On Saturday morning, two Tower Hamlets runners made the rare trip South of the river to Bermondsey to help Mrs V with her garden in Bermondsey.

Mrs V was well prepared with lots of shiny new tools and plenty of garden waste bags supplied by Southwark council so we wasted no time in getting started.

Unfortunately, due to the wet weather from the Friday night which continued during our visit, we were unable to cut the grass but there was plenty of other things we could crack on with!

To start with, we set about removing the weeds from the side of the patio and turning over the soil to create a nice bed to plant some flowers. We then pulled up a number of thistles and stinging nettles from within the grass before tackling the main event.

The ivy from next door's garden had come over into Mrs V's garden and was covering the majority of her fence on one side. Using a combination of tools and brute strength we were able to remove all the ivy which was stuck very firmly to the fence. Doing so we uncovered a range of wildlife including spiders, wasps, snails and frogs (Axel's favourite).

After 2 and a half hours and several stinging nettle attacks, we had filled 10 large bags with garden waste and the fence looked as good as new!

Many thanks to Mrs V for her kind words of encouragement and thanks - We're looking forward to returning to finish the job when the weather is good enough to cut the grass!