That prick, Brambles!

Rushing from a litter pick around Kennington, but arriving still ten minutes before the start of this session, Sam was surprised to see Kaz waiting inside the "Walled" garden. He still is adjusting his running pace as he ran from Clapham. Yet, I guess it's best to be early than late as Simon kindly reminded us at the end of the session.

We had a couple of newbies to "Thorlands", Emma cycled all the way from Rotherhithe to see what the hype was all about after reading about our weekly sessions in the "Oh My Goodness" weekly emails from Sam. Tilly brought her cousin, Lucy along as she done a parkrun, her regular shopping mission in Clapham and had brunch with her aunt and cousin, who convinced her to tag along for this session! Great to have you both and thank you for tackling the bindweed and brambles, respectively.

We were back in the "Forest" garden to continue with the over-arching vision of turning this "Forest" garden into a space for residents and locals to enjoy. Our teams were split as:

Kaz and Lindy had to save 60 samplings bunched up in 6 spots as well as a young hazel tree and a weed-looking like plant before they could churn over the soil and take out the roots. They worked so hard that Kaz didn't know how much strength he had that he split his pitch-fork in half 😲 yet, this didn't stop him as he just took another fork as well as the mattock to find those roots.

Emma and Lucie took care of the bindweed either side of the fence and discarded them in a bin liner as bindweed come back with a vengeance. Once they were done there, they split up and Emma was delighted to saw some wood whilst Lucie with her tough gloves tackled the bramble roots.

This was where Tilly started, but her gloves weren't as tough as Lucie's, so she moved to try out some sawing until all the wood was done and her final task was to clear out the moss on the terrace tarmac as we start to prep this area. Lucy started with chopping and shaping the buddleia tree to look like the buddleia tree by the "Kitchen" garden and after some delicate pruning, she came to the bramble bashing team as it was all hands on deck to get those bramble roots out!

Finally, Lucy arrived slightly late, but that didn't diminish her contribution as she joined the bramble and composting team - ensuring that the right plants were composted in the right heap. Brambles in the white tonne bag, bindweed in the bin liner and all the rest on the compost heap.

We ended the session earlier as Simon noted that we needed to clean the tools after using them to ensure they last longer and thus, the final 10 minutes are dedicated for that.

Simon won't be around next Saturday, but Ruth and Bridget will hold the fort whilst we continue to tackle the brambles, roots and moss in the "Forest" garden. If the compost heap has mulched down, we can start putting down another layer of cupboard and mulch.