Who Gardens Hugel Gardens?:

Last night, 11 Goodgym folk from all across the Islington, Camden and Hackney boroughs braved the rain to come and help at Market Road Gardens near Caledonian Park. Area Activator Simon was on hand with keys to this Heyward Adventure Playground doors and access to the gorgeous former milkfloat, converted into a makeshift tool shed for Octopus Community Network!

This current project is part of a 4 week plan to create a hugel garden bed at the back of the playground (a composting site that utilising the dropped leaves, plants and leaves from the gardens, to produce fresh fertilizer for later in the year). Half of our team picked up brooms and shovels to gather up as much green waste as possible from the entrance and vehicular access points to contribute to the composting pile. Two of our crew also took on litter picking duty to root our all of the scrap that had blown into the lovely wild garden.

The rest of our group picked up the rest of the shovels, forks and a wheel barrow in order to clear out an old compost bay (the last bit of one of our previous GG tasks here). After warming up with some upper body exercise, the next task was to then start moving a large mound of donated woodchip into the compost bay, and off the path typically used for school buses and minibuses (school groups frequently visit the adventure playground, which is wonderful to hear this is starting again!).

Considering we had only just started this mini-task project, our Goodgym crew had made great progress over the course of an hour. Super satisfying to see a plan come together. Well done all!