It was a beautiful night for a spot of gardening. One-by-one the team grew in the picturesque Cemetery park spot, where manager Ken had left us perfect instructions to start tackling the weeds on the main route through the park.

Why were we doing this?

Fast-growing, light-hogging and invasive, Cow Parsley is a Cemetery pest at this time of year. And with the Cemetery’s volunteer source still a little low, our out-of-hours, weed-removal efforts are still very much in demand.

Don’t forget the Goosegrass

So, armed with the speediest weed-removal tutorial from Ken, we set about tackling the Cow Parsley and Goosegrass straying onto the woodland path and numerous gravestones.

Armed with tips and tricks from stem-handling to nettle-sting management, the team worked in a speedy, productive group making their way along the path at record pace, only breaking to shuttle stems and stingers to the weed mountain (more wholesome than it sounds) around the corner.

It was tireless, tiring and terrific fun, as our before and after Cow Parsley pics show.

Before we knew it, it was 8:15 and we were gathering stray stems and saying cheerio.

The Shout-outs

Shout-outs to the whole team who braved nettles, roots and a pollen-tastic environment on this balmy Monday night, to give this valuable community asset and its fantastic team a helping hand.

And the warmest of welcomes to Julia, who joined us from GG Oxford, and Craig, first time GoodGymer. Do come back again soon.

Next week, we’re back with Nancy and her team at Barts Volunteers for our first trip to the Royal London in nearly two years.

Until then.