Sweat was broken at the beautiful ThorLands Garden this afternoon as we took to finding the root of the bindweed and clearing the space for local residents to enjoy.

Phil put some real muscle into up rooting the mother to hopefully prevent the overgrowth of the bindweed from returning.

Litter was cleared, trees were enclosed into a fenced off area to keep foxes at bay and plants were potted by Lucie who went the extra mile to make sure she completed her task.

A beautiful afternoon enjoying taking care the garden together while keeping fit and healthy in the sunshine! Great work everyone ✨🌞🌱

Sam having arrived (as per usual) 20 minutes or so early to the session got roped into the first task, which was to bring over the watering hose from the clubhouse to the Walled Garden via the Kitchen and Forest Gardens.

Meanwhile, Claire, Hayley and Lucy were patiently waiting for Simon and Sam to finish off that task to be let into the Walled Garden. It was great to see Hayley again after many months away and hopefully, she can pop over more often.

Once they were all in, Simon set them to their first task, which was to organise the compost area more efficiently. Over the past few weeks, Thorlands had a delivery of ProGrow, which was firstly outside and then last week we moved it inside. However, the tonne bag of ProGrow had been nibbled by the foxes and about 3-4 wheelbarrows worth was on the floor. We knew this as we shoveled up 3-4 wheelbarrows of ProGrow. Firstly, we moved the bag to store it next to the backwall (hoping the foxes won't get to it). Next thing we moved the compost bag closer to the ProGrow bag as Simon's idea is to have a compost making station in the back, where one can mix compost and ProGrow before putting the mixture into planting pots, in raised beds/planters or on the ground.

The current compost setup needed managing as Simon wanted the middle compost bin to be emptied into the compost bag that we moved. Thus, Claire and Hayley proceeded to shovel the stuff into a wheelbarrow that Lucy was driving and Sam helped tip the wheelbarrow into the compost bag as well as "supervise"/"make small talk". During the compost shoveling, Claire and Hayley kept on finding Horn Beatles that was nesting in the compost - ideal environment. A whole family of them being deported by the shovel load...Their eyes were peeled to finding more, but in the end, their weary eyes were identifying small baby potatoes as Horn Beatles (same same, but different).

Not noticing the time and the logistics of getting to the next task, Sam had to quickly dash when Simon was explaining the next two tasks. One was to empty the planters by the front wall as they had dry and older soil, to fill it with the compost/ProGrow mixture. Yet, the other task, which everyone opted for due to time constraints was to fill up the raised beds that the foxes managed to dig out with the compost/ProGrow mixture.

We'll continue with filling planters and hopefully, there will be a delivery of woodchip, so we can start mapping out a woodchip path in the Forest and Kitchen garden.

On Saturday, six GoodGymers met inside the Walled Garden of Thorlands for our penultimate 2021 session with Simon. There was a festive surprise for Sam and Simon as Hayley made an appearance after many months away. It was great to see a friendly and familiar face. It was also great to see she was doing well.

We had the usual suspects: Nathan, Rebecca, Laura and Lindy come to lend a hand as we continued with clearing and sorting out the boundary between the Kitchen Garden and the Forest Garden. There were plenty of tasks to do:

• Hayley stayed behind in the Walled Garden to help out Bridget turn the compost heap over.
• Rebecca started off with raking leaves before Simon requested her help to put up promotional posters of the event on Saturday 18th (after 13:30) for a celebration of Thorlands Garden in 2021 with mulled wine, mince pies and wreath making!
• Nathan loves a bit of mattock and fork action as he continued (as he has done for the past month or so) to dig out the roots from the Forest Garden.
• Laura (being the tall one) took the loppers and secateurs to trim back the buddleia tree. Short back and sides - to make it look fresh!
• Lindy after knowing she wasn't suited in wellies (so she can't be a farmer), took on the role of being a lumberjack this time. There were a pile of tree logs that needed to be cut into smaller and more manageable sizes to make a makeshift bug/insect hotel.
• Sam helped out where he could and cleared the concrete area for where the market stalls will eventually be.

Overall, it was a very productive session and the Thorlands winter period is all about maintaining, cutting back and preparing the space for Spring. This coming Saturday is the final session of 2021, so sign up if you are free to see out 2021 at Thorlands!