The sow must go on

Who’d have thought it: another damp night for doing good.

Still, that didn’t deter tonight’s sturdy group of GoodGymers, all keen to head to Bow’s GET OUT garden to help Kieran and Frankie get some garlic into the ground.

But first, the fitness…

Helen, Martin and Rohan all joined tonight’s sweat squat at the bottom of Harley Grove. Confined largely to balance, standing abs and lower body moves (due to damp surfaces), the team proved truly robust when it came to rotating endless lunge and squat variations.

After a couple of laps of the square, we finished with a few final moves, said hello to John, and made our way around to the garden where tonight we were… planting garlic!

Why were we here?

Background to tonight’s visit

GET OUT is a local charity that ‘connects young people and children from disadvantaged areas to nature through surfing and related projects.’ The GET OUT garden in Bow is a community garden and food forest project that acts as a hub for both education and connecting the wider community to nature.

GoodGymers from both Newham and Tower Hamlets Areas visit once a month to assist task owners Kieran and Frankie with larger gardening tasks.

And so to the task...

Tonight we were helping to weed and distribute fresh soil and compost over a new planting bed, before planting three rows of garlic (garlic helps to fertilise soil, as well as being a useful, healthy cooking ingredient).

To start with, John, Johnny and Frankie headed to the polytunnel to fill wheelbarrows with compost, while Rohan, Vlad and Martin started on weeding and raking. Helen headed to the table area to separate many cloves from many garlic bulbs, while I took some pics and Kieran remained on project management.

It wasn’t long before the whole team was gathering for the planting finale, with Vlad and I tasked with positioning the tape to establish a straight line (the team decided unanimously that Vlad’s line was infinitely straighter than mine), with the rest of the team using dibbers to get those cloves 2.5 inches into the ground (no more no less).

We nearly did it by 8pm…Not quite, but not too bad going.

The drizzle didn’t let up, but neither did our spirits. Buoyed on by new gardening techniques and a bit of banter, it was another Monday night to cheer the soul.

Until next time.