Man-ure So Rootiful

12 cheeky monkeys ran 9k to Easton Community Garden to shift bags of compost and prepare the ground for spring.

It really did feel like spring at last today; gloriously sunny but not too warm. What better place for us to mark the occasion than by running to one of our very favourite places - Easton Community Garden.

Matt, Will and Alice had already done parkrun at Ashton Court, with Alice and Will taking the opportunity to make this a long run Saturday, completing 20 miles and nearly 17 miles respectively. Awesome sauce!

There were no newcomers today (a rarity these days) but it was great to welcome back Kate and Dom for their second GG runs.

Matt kindly agreed to lead us along the Bristol Bath Railway Path this morning, allowing me a more cosy ride at the back of the pack and guided us safely to the garden where we were met by our fabulous host, Garvin, who explained what needed doing.

Easton Community Garden is open to anyone who would like to grow vegetables, fruit and herbs in a beautiful, quiet corner of Easton / Whitehall in Bristol. They encourage wildlife and use natural growing methods. They meet to work on the garden every Thursday throughout the year, with no membership, no cost and you don’t have to commit to anything, just come when you can. At the end of the day they share out whatever harvest is ready to take home.

Today was all about preparing the garden for much of the growing work ahead. Splitting into two groups, one group of Will, Alice, David, Jack, Paul, Deb and Dom were given the job of moving bags of manure compost which had been delivered to the roadside that morning (how fortunate for our muck luvvers!) to one of the compost bins on the site.

The other group of Maddy, Kate, Nik and Matt (with a little help from yours truly) were asked to dig up and remove old shrubs, plants and small trees (some deep rooted so and sos in there!) in one corner of the garden to clear the area for fresh planting. In Nik's case this actually involved more of an excavation of rock and bricks rather than plant life!

Having smashed the compost task, the first team took a break for tea and biscuits before relieving the gardeners for their own tea break. Continuing the good work of the second group, an additional task of planting a couple of metal poles was polished off by Jack, Dom and Alice.

In the week of Richard Osman's great biscuit debate on Twitter, it appeared that out of a choice between Ginger Nuts, Fig Rolls and Digestive biscuits that the winner was Ginger Nuts with the Fig Rolls coming in second - I confess that I might have rather tipped the balance in favour of the Ginger Nut!

Garvin, delighted with the work that we had managed to get through (it never fails to amaze me what the group can get through in an hour), sent us on our merry way, again enjoying each other's company and the sunshine as we headed back to base for stretches and food.

Thanks to Matt for leading today, and to Deb for the running action shot and thank you all for coming - you did great work today.

Oh! And check out Team Red on Air Guitar in the photos!

See you again soon!

Dave