2 wheelbarrows, 2 tonnes of soil and heavenly cake

Fuelled with Damien's heavenly vegan cake, we sprinted from Coffee Is My Cup of Tea to our mission in Dalston. A local primary school and gardener want to convert a redundant strip of land alongside their school into a useful garden for children to explore nature and growing.

Talking with the gardener involved, Myra, many children at the school do not get the chance to explore green space. So this new garden, in many cases, will be the start of them exploring and becoming more confident with nature and green space. To start them off, our task was to shift 4 tonnes of soil with wheelbarrows so they could start to build planters this week.

"our task was to shift 4 tonnes of soil"

The blaze of red GoodGym t-shirts made an impressive sight through London Fields and along tree lined streets to the school. Once there, Myra armed us with shovels and 2 wheelbarrows. 2 wheelbarrows for 4 tonnes of soil! Right then, the GoodGym team had to call upon all their skills to find inventful and safe ways of carrying the soil to the strip - at least 100m away.

We worked hard for an hour, frantically shoveling, lifting and dumping. People worked in pairs, sprinting back to the soil heap with wheelbarrows and bins for more to keep the chain moving!

We kept each other entertained with new ways of carrying soil…Myra practically crawled into each recycling bin we used to recover each grain of nutrient rich soil for the garden’s new planters.

"Myra practically crawled into each recycling bin we used to recover each grain of nutrient rich soil for the garden’s new planters."

Many passers by stopped and asked us about what we were doing and why. All strolled on impressed after our explanations, so I hope we have lots more recruits next week ready for action.

After shifting nearly 2 tonnes, we said our goodbyes to Myra and bombed it back to base camp with our PB mile times in mind. Again a blaze of red hit the streets…back to more of that lovely cake!

We'll be back Myra to shift the other 2 tonnes soon, and well done Caren on your first run and fast mile!

by Ade Aboaba