A few goodgym members decided to do some litter picking in their local areas could be a local Park or Street at a time of their convenience during April. Quite often this is well received by local people and has a knock on positive effect. Let’s look to do it again in May!

Paul said

My contribution this month was on Blackheath where I picked litter from one of the larger fields bounded on each side by roads - a couple of bags worth of take away detritus was picked from the verges. I had a couple of chats with passers by about GoodGym

Me, Linda and Angela joined the Friends of Cator Park to de-weed the tiny forest, which is so important to make sure the trees have the best chance of surviving! It was a lovely evening and the weather was perfect!

Once we’d figured out how to follow a tricky Step 1 in the instruction booklet, Mark and I worked as speedily as possible to assemble Mr P’s spacious sideboard. As flat pack challenges go, this was pretty straightforward – although more than once, we had a ‘two heads are better than one’ moment as we concentrated on completing the many steps without making mistakes. Mr P chatted to us as we tackled the task and it was a pleasure to hear the excitement in his voice as his new piece of furniture took shape.

After an hour-and-a-half, we had the framework standing solidly on its legs and had mastered the drawer-construction technique. Another GoodGym visit will be needed to finish off the six drawers and add handles, then job done!

Linda and Nick met the Friends of Alexandra recreation ground for a spot of weeding. The challenge was to clear the weeds around the plant bed ready for some new flowers to be added for the upcoming Penge in bloom competition. After the weeding was complete we threw down a couple of barrows of mulch to keep the weeds at bay. A job well done ✅

At risk of having a George Ezra melody stuck in my head for the rest of today… this was a mission all about grass. Chopping grass, raking grass, mowing grass, pulling clumps of grass clippings from the clogged mower, then mowing and raking some more. Ms G’s back lawn was overdue some attention and the height of the grass, combined with damp weather, meant the job was difficult to do in just one stage – first the area needed to be trimmed with shears and the clippings moved out of the way, giving a more manageable length for the mower. Ms G was pleased that her green space looked much tidier afterwards and more inviting – ready for when the sun shines!

A small but mighty group of GoodGymers gathered to tackle the remaining woodchip at the Tiny Forest. Part of the group even gathered at a new start point and then met Linda at the Tiny Forest with all the tools.

The main task for the evening was to make the area around the benches look more inviting. We pulled up the weeds that we could and cut back the grass and any other weeds then covered them in a big layer of mulch to hopefully stop the weeds coming back through.

Hopefully the space will be more inviting for people walking through Ladywell Fields so they can sit and admire the growing saplings!

On Monday, we're heading to Catford to continue flyering for Coco Collective Community Garden.