I joined Madeline and some regular volunteers 6 of us in total for their monthly gardening session at The Oasis community Garden in Herbert road. This lovely little garden for the community is run by volunteers and funding they have received, to try make the garden nicer for the local area.

It was my first time here and I'm not the most confident with gardening one of the volunteers it was her first time also and she works as a gardener she paired up with me to show me how to plant daffodil bulbs using a fiskars tool to help dig out holes for the bulbs, I never even knew what this was. We had to clear some of the weeds and litter from surrounding areas first, the area where we worked on would become a wild garden we had some wild flower seeds to sprinkle also. We didn't get round to planting the tulip bulbs.

After the session got under way I got a bit more confident with what I was doing and even used one of electric cutting machines to try and break up some of the harder pieces of mud. This was a really good session I gained bit more knowledge of planting and getting to know different plants but it also pushed me out my comfort zone.

The session runs every third Saturday of the month there is always plenty to do but if you don't fancy the gardening side of things there is always litter picking as this corner gets lot of litter, there is something for everyone 😊

It’s that time of year again to get our bulbs in the ground and prepare for a blooming brilliant spring! Most of today’s task involved planting Narcissus ‘Paperwhite’ bulbs. Three GoodGymers — Aidyn, Cici and Cathy — joined the fun to plant along the long border.

Thankfully, the soil was nice and soft, making it easier to dig the six-inch-deep holes needed for our bulbs. Alongside the planting, we also squeezed in a bit of general garden maintenance.

There was an extra ray of sunshine in the session, too! I was wearing yellow, and blended right in with the Helianthus — practically becoming sunflower myself! Haha! Talk about being ray-diant! 😄

Overall, GoodGym, good company and another blooming lovely day. Oh, happy daze! 🌼 Dreaming of spring blooms, we’re already looking forward to seeing our hard work blossom. Every bulb planted is helping create a greener, more colourful garden for spring.

Hopefully, more of you can join us at our next sessions! Until then, see yah!

Cecilia D🍀/Cici

Charlton House and Gardens welcomed a mighty team of two yesterday, as a last-minute volunteer pairing, whose name is Šana, arrived ready to bring some help from Newham.

Šana and I could be found chatting, drinking tea, taking photos of each other and generally creating the impression that we'd signed up for a content creation mission rather than a gardening one.

Behind the scenes, however, some surprisingly productive work was taking place.

Equipped with a shiny wheelbarrow and pair of garden shears, Šana went off to tackle the overgrown bushes surrounding the open space garden, filling an entire wheelbarrow or two with cut thickets and staying longer than Aidyn on that day! Aidyn was somehow teamed up with a couple of local CABAHS volunteers headed into the wilderness area armed with a trowels and a bag of 500 bulbs! Battling thick and wet grass and stubborn ground, we managed to plant staggering half of that never-ending bag!

Meanwhile, the mountain of greenery removed by my teammate, Šana, helped tidy up those bushes!

The photographic evidence may suggest we spent the afternoon posing dramatically and documenting our every move, but the final tally tells a different story:

🌷 c 200-250 bulbs planted in the wilderness area in conjunction with CABAHS team! 🌿 One wheelbarrow packed full of cut thickets removed 📸 Countless photos taken for "proof" ☕ Cups of tea and plenty of banter consumed

A successful afternoon at Charlton House and Gardens proving that, with enough determination, it's possible to be both productive volunteers and photo queens at the same time (proven before countless times)!

Well what a night, and what a pun! All credit to Ivar of course, who struck GOLD with that one and set off a tirade of puns in the whatsapp group.

Some walked and some ran to the task - with two simultaneous ice breakers, the best of which being "what's one thing you hated as a child that you now love?"

On arrival we split into teams - an indoor and an outdoor group. The innies were putting back up some gilded ceiling panels, the golden evidence of which is still on Mark's face apparently - what a great way to evidence who did the real work in that group 🤓

Meanwhile the outies pottered around the community garden, watering the beds, weeding and chatting. And Rubaina gallantly rescued me from a spider - especially glad you came back Rubaina and you can be paired with me for all future bug related tasks, thanks very much 🙋‍♀️

But last night was more tour that task and hey what a great way to spend a Wednesday evening than looking through the stores at the Prince Philip Maritime Museum. We checked out lots of paintings of shipwrecks and battles and portraits of lots of middle aged white men, and one woman who looked a bit taken aback to still be there. It was cool to get a peak inside and hear about some of the paintings - it's been a while since we've been in and we've had lots of new friends join us since then!

Time came to head off and then Aidyn caused some drama almost getting himself locked in (we almost did but we wouldn't have actually forgotten you, Aidyn.)

Great to see you all as always!

Coming up

There's loads going on this weekend in addition to the parkruns so come and join a session if you have some time!

Saturday:

• https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/spring-bulb-planting-and-mulching

• https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/gardening-at-hervey-road-community-garden-1ed22d2f-d7a0-489e-8a74-da9f3d7430db

• https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/remove-fence-in-sutcliffe-park

Sunday:

• https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/helping-at-the-cabahs-plant-sale-e89cf473-6588-423d-85cf-691658b18405

• https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/clean-up-charlton-10ce0687-9b2d-408e-b009-96e6222da227

Next Wednesday we've got a Charlton House start and a run to Charlton Manor Primary School: https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/gardening-at-charlton-manor-primary-school-e46f1ec7-a47c-4ac6-bf6f-fb36414e9c9c

Until next time!

Rachel

The fact Ivar’s legs look like they’ve been repeatedly mugged by a hedge is proof that shorts weren’t necessarily the best attire for this task.

Ivar, Cat and Kenny showed up to a very autumnal Oxleas Woods, and joined the Friends of Oxleas Woodlands to tackle some unruly brambles and trim back sycamore trees. The brambles, however, had clearly taken offence to our presence and were determined to leave their mark. Our trusted gardening gloves weren’t really up for the task.

Halfway through, we finally got our hands on some heavy-duty gloves, making the battle slightly less one-sided.

The park is looking tidier, the trees are happier, and someone has learned that long trousers are not to be feared!

It was my first time joining the volunteers and seeing Charlton House & Gardens, everyone was very welcoming and asked what task I'd prefer to do.

We split into two groups with Aidyn joining the bulb team and me and few others cutting back ready for the next lot of bulbs to go in on the other side.

Time went very fast and it was already 11am tea break, we had already got quite alot of work done "Many hands make light work as they say" We was joined for our tea break by the resident cat Casper. We returned to finish tidying up for the last half hour, it was a really good session.