Rain did not stop play for a trio of Ealing GoodGymers, who showed up at Ealing Broadway on the first Tuesday evening of December for a very short run to Walpole Park and a classic winter task: woodchipping.

Steph Ducat, Sevan and Kash made their way to the Walled Garden, where they excavated the old woodchip covering one of the paths between veg beds. They used the material as mulch and spread it on a large flower bed nearby. Clever! It wasn't their idea, to be fair, but the ranger's orders.

A couple of shovelling trips with a trolley and wheelbarrows to the other end of the park brought enough fresh woodchip to fill the whole path - that's quite a result for only three GoodGymers! In 2023, it took almost 4 times as many people to do that! What has changed? Well, primarily the location of the woodchip!

What has not changed was the wisdom of the philosopher:

Be woodchip, my friend. Empty your barrow. Be formless, shapeless, like woodchip. You put woodchip on a path, it becomes the path. You put woodchip into a barrow, it becomes the barrow. You put it in compost, it becomes the compost. Now, woodchip can nourish, or it can kill (weeds). Be wood chip, my friend.

We will be back soon to Walpole Park for more woodchip wisdom and making sure we finished the other path!