GoodGym and MIND in Camden - The Perks of Being a Wallflower

*Erysimum, or wallflower, is a genus of flowering plants in the cabbage family. *

A decidedly warm midday today as I arrived at the Castlehaven hub, looking forward to doing some gardening. Unfortunately this week it was just me as Tom and Paul couldn't make it but I had a great time getting stuck into wallflower re-potting.

There were lots of volunteers around today, with a group discussing all the big topics in the greenhouse - from climate change to capital punishment!

Nichola explained the wallflower repotting: a volunteer had sown the seeds some weeks before and they were starting to sprout. Her and I were to pick out the leggy looking wallflowers (that's a technical term!) with a dibber and put them in their own separate sections in a tray. We chatted about all sorts, in particular the relaxing, therapeutic nature of doing work like this outdoors. This kind of thing requires thoughtfulness and delicacy and I've really learnt to slow down and take care of what I'm doing on our visits to Castlehaven.

We worked away and whilst the other volunteer was much speedier than me, I managed to rehome 20 wallflowers - you can see from the photos how happy I was with that! She's going back to college to learn how to create and tend gardens in January and I have no doubt she'll be absolutely fantastic at it.

Sadly this is the last GoodGym session for MIND (at least for the time being) so I won't be back next week, although Paul and Tom often come to Castlehaven to help out without GoodGym. I'm so delighted we could help connect MIND and Castlehaven!

I bid a fond farewell to Nichola and the Castlehaven team and set off towards Camden feeling incredibly soothed by all the chats and delicate repotting work.

What a lovely morning!