Another Manchester park ticked off the bucket list this evening with a litter pick in Heaton Park today! While much of the UK was baking, we had a nice evening with a gentle breeze for a nice stroll in the park while clearing up any dropped litter and discarded waste.

The magnificent seven: Peter, Gaynor, Fanette, Scott, Victor, Esteban, and Ben donned their gloves (some were leftover lab gloves admittedly) with a few litter pickers and bag rings to share around to scour the park following Parklife over the weekend.

While we had a map showing litter hotspots, the park was surprisingly clear, albeit we couldn't access the Papal Fields with the Parklife hoardings still up, but we still filled a grand total of 13 litter sacks with a couple of laughing gas cannisters. We met Steve from Prestwich Pickers too, also out for a stroll and a litter pick, and made friends with some members of local wildlife, including Highland cows, rabbits, squirrels, plus a few birds. Lots of thanks from those in the park (including a few cyclists and a running group).

We'll be back in a few weeks for some balsam bashing (there was plenty of that around...) so sign up if you'd like to go back for some more active volunteering in Heaton Park.

Back to help Mrs L with keeping the garden ship shape. After a couple of months, many weeds and self seeded trees had grown and the grass could be waded through, so a thorough chop back was needed 🌱

The secateurs did a good job clipping back the overgrown bushes out the front and pathway, while a combination of a good flymo mower and GoodGym elbow grease dealt with a lot of the long grass, weeds, young trees, and branches, making sure not to disturb the poppy bud seeds!

90 minutes of hard graft was certainly worth it, with the garden and wild flowers now free from the tangled weeds and grass. Mrs L was very happy and I'll be back again, hopefully with some help, to chop back the trees in the backyard 🌳