"I feel the need, the need for weeds."

One by one we gathered at The Soanes Centre in Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park this evening, to collect decent gloves and make a start on a new area of weeding in the park.

Why were we doing this?

The Friends of Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park is an independent charity that oversees Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park, a vital nature reserve and heritage site in Tower Hamlets. The park is 'a people’s park, a sanctuary for wildlife, a place for remembrance and a site for community events.'

With just two full time staff, volunteers are always welcome at the park!

With bundles of woodland paths and other areas to clear of weeds, GoodGymers embarked on our second visit of our Summer series clearing some of the more densely populated paths of cow parsley and goosegrass.

These particular plants are invasive, and block light; they end up being the dominant plants, to the detriment of a more diverse ground flora, and so 13 pairs of productive hands on a Monday night was much appreciated.

Mind the nettles

Well-briefed by Park Manager Ken Greenway, we jogged from The Soanes Centre to the middle of the park, where we worked in a big group, wandering right into the meadow, getting stung despite our best clothing efforts, coupled with Ken's nettle-trampling tutorial, hauling our stash down to the green waste heap, where those pesky plants eventually get shredded, turned to compost and donated to projects all over the city.

We were wading through weeds for an hour, but the time flew. Chatting, sneezing, plucking and hurling, we passed a most companionable, productive hour together.

Before we knew it, it was gone-8:15 and we were posing by the green waste heap for one last pic.

Shout-outs

• A big congratulations to Task Force member and Social-Squad-Pro Stephen, who tonight hit his 50th good deed.

• And a huge hello and welcome to Louise, who joined us for her first task tonight, making amazing progress, and expertly navigating, by bicycle, the runners back to base!

Next week, we've been asked to head to the Hollybush Estate, to help out with more shed tasks, mulch-moving aaand...gardening.

Until then.