Welcome to Victor for your first GoodGym session! 👏

After clearing the space 2 weeks ago, we now needed to remove the old rotting raised beds to install new ones, allowing the school to use the space as an educational growing area.

Some wooden beds were very rotten and came apart easily, with Ben and Victor carrying the pieces to the waste disposal area a short walk away. Others were less rotten, making the pieces heavy and took a while to saw in half!

Fanette and Hazel saved the strawberries for future use, while the mattock, hammer, and saw got a good workout to pull apart the old beds.

As we were dismantling, Peter from the school started piecing together the pre-cut pieces to produce 1.2 m x 2.4 m beds. With fingers crossed the drill batteries would hold and a spirit level, the beds were made, stabilisers were used to stop bowing, and waterproof sheeting used to try and reduce the speed of the beds rotting down.

With as many shovels as we could fine and lots of elbow grease, we managed to build and fill 2 new raises beds, in the 2 h session, with all the deadwood taken for disposal - the wheelbarrow flat tyre didn't hold up for this and meant we only got a small layer of fresh top soil too.

Top effort to get it done this evening! 💪 Certainly earned some food and the water/biscuits after a heavy workout.

Ben joined the Withington Civic Society for a community litterpick in Withington village. Upwards of 10-15 refuse sacks of rubbish were collected with lots of takeaway trash discarded by passing drivers.

Several councillors in attendance locally. Others were involved in bits of weeding and gardening in the nearby beds.

Likely another litter pick in July.

Ben was Run Director this morning for event number 296.

Well done to all 542 finishers this morning!! Thank you for your patience with the extended finish funnel. Welcome to the 101 first timers at Fletcher Moss including 30 completing their first ever parkrun 👏

🦺 Special THANK YOU to the 19 hi-vis heroes helping out today, especially to Ian and Jackie who helped out post-run with barcode scanning and funnel managing, respectively, as the queues were growing. Kudos to those trying out new roles and stepping up for their first volunteer credit this morning too 👏

Five GoodGymers—Hazel, Laura, Mandy, Molly, and Ben—joined forces with the ever-friendly locals of Edgeley to support What If’s Tuesday Night Club, kicking off the mission to transform a humble parking area into a thriving green food park in just six months!

This session was full-on graft mode. The team tackled all sorts of maintenance jobs: sweeping, filling the compost pit, watering, picking up twigs and logs, assembling the raised bed, weeding, and even adding chalk spray markings to the tarmac (because every great garden needs a good road map).

But it wasn’t just about getting our hands dirty—brains were engaged too. Jade, the gardening expert brought in by What If to lead the six-month transformation, treated everyone to a mini masterclass on Hugelkultur. The word may sound like a spell from Harry Potter, but it’s actually German for “mound culture”—a permaculture technique that involves building raised beds filled with rotting wood, logs, and organic matter. Translation: a low-cost, low-watering, high-impact way to grow good food. Clever stuff.

Everyone put in a huge effort, with special shout-out to Ben, who showed up and grafted on despite not feeling great. Proof that sometimes the biggest wins aren’t about being perfect—they’re about turning up, doing what you can, and collecting strength through small, meaningful actions. Compost piles were filled, knowledge was shared, and commitment was well and truly planted. 🌱💪