Heat wave weeding

In a nice (if worrying) change from the 2020 trend of getting soaked to the skin and covered in sticky mud at Marston Forest Garden, lately we've been basking in sunshine on our tasks there.

This week's plan was to weed around lots of the saplings and fruit bushes to stop them getting choked by perennial weeds. Bind weed, thistles, brambles and nettles were the main targets, with bonus points for Mares Tail which seems to be having a good year. A power hour of weeding and de-tangling got a lot of the plants de-weeded, uncovering wild strawberries, blackcurrant bushes and many more. We also grabbed a couple of loads of woodchip to replenish the mulch around a few plants.

This week's fun fact courtesy of Bethan: the bindweed flower is a symbol of affection. We almost feel bad for pulling so much of it up this spring and summer.

Weeding hour over we gathered under the oak tree for watermelon, biscuits, brownies and chat before heading off running, walking and cycling to seek shade and/or a bit of river to jump in.

Prize for most enthusiastic GoodGymer this week goes to Cassie the pup, who seemed to have a wonderful evening running around and keeping us all in line.

Congratulations to Holly and Kieran for reaching their 100th and 50th GoodGym Good Deeds (respectively). I failed to spot it ahead of time, but also congratulations to Sophie who did her 10th good deed with us yesterday.

Welcome to GoodGym Oxford Ellen.

Big THANK YOU to Alice for gathering up the runners and leading them on the route to MFG after I got delayed.