Marston Community Gardening are hoping to install fruit trees in the form of a community orchard and needed to remove weeds and brambles along the fence.

A task perfectly matched to the skills and tenacity of any Goodgym Oxford group!

With both heavy-duty and light-duty loppers, secateurs, spades and rakes, the fab five set about removing grass and weeds at ground level and removing as much of the overgrown bramble branches as possible. With plenty of loud encouragement from Chris's dog, we managed to tackle most of the target area, filling bag upon bag with prickly brambles and overhanging branches.

By the end of the session, there were a few sore arms with lots of overhead lopping and a few more holes in gloves due to the tough thorns from the brambles.

Thanks to Julia and Chris for clearing much of the ground level weeds and grass, Henry for expert-level lopping and pruning and Vicky for coming along for her first Goodgym session! The area looks set to be planted with fruit trees next weekend so keep an eye out if you're in the vicinity!