It's Fun to Weed at the YMCA

On another gloriously sunny Barnsley evening we gathered for the run up to the YMCA allotment. We were met by other YMCA volunteers who were already busy on site by the time we got there.

After some introductions and chats about what the allotment was all about, who used it, and plans for the future of it post pandemic, we were informed about the work we were to carry out. We were shown inside the container where all of the tools were kept and we picked up a roll of green bin bags, some trowls (including a frog trowl; spot it in the pictures), forks of all varieties (a duck fork, hand forks, long forks etc) and some trugs... 'the darling trugs of May(June)'. We were then shown the tasks we were to undertake; weeding the paths (which were looking more like flower beds) and weeding the beds. Some of the weeds were deeply rooted and took serious digging effort to get out, but we forked them up! 6 bags of unwanted invasive plants were bagged up for disposal. After all the work was done, we were treated to some fruits for our labours; delicious cherries and strawberries, picked fresh. Feeling refreshed from the fruity sugar boost we tidied our tools away and locked up the container as the other volunteers had already left, before starting our run back.

On our return run we did interval sprints between lamposts on the pavement. We sprinted from one to the next and then slowly jogged to the next post, before sprinting again. This really got the heart rate up.

Arriving back near GlassHouse, we used the nearby pocket park to stretch off and have a chat about upcoming activities.