The Real Jungle Gym

Two GoodGymers come today for a regular Sunday volunteering session at Bixley Field Allotments: Steph Ducat ran from the West, and Kash from the East. After a combination of rainy and sunny weather 🌦️, the volunteers found the community allotments transformed yet again! The weeds have taken over the place!

Today we will be tackling the jungle, said Mani

But first, refreshments (water) had to be served to the plants that hadn't had access to the rain like the weeds did: the tomatoes in the polytunnel. Steph and Kash took the green and pink watering cans, filled them with rainwater from the allotment tank and watered the thirsty plants. They held to their watering cans a little longer and filled with water the tiny allotment pond that seemed to be drying out.

The next task was to reclaim the allotment land taken by grass and pigweed. One of the vegetable patches sadly hadn't produced any crops, and only an abundance of weeds had grown on it. Only hardcore weeding techniques were applicable at this stage, so ploughs and mattocks were in operation ⛏️. It was hard work under the hot sun that finally returned to London, giving Steph and Kash a chance to catch some tan this afternoon.

After Kash had left earlier, Steph had one more task: taking weeds out of the corn plot 🌽. The corn that had been planted by Madhan and Kash a month ago has grown a lot - but so did the weeds. GoodGym made sure that only the authorised plants were growing on their allocated patches!

The last part of the session was, traditionally, the harvest 🧺 and the group photo. Steph posed next to the regular volunteers Shaz and Julia, with an apple on the top of his head. 🍎 He must have been recreating The Legend of William Tell in which the protagonist was forced to shoot an apple off his son's head as proof of his marksmanship. Steph has been playing William's son while Mani was taking the shot! 📸

Next Sunday afternoon we will be back to Bixley! If you don't want to miss more fruits on Steph's head and some free crops for volunteers, sign up for the task now! 😊