It was our first Thorlands session of 2022 and what a turnout we had!

10 hardy GoodGymers turned out in the pouring rain including newbies, Emily and Jessica. Welcome to GoodGym!

Upon sheltering from the rain under the gazebo, Sam and Simon explained their bits about GoodGym and Thorlands, respectively. Yet, Lindy did not want to waste any time as we were all getting cold. Upon this act, she became sub-team captain for the "lopping" team. Her team consisted of Jessica and Michael; there task was to cut down the buddleia tree in the Walled Garden, strip the green leaves from the stem, chop down the branches further before piling them on the compost heap.

The rest of us took all the remaining tools and the wheelbarrow to the Kitchen and Forest Garden, where the team was split into three groups: forkers, sawers and diggers.

Forkers: Laura and Katy used forks to dig out the roots near the makeshift compost heap.

Sawers: Emily and Kaz took the two saws and cut through the piles and piles of branches that needed to be cut further down into small pieces to add to the hedgehog and bug "hotel".

Diggers: Pippa and Sam dug up and turned over the soil near the benches. They took out any roots they saw before levelling it, adding cardboard and then leaves, greens and anything else on the compost heap on top. This would help break down the cardboard and ensuring new soil is created on top.

Phil was a one man band as he trimmed a buddleia tree before tackling more buddleia on the concrete terrace where the arts and crafts stalls will eventually be.

The hour and a half session whizzed by and even the rain stopped briefly before the end....only to start again as we all went off on our separate ways.