Do you remember the decimation of the shrub population at St Andrew's Church outdoor space last year? After many months and continuous email correspondence between Kash and the project owner John, a date was pinned down for the return of GoodGymers.

When Annabel, Sevan and Kash arrived after a rollercoaster run (there were plenty of uphills and downhills on the route around North Ealing!), the stumps of shrubs were no more. In their place, the GoodGymers found a couple of raised beds with recently planted salad leaves: radish, spinach, radicchio, and rainbow chard.

John warmly welcomed the part of the GoodGym team that arrived ahead of time and gave them a quick tour of his new project: the Pocket Garden! Then he pointed them towards two tonne bags of gravel. The contents of the bags were to be distributed in front of St Andrew's - not to create a shingle beach (beachwear in the vicinity of the church? 🫣 no way!) - but to make paths around the raised beds.

Annabel and John were at the forefront of the transformation, shovelling the shingle into a wheelbarrow and buckets, and making a lot of racket. Claire who just made her way to the task, couldn't miss that noise. As the gravel transportation roles (carrying buckets and driving the wheelbarrow) were filled by Kash and Sevan, Claire joined Carol, one of the Pocket Garden designers, in raking the stones unloaded by the beds.

Halfway through the task, Sevan recalled he had an announcement to make. He declared 750 good deeds an officially recognised milestone in GoodGym Ealing and presented Kash with a new secret GoodGym prop. Forget milestone sashes! Such a commitment to doing good deserved a bright red milestone hi-viz 🦺 which Kash wore with pride despite it looked a bit too big on her.

Once the shovelling team had hit the bottom of each tonne bag, the bags were tipped over and the contents spilt on the ground, then raked. The whole job took John, Carol and the GoodGymers less than an hour.

"It would take us weeks to finish!" - Carol

You may think that fewer GoodGymers means less done. In tonight's case, it was quite the opposite! A smaller group worked in our favour as no one was getting in each other's way and we seemed to have just the right number of hands!

"Thanks again to you and your team for a brilliant stint of gravel spreading this evening. We are absolutely thrilled with the results." - John

Next week we are staying close to Ealing Broadway and running to the Transition Garden in Lammas Enclosure to continue the maintenance work there. Sign up now!