Double gloves were the way to go for our task with the welcoming Friends of Kelsey Park this morning! We got straight to work in snazzy orange vests yanking up lots of stinging nettles, making sure to remove their sometimes very stubborn roots and also avoiding the bulbs and flowers in the area. The hori-hori knives proved useful again, and we discussed some possible culinary uses for nettles (tea / soup?) before instead opting to leave them in a pile to be collected after all. Oh, and Dani made easy work of dismantling a wooden fence in one go. Thanks everyone!

A small army of GoodGymmers, scouts, councillors and other local residents helped to plant a Tiny Forest of 600 trees in Cator Park on Saturday. Expertly stewarded by the Friends of Alexandra Recreation Ground and Cator Park and the team at Earthwatch, all of the planting, mulching and raking was completed in less than four hours and there was even time for tea and home made cake. Yum!

You can find out more about the Tiny Forest project here

For our second Tuesday evening Bromley sesh (🥳) we were at Southlands Road Allotments. Local sustainability charity Greener and Cleaner have inherited a space which they're turning into a community garden. There's a few fruit trees, a shed of sorts, a compost and not much else. The plan is to turn it into a thriving growing space where the local community can learn to grow and eat fresh fruit and veg! 🥕

Can you dig it?

Job one was digging a hole for a massive metal container. It's going to become an accessible growing bed but first needed cementing in place.

Gettin' twiggy with it

Meanwhile we needed to transfer loads of the twigs and branches from the top of the compost heap into the metal container. These will have compost added and then rot down.

Bottling it

Whilst this was happening, Jo and Clare were cutting up huge plastic bottles into a specific shape so that they can become strawberry pots!

Nailing it

The majority of the materials used for the community garden are repurposed and upcycled. Stephen was removing nails from some pallet wood using a hammer.

Cracking job team! 👍 Thanks for sharing your favourite veg and your energy to get this community green space up and running 💪 Special shoutout to Jo who attended her first GG sesh! Welcome to the gang.