How many GoodGymers does it take to construct the frame to a greenhouse? 5 apparently as Julia, Peter, Fanette, Ben, and Sanjeev went along to Eden Gardens Orchard in Philips Park to help out. A new task and location for us!

Really nice community orchard, with lots of espaliar apple trees growing, plus beds of corn 🌽 poppies, strawberries 🍓 raspberries, flower beds plus a few sheds and a polytunnel. They have regular sessions during the week and Saturday morning, not just for volunteers but also as a place to relax, read, or just spend some time there.

Recently, they needed to take down a makeshift greenhouse and wanted to replace it with a new model. This is where we came in, with limited IKEA flat pack skills and basic instructions.

It was trial and error for much of it, trying to piece bits together, match up the numbers, and work out which way bits went. While the front and back skeleton was made, after some minor adjustments and tightening of screws, the side pieces were constructed. The frame along with the roof and other bits can wait for when building in-place once the area is cleared. We'll be back later in the month to do some of this.

Good building session with some false starts and spilled bolts 🔩 giving us the runaround!

Fanette and Ben went along to help out the community orchard team at Heaton Park. The area has only recently been tended to after being left fallow since covid. As a result, brambles, nettles, and balsam had taken over while the apple 🍎 and other fruit trees continued to grow.

With sturdy gloves and a collection of tools, we put in a good 1.5 hours of hard graft, removing sizeable areas of balsam, nettles, and other weeds from around the fruit trees and pathways, every now and again jumping up and down on the balsam to give it a good bashing.

While difficult to find (both of us stumbled upon the apiary or bee 🐝 houses nearby on the way in), the spot is looking to get back to full use, with Rebecca (the task leader) aiming to have Heaton Park cider available in the coming years.

Tough but satisfying task. We'll be back balsam bashing in other parts of Heaton Park later this month.

Another gardening session for Mr S. With the warm weather, everything had grown so it took a solid 90 minutes of weeding to get back to ship shape.

Brambles were removed, weeds were dug out, and grass was mowed down to give the front garden a thorough refresh.

More brambles were chopped out, while leaving those growing tasty blackberries, and more nettles were ripped out. Roots were dug out where possible and a thorough weeding of the patio was carried out.

Mr S was kind enough to provide a coffee and a chocolate bar for sustenance. Very thankful for that. Likely back regularly to keep on top of things over the warmer summer months.

Good turnout this morning, with 467 participants at event number 304 at Fletcher Moss parkrun. 97 completing their first parkrun here, with 16 completing their first ever parkrun 👏

Hazel, Laura, and Ben joined 19 others to volunteer for the event. Hazel marshalled at point 7 to keep runners on track to the finish. Laura was on hand with Flo for handing out finish tokens at the extended finish funnel. Ben ran the show as RD with thankfully no incidents or problems with the results, so plain sailing.

Great to have sign language support for the briefings (even with a temperamental speaker...) and lots of parkwalkers!