Part of our mammoth tree planting task at Petersham Common. An absolute pleasure to welcome GoodGymmers from other areas, and first timers Andreeca, Anastasia, Tim and Laura. What a brilliant first task to be part of: creating a lasting legacy in our beautiful green borough.

Ken gave us a brief introduction to the Common and woodlands restoration which included restoring the middle layer of the woodland. He explained how there was an upper canopy and ground floral plain but how the woodlands was mismanaged for around 50 years and had the middle understory canopy removed regularly. We were helping to plant 25,000 trees to restore this vital habitat where most of our native songbirds nest in the understory between the ground and 5m height.

Ken gave us a demonstration of how to plant a tree and told us about how it was vital to get the plant at the right level in relation to the roots and the stem so it had a good chance of survival.

We set about into the woods with native trees soaking their roots in buckets of water and started planting bird blocks of trees happily chatting away with each other. In no time we had planted 500 trees between us and Ken was very pleased with our work and thanked all of us from the Petersham Common Conservators.

We are back to plant more on Monday 6th March, sign up for the session to join us.

Another double-digit turnout meant we could divide into three groups to tackle a variety of tasks towards the top of Petersham Common Woods. It's been a regular spot for GoodGym Richmond with our work including maintaining the famous "Turner's View", planting hundreds of new trees and coppicing others to create a denser middle layer in the woods for nesting songbirds.

Today's challenges were slot-planting new thorn trees above the path by the Star and Garter flats. Green-fingered Anita oversaw Victoria, Beth, Sam and newcomer Christina at this, under Ken's instruction to bury them just on the point that the roots end to ensure each young sapling's survival. The guys took to it dilligently with their focus broken only on occasion by a mighty crack from below, where Chris♂ in full lumberjack mode was clearing an area that needed cutting back.

Around the corner Hounslow tearaway Pippa, plus Monika and Maena continued with the coppicing that we started a couple of weeks ago, while task leader Ken supplied Lindor chocolates and coffee, a deserved treat.