garden fork in a confined space), we set about digging and turning soil, uprooting bundles of weeds in the process. The team worked incredibly hard, achieving a lot in a relatively short space of time. The session took on a slightly surreal feel as hail descended, much to my indignation ("But it's April, we should be having showers.") and Tom and I spent a fascinated few minutes figuring out hail really is white when it falls.

And then the rain arrived, just as we were due to call it a wrap. Timing or what. We made our way back to the tool shed to clean tools with a tough wire brush and then it was back to the Hub for bag collection and a final pic.

What an outing! What weeding! What productivity! And such careful work, btw, around all those worms. Well done, team.

Same time next week?

We're back again next week, Weds 10th April, meeting at MIND in Camden at 12 (the sessions will run from 12-1.30pm), and heading back to Castlehaven, for more gardening good times. The session caters to all levels of fitness, and if you have any limitations, physical or otherwise, all activity can be tailored to your needs.

I really hope to see you there!