Iffley Glebe plays a vital role in maintaining the rural atmosphere of Iffley village. The glebe is full of wildflowers and the hedge across the field provides birds with nesting places, and insects and berries for food. The glebe is owned by Oxford Preservation Trust and they often ask GoodGym to help with maintenance tasks.

This week we were tackling one of our regular tasks - weeding the Iffley Glebe wall. Everyone spread out along the inner and outer walls to denude it of weeds and stop them from getting roots established and destroying the structure. We managed to get the whole front boundary wall cleared, and most of the inside too, filling a large sack with greenery in the process. The mossies were probably delighted at all the flesh to feast on, so we all have some itchy momentos. Note to self; find the local Avon lady for insect repellant.

We'll probably be back to Iffley Glebe again later in the summer for a second go over the wall, plus tackling a section on the northern edge of the site, some hay raking, and sycamore removal.

Welcome to GoodGym Jenny!

With light evenings comes the return of tasks in Oxford's green spaces, and one of our favourites is Aston's Eyot. Tucked between the Iffley Road and the river, the Eyot was a rubbish dump in the 19th Century, but it's now a thriving nature reserve managed by the Friends of Aston's Eyot.

Wednesday's task was nettle removal. Scything and pulling the nettles allows light to get through for wild flowers, and removing them reduces the richness of the soil, which wild flowers prefer. This should all help increase the biodiversity of the area. Scything is always a fan favourite at GoodGym, so there were plenty of volunteers for that task. Henry very competently assembled the new scythe, and Axelle did great work pruning back an elder tree which was getting a little thuggish. Some of the GoodGymers were lucky enough to spot 2 muntjac deer on the way home - it's always surprising and delightful how much nature can thrive yards from busy city streets.

Great work team!

Welcome to GoodGym Emma and Ines.

We had a muddy and quite chilly evening at Bayard's Hill primary school getting their garden started.

The school had some raised beds built as part of a wider community project, but the area needs tlc before if can be used for growing.

This week we weeded the majority of the raised beds and most of the pile of topsoil to fill them, as well as litter picking the site.

Next week we'll finish that task and top up the beds with soil. Soon we hope to be able to build paths around the beds to make access and maintenance easier.

Longlands Care Home in Blackbird Leys asked for our help to breathe new life into their gardens, to support the residents getting out and enjoying them this summer.

They have pleasant green spaces with mature trees and a patio courtyard garden. One of the things they would particularly like to establish is a vegetable patch, so that residents can start seeds off inside, move the plants into the garden later this spring, and then use the produce in the care home kitchen for meals for residents.

Our task this Wednesday was to get the garden borders and pots weeded ready for planting, the bits of litter and cigarette butts cleared, and the paving slabs pressure washed. It turns out that pressure washing is a new favourite task - very satisfying to see the dirt wash away!

Congratulations on your 100th Good Deed Venetia!

A huge pat on the back everyone: we made it through the winter! The clocks change this weekend and it'll be return of light evenings from next week.

Ovada are a non-profit gallery space with limited funding and a small staff team. Car park hire is a key source of income that enables them to run events, exhibitions of socially engaged work, and an education programme where they offer a number of subsidised and bursary places.

With only a small staff team it is hard to keep on top of maintenance, so they called in our GoodGym flash mob to get their car park area ship shape.

Bundled up against the spring showers we litter-picked, shifted rubbish out for collection, weeded, and pulled up nettles (achieving the first nettle stings of the year).

In the hour before the light faded we got the area looking a lot better and less nettley. Now we just need some dry weather for the mud situation to improve!