A wonderful light evening, sunshine and a brand new project to help - It must be a goodgym Tuesday.

Tonight was our first visit to Grow Cardiff's newest project at Grange Medical Centre, the space that they have been given is very large with great potential......We will certainly be having a return trip here. Grow Cardiff have been going since June 2015, and have some really inspiring community gardens set up around the city.

Their mission is to inspire people to use community gardening not only to grow fantastic vegetables, herbs, trees and flowers, but through this to build caring and inclusive communities where everyone can thrive.

With such goals, goodgym are a great group to get involved and help.

It was a shorter run than usual, but with so much to do the added volunteering time was useful. Our jobs for the evening were,

• remove the layer of manure from the garden and move it to the compost heap
• build a compost heap
• remove all grass and weeds from the seating and pathways
• litter pick
• lay cardboard and woodchip on pathways

We had nice new gloves ready to wear and all the tools needed for the jobs, so it was straight to work. We got to meet a few of the locals who were also going to get involved with the project, nice to see the project already gaining volunteers. After 40 minutes of shovelling, wheelbarrow moving, pulling of plants and laying of woodchip it was time to step back and see the results of our efforts. There was a very visible difference to the plot today, and a great feeling of satisfaction.

Thanks to all, Grow Cardiff for task and you lovely volunteers to help spread the goodgym joy.

Get signed up for the next task here, as we get our painting task on again

Another lovely day in Cardiff as 10 volunteers got together to Get Active and Do Good.

Tonight, we had 7 runners from our start location, 1 cyclist and 2 walkers. It was a lovely evening to be out and about helping, and we had a celebration too.

Jonathan hit a milestone as we celebrated 50 good deeds.

Big Congratulations

As always, we arrived at Samye to smiles and a table of water, just what you want after a lovely run. We had a quick chat whilst rehydrating and catching our breath. Then it was time to get busy and help, there was a list of tasks and a group of willing volunteers - the perfect combination.

They had been very busy indeed since our last visit to Samye and were part way through a build of what will be a lovely pond. They had broken through the brick, rubble and dug down, piling it all around the sides. Still tome to do in the middle, which we could also help with if there was time, but for now the most important thing was to help, tidy up and move those heavy bags. After all, many hands make light work.

Our tasks for the evening.

• Put all the rubble into sacks
• Move around to the side of the building
• Vacuum hall, stairs and office in building 252
• Sweep up around the pond
• Sand the wall around the new fire door

It was all go, Dylan went straight to his friend HENRY to clean up that building. Imy and Natasha got their sand on, shimmying and shaking around the door frame. The rest of us, well it was manic - spades moving rubble and soil into sacks, people carrying bricks, moving bags once full....a little more of the pond was also dug out. After 30 minutes of good old hard work, the pond was looking good, and we had certainly "Done GOOD".

We popped inside for a bit of a social and a little soup, before heading back to the city.

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With lighter evenings for our runs it's finally starting to feel like Spring time.

Tonight, we returned to Cwtch Together to help once more...It was time for a wipe down and clean up inside the hall to get those grubby marks from the radiators, doors and walls wherever possible. Inside were our task organiser, Sarah along with Imy, Lucy and Benjamin, whilst outside were Darren, Andrew and Dylan sweeping and weeding down the side of the hall. Finally, around the back and battling the carpet of nettles were Lucy, Su, Dylan and Jonathan.

It was all go against those pesky nettles as the group were hard at work with secatuers, loppers and shears, then rakes and spades were the tools of choice. Wait.......is it time?

Learning Time

Urtica dioica L., also known as stinging nettle, is a perennial plant. It is a plant that’s edible and has nutritional and medicinal properties. Young leaves can be used to make curries, herb soups, and sour soups. The root of the stinging nettle is used to treat mictional difficulties associated with benign prostatic hyperplasia, while the leaves are used to treat arthritis, rheumatism, and allergic rhinitis. Its leaves are abundant in fiber, minerals, vitamins, and antioxidant compounds like polyphenols and carotenoids, as well as antioxidant compounds like polyphenols and carotenoids. Stinging nettle has antiproliferative, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, analgesic, anti-infectious, hypotensive, and antiulcer characteristics, as well as the ability to prevent cardiovascular disease, in all parts of the plant (leaves, stems, roots, and seeds). Stinging nettle improves fish reproductive performance, making it a cost-effective aquaculture plant. Fertilizer and insecticides can be made from the plants.

So maybe it's time to rethink the classic "stinging nettle".

See you all next week - get signed up - here

At long last a dry looking Tuesday, Daylight during the run out - Spring is most definitely on the way.

Croeso

To our two new runners from tonights, Charlotte and Alex. It was great to have you along for the run and the task, hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.

Two different routes tonight to mix it up as we made our way out with T's emblazoned with the goodgym for all to see, a good temperature = crew on brand! Cwtch together is a great regular run for us now, and we always enjoy helping out there - it's been so wonderful to see it develop over the years. You can see what they are about here

Tonight was all about the prep for Spring, as the nicer weather looms ever nearer, the children and young people will want to run around the outside areas even more. So, to action........

• Remove the weeds at the bottom of all the fencing
• Reattach a board to the bottom of the front gate
• Clear up the leaves from the side of the building
• Lay two bags of white pebbles at the bottom of the fence (look for the gaps)
• Mow some of the lawn......

Mow the lawn at night?

Yes, you did read correctly. Thankfully we have the ever trusted Bat Lights....No to be confused with the Bat Signal.

With no time to spare, everyone got busy, let's see how much we can get done. Michael even joined in tonight tackling the mowing duties as much as possible. 30 minutes went by before we knew it, and we had managed most of the list, with some of the lawn still to do. We had saved time with the grass by mowing without a grass catcher on the back - and letting the clippings remain on the garden for those wonderful worms that we learnt about in a previous report.

https://www.goodgym.org/reports/u-leaf-t-me-up

Learning Time

• Grass clippings contain 4% nitrogen, 2% potassium, and 1% phosphorus along with small amounts of other plant nutrients.
• When decomposed, grass clippings also serve as a food source for microbial life in the soil - including our friendly worms.

Thanks All, see you again, same time next week.