On a warm and muggy evening on Petersham Common as eight cheery Goodgymers gathered to enjoy the evening with a spot of coppicing.

We met with our good friend Ken of the Petersham Common Conservators, who walked us down to the bottom of the hill from the car park and gave us a briefing.

The task at hand was to cut back some saplings to encourage them to grow back more densely, to allow the local wildlife and birds to benefit from the habitat. We were armed with mini saws and set to work, cutting down all the small trees in an area by the path, leaving just a few taller ones to make sure the birds still had a place to land.

This is coppicing, definitely not tree felling, as Ken was keen to point out. He oversaw our work, making sure we picked the right trees to cut down and instructing us on where and how to stack the saplings to create a habitat for insects and small animals.

We made amazing progress in a short time, with Maena taking the prize for carrying the tallest tree over to the pile. We all enjoyed the task immensely and felt very satisfied with a job well done.

Big welcome to Chris B, meeting many of us for the first time on his 3rd mission with Goodgym. Looking forward to the next one!

A Wednesday evening gardening mission in Beuccleuch Gardens, Richmond with Chris, Naomi and Anita, planting out lots of small plants grown from seed, with some weeding and watering as we worked.

At The Arcade Rockery, we planted out swathes of small, seed grown plants, marking the areas with small sticks to try and deter people from walking over the Rockery. They also serve to identify where we need to focus our watering to help the new plants get established.

1. Heuchera Americana ‘Emperors Cloak’ Coral Bells.

2. Aubretia Hybrids Mix

3. Agastache ‘fragrant ‘ mixed (Hummingbird mint)

At The Three Pigeons we planted more Aubretia Hybrids mix and Agastache aurantiaca ‘fragrant mixed’ to try and fill a few gaps along the edge facing the River.

None of us knew how to say ’Agastache’ so it was referred to as ‘the plant we can’t pronounce’. According to askinglot.com, we are not the only ones to struggling with our elocution: “ Even the experts, however, are divided on how to say it. Some pronounce it ag-ah-STAH-chee, others ag-ah-STACH. Others insist it is ah-GAST-a-key. Some varieties are commonly called Mexican or giant hyssop, but others are called hummingbird mint.”

There will be no Three Pigeons or Arcade Rockery Group Missions for a few weeks but If you can spare a bit of time for watering or weeding, please do sign up for the weekly ‘anytime sessions’ and drop by whenever suits you. If their is no rain, watering the new pants to help them get established will be essential.

Well done GoodGym garden team Chris, Naomi and Anita who got a huge amount done at The Three Pigeons, The Arcade and on Richmond Hill during a super-hot ‘Weeding Like Sunday morning’ session. With the GoodGym red flag flying they managed to:

Water the plants put in last week at the Three Pigeons and The Arcade.

Weed the smallest of the three Arcade rockery beds and plant Hyssop (Agastache golden jubilee) seeds.

Lug tools, trug, flag and full watering cans up through Terrace Gardens to Hill Rise in order to do a bit of Guerilla Gardening: a makeover for a neglected planter including weeding, watering and seeding wildflowers .

The reward at the end (at least for Naomi and Anita) was a couple of ripe strawberries picked from the Gin Garden at The Three Pigeons Plot.