Dan Laws

Last Tuesday evening, 7 Goodgymmers headed down to Alice park community garden to help out with some end of summer maintenance.

After a fairly dry summer, watering was a priority, so Holly set to work with a watering can, making sure all the plants had a good drink.

Meanwhile, Richard and Adam took on the task of setting up 2 new water butts, in preparation for the Autumn rainfall.

There was also a pile of woodchip leftover from our previous mission here, which needed to be moved up the garden to create a path. Emily M, Emily K and Dan shovelled it into wheelbarrows to transport it up to Max who raked it into a nice new path between raised beds.

As the sun set we were quickly running out of daylight, so we finished up with a bit of pruning and weeding to tidy up the flowerbeds, followed by a group photo in the dark!

Last Sunday morning, we had a woodland workout at Mike's Meadow in Batheaston. This secluded area, surrounded by trees, is used by local school children and the annual Meadowfest, so requires a bit of maintenance.

Our first task was to move some huge tree trunks down a slope, where they will be used as seating around a fire pit. It took all six of us lifting together to manoeuvre each trunk through the trees! Some even needed ropes attached so they could be carried more easily.

After a few minutes rest, we were straight onto the next, slightly lighter task of scooping up woodchip into wheelbarrows and then laying a path. We all chipped in with shovelling, wheeling and raking to create a new path around the edge of the meadow. It was great to see the end result. Tree-mendous effort everyone!

Today we popped over to the community garden at Alice Park to help out with some maintenance.

It's lovely to see this place develop with our visits, and this time our task was to help distribute a massive pile of bark chips to various locations on site.

We set at it with shovels, wheelbarrows and rakes and made up a path around the back of the greenhouse together with some decorative areas at the entrance to the site.

We look forward to returning in due course.

We were back in City Stadium for the first time post covid helping urban green clearing the shrubs and brambles from under a patch of trees to increase visibility and a feeling of safety for people using the greenspace. There was meant to be a puppet festival on in the bowl but it had been rained off, but rain can’t put off goodgym.

Dan and Eleanor had already cleared one smaller section before me and Miranda arrived after having to walk through an incredibly large puddle on the way from Jesmond Dene parkrun. We all moved on to the big section nearer the edge, chopping all the bushes out to ground level.

Half way through we stopped for a break and Ranger Mike brought out the tea/coffee and biscuits. The hot drink warmed us up but standing around talking while dripping wet made me cold so Mike gave me a saw to use as a great way to warm up, which was very accurate. We managed to finish clearing the section before 12 . The difference was amazing and we could now see right through into the park.

It was good to be back and looking forward to being back in the parks in 3 weeks time.