The seeds of change

Last night marked the start of something wonderful - the first session at our own GoodGym Wandsworth garden!

We have officially been given the fabulous opportunity to take over a big area around the back of the Omnibus theatre in Clapham. This brilliant place runs as a charity, but simply doesn't have the resources to be able to maintain a huge raised bed on their property. They have given us the chance to take it over. What's more is that they have a program giving meals to disadvantaged children and teaching them about food in the holidays, so the plan is that we will grow produce to donate to them.

So, after a quick warm up where we discussed what we'd like to see grown, with answers including the highly controversial tomato and cucumber, onions, sweetpeas, rhubarb and more, we were eager to set off and get started.

A short run in the drizzle later and we found ourselves facing the challenge in hand. It's a large area which hasn't seen much love in recent months, but after removing the tarpaulin we discovered lots of good soil and plenty of worms - which apparently is a great sign.

After digging, weeding and tidying up, we made some decisions about what we'd like our garden to stand for. We would love to hear any more ideas or goals that you'd like to see. So far we have agreed we aim for a garden which:

• is inclusive - everybody is welcome

• supports the local community and good causes. We hope to grow plants and vegetables which we can donate to the theatre and other local organisations

• is organic and creates better biodiversity - no nasty chemicals here!

• is a beautiful, safe, calm and welcoming space for everybody to spend time

If you're keen to get involved in our next session when I hope we can get some planting done, then sign up for this Sunday right here.

I've set up a whatsapp group to discuss ideas, list sessions and talk all things garden, if you'd like to join then use this link:

‎Open this link to join my WhatsApp Group: https://chat.whatsapp.com/F6O9FMB0tHMCNBom2YrNxJ

We finished off a great first session with some fitness which saw us smash six hard minutes of circuits -great effort everybody.

I can't wait to see what we can achieve at our garden. We've taken the inaugural before photos, so watch this space to see how things change and develop over time. I think we're at the start of something brilliant!