We returned to Carrington Community Gardens on a sunny (but thankfully slightly cooler) evening for a second round of clearing the overgrowth. We met Councillor Nayab Patel again on arrival before setting to work. On our last visit we made a start on clearing the main pathway and this time we turned our attention to some of the other areas that have become untidy and filled with weeds and brambles.

We all agreed that some of the best tasks involve us just being able to pull things out of the ground as it gives us both a physical workout and a satisfying psychological boost. What isn't quite so fun is negotiating the thorny branches which seemed worse than ever on this occasion, or maybe our gardening gloves just weren't quite thick enough. Either way, we all got a few pricks along the way, but we still managed to fill 8 bags of cuttings and unearth some litter and a mirror. Thankfully, our work was rewarded and our minds distracted from our thorn-filled fingers by Nayab's treat bag which was once again generously filled with muffins and crisps!

As we prepared to take our group photo at the end, we were joined by two police officers who were on the beat in the local area. They were very interested in what GoodGym do and thankful that we were in the community garden to clear it up rather than set up a camp! They even helped out by taking our group photo with Nayab.

A few milestones to mention - Vytautas hs just hit 10 tasks, Matthew has now done 15 tasks and Rosemarie recently reached 20. Well done to them all! We also have Peter and Tom edging very close to some big milestones which we look forward to celebrating very soon!

GoodGym Nottingham felt all a bit Stone Age this week!

We were back at Walter Halls School with Adele, this time tasked with helping make over a patch of ground that will soon become a garden for the children to tend to.

Peter took a pickaxe to the patch marked out to become a pond. The ground there is pretty tough at the moment and Adele wants to have the kids help dig it out, so he was breaking it up and turning it over for them to make things a little easier.

Dayna, Vytautas and Rosemarie were digging holes to plant some of Adele's ferns and climbers – much tougher than it sounds with the hard soil, roots and rocks hindering progress.

Leah and Rachel were back shifting soil from a tonne-bag up on the hill down to the new garden space, and created a no-dig flowerbed with newcomer Marta getting the honours of sprinkling over the new wildflower seeds for her ingenious use of a big log as a hammer to get the little border fence into the ground.

We're back in a couple of weeks, hope you can join us!

Last night’s task was right on point as a fabulous 10 of us headed to the Sherwood Community Centre. We were met on arrival by Louise who talked us through our jobs for the evening.

The main task was to move several metal storage cabinets from one cupboard space to another – sounds simple, right? But before the cabinets could be moved, they needed emptying of all sorts of contents, most of which was not boxed, bagged or in any particular order. We also needed to move some ballet bars from the destination cupboard which were to be re-homed in the original cupboard next door. Once the storage cabinets were safely in their new cupboard home (which Dayna had diligently measured up to check which order the cabinets would need to be placed), we then had to restock them with their contents, ensuring that the same items went back in the cabinet in which they started.

Alongside this, we were also tasked with removing some items from the original cupboard (but that weren’t in a metal storage cabinet) and transporting them to a shed outside in the garden. Finally, a few of us also helped with moving some items of rubbish and broken furniture to a garden area at the rear of the carpark. Are you still following?

It was a complex task worthy of any escape room or Taskmaster challenge, and with 10 of us it did get a little chaotic at times. Thankfully Louise was on hand to direct us and despite a few confused moments we managed to successfully complete our mission (hopefully with every item back in its rightful place….).

We thoroughly enjoyed our first visit to the Sherwood Community Centre. Not only did 10 of us attend which may be one of our records, we got to channel our inner Chuckle Brothers, Darcey Bussell and Dale Winton as we moved furniture, ballet bars and a shopping trolley!

As you can see, by the end we were jeté-ing with joy (well, some of us were…).

A warm welcome to Dayna who completed her first GoodGym task. Also a big congrats to Peter who has completed his 40th task - the countdown is on to the black t-shirt!!

We will be returning to the Sherwood Community Centre next week for more fun – why not join us? Sign up here.

It was a welcome return to the Windmill Community Gardens for four GoodGymers. Tasked with trying to clear the (almost) dried up brook of lots of overgrown brambles and ivy we all got well and truly stuck in. It’s always surprising how much we can get done in just one hour but we were about assisted by Lu and Linda (who shared her amazing knowledge of spiders) from the gardens.

Six of us gathered at Johnno's Mini Market to clean up litter and tidy the brick planters, to soundtrack of Taylor Swifts' 1989 album.

We swept the area clean, clearing away leaves and stray litter, while pulling out weeds to prepare space for new flowers. Meanwhile, Kathryn's daughter showcased her artistic talent by designing a snail to brighten up the garden.

We had help from Johnno's Mini Market to provide water for the plants, and bin bags for disposing of the rubbish.

With the planter ready, we added bulbs, daffodils, and strawberry plants To top it all off, the snail was placed as the finishing touch!

We may not be able to sing like Adele, but by golly can GoodGym Nottingham paint a wall!

After a last-minute task rejig, we were back with our new friends at The Place to get them another step closer to finishing their fantastic renovations.

Rosemarie and Vytautas were giving a coat of paint to some of the trunking around the two rooms, while Peter, Nigel and Leah were cutting in and rollering another coat of white paint onto the walls.

Having blitzed that pretty quickly (many hands make light work and all that), including a coat over the area we were chipping the old paint off last week, we moved on to coating the door frames with some fresh wood paint.

As always, our fabulous hosts made us a well-earned round of tea towards the end as we took a step back to admire everything. The Place is almost unrecognisable from our first visit - the team has done an amazing job and we can't wait to see the finished rooms soon! I've been assured we'll get invited to the launch party, so watch this space!

A stonking 9 GoodGymers turned up for what I think was one of our most unusual litter picks yet. At least in terms of finds!

It was great to see so many people 😍 Special shoutouts to Chris for completing his very first GoodGym task, to Soliane who'd just got back in from a run round the corner and popped over to join us with about 3 minutes' notice, and to Nigel for completing his 15th task.

After pairing up, we spread out across the park and filled a wholly satisfying heap of bags with litter. And not just bottlecaps, crisp packets and cigarette butts. Not by a long shot. "Weirdest Item Wins" doesn't always get that weird, but the litter louts of St Mary's Rest Garden gave us so much, I have no idea who to award the honour to. What do you think?

We had:

• A coconut with straw
• A fur coat
• A car bumper
• A road sign
• A parasol umbrella
• A Blue Peter badge (appropriately found by Peter)

Sound off in the comments with your vote!

GoodGym Nottingham returned to the wonderful Windmill Community Gardens for our Wednesday night task. They are hosting their annual Feel Good Garden Party on Saturday and needed our help with a few jobs in preparation for the event.

Carley set us to work clearing a large pile of rubbish and wood, transporting it in wheelbarrows to a skip which was located a bit further down the entrance road. Our main challenge was avoiding all the rusty nails sticking out of the wood. Most of the pile was destined for the skip, but we managed to save some glass, plastic and metal for recycling. We also rescued several slugs and a dog made out of welly boots!

Once the first rubbish pile was clear, our next job was to fill our wheelbarrows with wood chip from outside the gate and transport it to the very back of the gardens where it would be laid to make a path. Not wanting to waste a wheelbarrow journey, we filled them with more rubble and wood for the skip on the way back out.

It was a warm, balmy evening in Nottingham (a rarity at the moment). So much so that at one point Nigel decided to take a shower…door, from the rubble pile. We finished with a quick photograph by our full skip and headed on our way.

What a smashing task!

See the pictures for details of the Feel Good Garden Party and other events at the Windmill Community Gardens.