Tree-mendous sapling planting, and a mulch happier older tree! 🌳

Four goodgymers met the Friends of Furnivall Gardens this morning - we all commented on how fortunate we had been with the weather today (which makes a change from recent weather at these monthly sessions!) Welcome to Uliana who joined us for her first goodgym group task.

There were two jobs:

1. Moving a sapling, which had been planted in the middle of a nice patch of green space, closer to the river

2. Scarifying and mulching around the base of one of the older trees

We split into 2 teams, with Uliana and Beth taking on the more manual task of digging the sapling up whilst Clare & Laura began scarifying.

Team sapling came up against many obstacles as they dug, finding bricks, an old milk bottle and some chunks of lead around the tree. Many passers by (including the 4-legged variety 🐶) stopped by to check out our handiwork and have a chat with us. Under the direction of Jane, we made good progress digging out the sapling. The real challenge was getting the supporting posts out of the ground, as these were set much deeper.

Over in the middle of the gardens, Clare and Laura first took off the top layer of turf surrounding the tree. Clare bode us farewell after some excellent scarifying work, so Laura took on the role of chief shoveler, filling the wheelbarrow with mulch to spread around the tree's base.

As Uliana and Beth were digging, they were approached by a passer by who inquired about the weekly goodgym group runs in Hammersmith and Fulham. This lovely passer by was in fact Elizabeth, a pre-pandemic H&F goodgymer. And, what an absolute hero - Elizabeth had a little time to spare before meeting some friends, so rolled up her sleeves and got stuck in! 👏

With the enthusiasm brought by Elizabeth, we managed to dig out a new hole for the sapling, and free the supporting posts from the sapling's original spot. A couple of planting attempts and a wide variety of tools were required to get it settled into its new home, but we did it!

We grabbed a quick group photo before Elizabeth and Uliana headed off, then Beth lent Laura a hand to finish mulching the tree. Excellent job this morning everyone! That's two very physical tasks completed - no doubt we will all be a little achy tomorrow. We will be back at Furnivall gardens the same time next month (the first Saturday, sign up here). Hopefully see you all again soon!