Blowing up the weeds in Maryon Park

Outdoor missions are back! And there was no better place to start than Maryon Park Community Garden in Charlton, where for the past nine years Tim and Edna have transformed a disused council plant nursery into a place to grow food, flowers and to enjoy getting in touch with nature.

Film buffs may know Maryon Park, just by the Thames Barrier, as the location for the cult 1960s thriller Blow-Up - there were no bodies to discover today, thankfully, but there were plenty of worms.

We first talked about working in Maryon Park over a year ago - now finally our top trio of Darryl, Jenny and Laura (on her 102nd good deed in less than a year!) could set foot inside the garden and get to work.

Jenny worked on weeding a huge plant bed, while Laura and Darryl got to grips with lowering a bed so small children could use it and grow their own plants. It was the first time any group of volunteers had been able to work in the garden since the pandemic began - hopefully there’ll be many more to come.

Jobs done, there were drinks, biscuits and hot cross buns - what better way to spend a Saturday morning over Easter? It was great to make our debut in the Maryon Park garden - we’ll be back...