Auto Mattock for the People

Despite the looming dark clouds overhead, 8 Goodgymmers from across all different London boroughs came together to join the Friends of Thornhill Square Gardens with their on-going garden renovation project.

This lovely little community garden space is one of the largest public squares of its kind in London, and has been maintained almost entirely by regular volunteers. Their cultivated flower beds have been very popular with the local wildlife (full of bees and small birds), while the green space itself was full of families, working folk on their commute home and very excitable dogs!

We met with Anna, the chief volunteer for the gardens, and we set a series of tasks for the evening. Jamie and Tom grabbed a wheel barrow, and set about distributing soil onto various flower beds. Steve and Emily battled with unrooting some stubborn dead sycamore trees using a mix of garden forks and mattocks. John, Andrew and Marie Laure helped with weeding and clearing away excess greenery from the surrounding pavements and brickwork. Area Activator Simon helped by adding old branches to a dead-hedging section of the park, separated to protect a bed of bulbs and shoots.

We pitched in almost an entire hour of hard work, and could see a noticeable difference within this time. The plus side was that we were even able to avoid the rain! Well done everyone!