A mulch weeded run!

24 wonderful people met up at Roll for The Soul this Saturday. We had some newbies (welcome!) and a lot of oldies (metaphorically, of course), including Fraser from the Friends of Brandon Hill, who was the kind gent who provided us with our task today.

We had a little warm up, punctuated by the odd noisy bus going past, and soon started running the short distance to Brandon Hill. Although short in distance, the climb up to the top was considerable and more than one person had to have a little walk!

Once we mounted the summit, Fraser explained our various tasks; mulching, weeding and forking (well, making holes with a fork).

A swift bunch grabbed wheel barrows and a couple of people clambered in to a large trailer full of mulch, and in no time a procession of barrow pushers and rake wielders were making their way even further up the hill to a patch of garden that needed the special GoodGym touch. Quickly a bit of competition arose between the barrow pushers to see who could deliver the most mulch!

The weeders had a variety of sharp prongy things which they used to grub up all sorts of unwanted plant life, and when the mulch was delivered, they spread it over the flower bed to both nourish it and prevent further weeds from sprouting in the spring. It was one of those jobs that wasn't big and flashy but was really really important.

The forkers were down on the bowling green, aerating the rather waterlogged soil. They tried their utmost to be organised and do it in set lines, but some people (not naming any names...) kept going off piste a bit. Nonetheless, a great job was done there by only a small group of people.

Sadly the rain gods seem to have looked upon us today with a bit of disfavor and it was rather damp, however none of us got drenched, and if you kept moving, the rain was actually quite refreshing. Plus I'm sure we all got a little warm glow when Fraser told us of the passers by on Brandon Hill who thanked us for our hard work - what we did today was to make a beautiful and valuable site for all of central Bristol a little lovelier, WELL DONE!

With all our tasks done, we headed back to Roll for the Soul where coffee, veggie curry and halloumi wraps were the order of the day.