GoodGym Ealing made their first visit to Grange School, where a brood of ducks had a dream to turn their long dry pond bed into a beautiful wetland centre.

"We pay to send our ducklings to a wetland centre in Barnes."
"Why not create a wetland centre at the school?" - Nova, task owner

Standing in front of the deep pit that would become a pond, the GoodGymers and Nova took a gander at it to plan out the session. The hole was bigger than needed, so first up was to waddle in and clear any debris from the bottom then split the space. Vegetation, soil and rubbish were dug out and separated, with a surprising number of tennis balls found as ducks don't play tennis 🤷.

It was Zuzanna's first task with GoodGym and she took to it like a duck to water 🦆🥳👏. She found huge interest in a number of unexpected invertebrates hiding in the pit that the school of ducks hadn't eaten yet, including centipedes, worms and furry caterpillars 🐛.

Once the clearing of the pit was completed, a large new flock arrived, complete with their ducklings who attended the school. They preened the soil surrounding the future pond to remove weeds and grasses that weren't wanted. The GoodGym team moved on to organising pots and a stack of tyres, then raked and bagged leaves, with frequent flights to the far away compost heap to make drop offs.

A new liner was laid for the now smaller pond and the team dove into the empty space next to it to fill it with soil. The old soil that had been dug out went back in as well as fresh bags. Then, to round out the task, everyone jumped on the newly laid soil to bed it in.

The space was transformed in 2 hours and it was great to have so many drakes and ducks come along to make it happen. There is plenty more to do in future sessions, like completing the soil infill and then getting water into the pond liner, so keep an eye out for new listings.