Hoe no! I've dug up a bulb! It was rock hard to miss them

Four goodgym runners made their way to Fairwater on a fine June evening for a Community Mission at St Peters Church Community Gardens. (A community mission is a bit like a group run, but rather than meeting in town, you meet at the venue – or halfway there as Mikey found Nathan looking lost on a street corner half a mile from the church. Community missions are also great for those who can’t make Tuesdays, or those who want to bag extra good deeds because those black tops look super good.)

Ian was on hand to meet us at the gates of the church and gave us a tour of the gardens, pond, bee hives and veg patches. The gardens are not only a place where volunteers can come and hone their gardening skills, but are used to help young people on the verge of offending, to help ex service men and women with PTSD and support people back into employment (this summary doesn’t do their fantastic work justice). Ian inquired after our skill sets – he wanted gardening skills – he got a policy writer, a pharmacist and a theatre manager. “you’ll have to do” he sighed!

Having been told the origins of the Hoe (the historic day job of Dutch ladies of the night), Ben arrived, and we set about turning the soil in the veg patches and flower beds and removing and rocks and pebbles that had made their way into them. In his haste to make up for being late, Ben managed to stab through the roots of a fruit tree – after some guilt tripping, Ian assured Ben that all was fig-given.

Keen to make amends, Ben keenly set about turning over the flower beds. “watch out for the bulbs we are wanting to collect and save” Ian advised. “Like these” Ben inquired – with numerous bulbs impaled on his hoe.

As we wound down our hoe-ing. Nathan inquired after the quality of bird that they got in the garden. Ben and Lucy sniggered. But after a quick glance at his wedding band, Ian realised Nathan was actually just a nature geek and listed off the countless birds that visited the gardens – further sniggers followed at the mention of Great Tits, Blue Tits and Song Thrush.

Our work was done, the hoeing complete. We bid farewell to Ian, who was keen to have a group back in the future (maybe to help clear the pond), and set off running into the evening.