After some demanding sessions clearing the planters outside Surbiton Library in all weathers, we returned for the most rewarding stage of all on a beautiful evening as we finished them with flowers for the summer.

It wasn’t all easy; they first needed to be filled up with enough earth. Luke, Emma and Helen excelled themselves, carrying wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of soil through from behind the library and emptying them out.

Claire, Jo, Julie and Tom started off putting the first plants in before attempting to recreate a mirror image of salvias, bushes, marigolds and petunias in the opposing beds, while Rachel tidied the existing beds.

It served to really brighten up the view outside the library, and hopefully they’ll continue to bloom over the next few months.

Tonight Claire, Rachel, Julie and Dave started with a warm up before running over to Searchlight where we were joined by Luke en route.

Emily, Jade, Petra and Sabir joined us there where Martel explained our task. We were required to do some heavy duty weeding to clear a bed so that flax could be grown as part of a Ukrainian refugee project by community groups. It will then be harvested to make a community patchwork.

We all got stuck in; Luke removed a massive plant whilst the rest is us tackled the long grass and rubbish.

Meanwhile Dave looked at how they could make a raised bed for wheelchair users.

After an hour the weeds were on the compost heap and once dug over the bed will be ready for planting.

After the success of last year’s festival themed window display Christine and the team at the BHF had asked us back for a repeat performance. Julie, Rachel and Claire met at the Quaker centre for a sunny 2.5km run to the shop where we met Emily, Jana, Jade and Luke. After fuelling up on some carrot cake bars (getting some veggies in), we headed up to the ‘Narnia’ store room to look through the treasure trove of donated items for anything we could use in the display.

We filled 3 big cages full of sleeping bags, tents, mats, folding chairs and festival gear. Jana kept an eye out for any colourful festival fashion to dress the mannequins in. Sadly the fluorescent pink shell suit Julie found didn’t make the final display!

Julie and Claire moved the cages downstairs in the lifts to where Jade and Luke had made a start on the backdrop of the display - putting down some astroturf and camping chairs. Next our feature tent was put up and the display started to take shape. Jana, Rachel and Emily brought down the remaining items and started putting them in place.

Soon we were halfway through and there were sleeping bags and camping chairs everywhere! We started to wonder how we would get everything done in time, but we kept going and before we knew it the window was looking very impressive. Well done everyone!

Christine always has plenty of jobs that she needs help with so keep and eye out for more tasks coming up.

Weeding ponds, paths and hedgerows was the name of the game for our Tuesday evening session, when eight GoodGymers headed to Edith Gardens, in Berrylands.

One of 12 designated nature reserves in the borough, this special site is used by people to access nature who might not otherwise be able to - such as disabled people and people suffering from mental health problems. So it’s important that it’s kept in good condition for their use.

Luke bravely volunteered to lean and ‘rake’ the pond to remove the algae on its surface, Tom and Sabir worked hard clearing brambles from the hedgerow GoodGymers planted a few years ago, Jana enjoyed slashing the nettles on either side of the wheelchair accessible path, while Dave, Julie, Rachel and Emma weeded the path to make it ready for flattening next week.

It was a slightly longer run from the Quaker Centre to this task - 3.5km - but great to get back to this site and hopefully we’ll return again this summer to lend a hand to the volunteers that manage this space so brilliantly day-to-day.