A chip on the old block (of flats)

In a fitting tribute to Kim’s impressive exploits at Sunday’s Windermere Marathon, this week saw GoodGym Lewisham tackle our own long run! For the first time we’d be running around 4km to the PNK Garden, right on the border between us and our neighboring Borough of Southwark.

With everyone kindly arriving a little bit early, enabling a timely departure from Glass Mills, we had only a few moments to welcome along Rawan for her very first GoodGym run before we were off. With typical Lewisham efficiency, the finer points of an introduction were covered off on the move as we headed to and through Deptford before arriving to be greeted by Lara.

Lara instigated the PNK Garden project early in the pandemic as a way of clearing the waste ground adjacent to Lower Road and directly in front of her flat. Now nearly 2 years later, the space has been transformed beyond recognition to a wide open area with scope for planting and use by the local community.

Our initial group of 12 divided in two to tackle tasks at either ends of the garden; 7 to begin weeding the southern (Lewisham) end whilst 5 prepared new planting beds in the northern (Southwark) end.

Just as a brief rain shower swept in, our spirits and numbers were lifted as the southern group were bolstered by two Victorias; one from Lewisham and one from Greenwich! Meanwhile the northern group were one bed down, duly filled with staged layers of sand and earth, and were motoring through lining bed two.

With the south now looking clear, it was time to start covering the new space won back from nature with woodchip to keep future weeds at bay.

Sadly with a long run comes reduced working time and before we knew it we were tidying away gloves and tools and readying ourselves for group photos, perched around the pallets neatly stacked early by Alison and Rawan. After a quick thank you to Lara for hosting us, and a promise to return for future tasking, the group headed back across the border into Lewisham and started the long journey back to Glass Mills.

Next up: our monthly social at Lewisham Lanes – see you there!