First gardening session for Mr S in Stretford on a day where a home Man United game at Old Trafford meant lots of traffic (thankfully I was running) 🏃‍♂️🌱

Due to various ill health, Mr S has been unable to tackle the garden that is spacious and still brings in a lot of birds and wildlife. Lots of brambles, grass, weeds, and overgrown hedges had taken over, with the front gate barely accessible.

With sturdy gloves, a decent rake, an electric chainsaw, and an old lawnmower, I made a serious dent in the overgrown area, revealing paving slabs and giving the entry gate a new lease of life (the postie will be happier now to gain access). Lots of brambles removed, long grasses chopped to size, and the broken fence pieces removed. It was 90-120 min of chop-pull-rake-repeat but it seemed to make a big difference.

The green bin took some of the garden waste but most of it was piled up to slowly breakdown and provide a start for another area of the garden to tackle next time.

Well hydrated and managed to miss the rain showers. Likely future missions to tackle other parts of the garden. Mr S was very thankful at the end.

First GoodGym Manchester mission perhaps...(?) Ran out to Wythenshawe after a long day in work to mow the lawn and aggressively weed the garden for Ms K.

With a good lawn mower, patio knife, rake, and a sturdy pair of gloves, the grass was swiftly clipped to size, sticky weed was removed, and the endless brambles were ripped out by their roots to leave the garden much more accessible and welcoming in time for the summer months.

Managed to fill in a hole under the fence where foxes had likely been digging, and cleared up at the end to fill up the garden waste bin.

The pet dog provided plenty of background music and entertainment! Successful session, and looking forward to more Manchester Missions! 💪

A solo paper round for Ben, similar to Hazel earlier in the week for GoodGym Stockport, for a free local community newspaper, the Manchester Post 🗞

300 newspapers delivered to neighbouring streets in Longsight in just over 2 hours, including the folding. A brief rain shower was no issue, with an array of canvas bags to store the newspapers, safely guarded by Juno, to carry out in two trips. Lots of curious people with filming going on at a local shop too!

Will repeat in June for now, but will re-evaluate in the summer if worth continuing. Lots of folding and heavy lifting to do it alone.