Lightbulb Moment

8 GoodGymers met in South Acton to transform flower beds as part of the Acton Flower Show. Alex arrived first at Culivate's site to unlock the door to the treasure trove of plants and equipment that would be used to transform the beds. Others arrived soon after with Emily and Cam walking, Kash, Harvey and Sevan running from Bodyline, then Lionel and Divya arriving by bike.

Two wheelbarrows were loaded with bulbs including lots of hyacinths, a selection of hole making tools and a litter picker. Once loaded, Harvey lead the way to the flower beds as this was his second visit to the site, so he knew where to take us. We soon arrived at our destination, 6 flower beds in a pedestrian walkway with residential South Acton at one end and industrial South Acton at the other.

The budding garden designers split into 2 groups, vying for top prize in the Most Beautify Hyacinth Display contest. Team Classicist went for a geometric approach, not able to deal with the disorder of planting bulbs randomly they planted in rows. Team Renegade on the other hand went for a random, scattergun approach, embracing the chaos that exists in nature which isn't planned or designed.

Each team had 45 minutes to design and plant their gardens. Overseeing both teams, Kash made sure there wasn't any funny business going on. The rivalry was mostly fair, other than a few bulbs being sneakily offloaded into the other team's pile, giving them extra work to do.

During this time, Sevan hadn't been granted membership of either team, so he busied himself with other tasks like litter picking (mostly cigarette butts) and hammering the Cultivate stake into the ground to advertise their involvement at the flower beds.

The planting finished just as the darkness was descending. With the last bulb put into the soil, the portable lights came out. They weren't needed to shed light onto the GoodGymers' work but they were perfect for setting up and taking the group photo.

Judging will happen in 3 months time, when we'll know if chaos or order has won the day and will take home the winner's medal.