Tonight's task, our first visit to Wild Green E13, a volunteer led community garden in Plaistow, lived up to its name in so many ways. Our welcoming host Fleur was pleased to see us, and once she'd unlocked the container and distributed gloves and gardening tools, she pointed to a long edge of the garden, where some fruit bushes were lurking behind a lot of very green weeds and grass (and snails...), and asked us to get weeding...and so we did.

No prior skills required, and whenever we came up against some vegetation that we couldn't decide was friend or foe, Fleur got our her plant identification app to give us the go/no go signal (one was even identified as an opium poppy...which made us all wonder if there was some extra curricular horticulture going on in the garden...)

With four of us (Hilary, Graham, Bea, Nick), and Fleur on management oversight (and litter picking) duties, we had a great and very sociable evening in the fading light removing the unwanted green stuff, disturbing the habitat of far too many snails, but eventually leaving this area of garden looking much neater, and with easier access to the fruit bushes. Good work all around. We've agreed on a return visit on 16th June for more wild and green fun.

I popped in to help Ms C with her garden on my way home from junior parkrun. Unfortunately, a power cut meant the lawnmower was out of action, so the task couldn’t go ahead this time.

It was still really nice to meet her and have a good chat — definitely not a wasted visit!

Fingers crossed for a more powerful session next time! 💪🌱