The team met on a mild January evening somewhere in Croydon and welcomed Nat to the Croydon group.

Kate and Jack set off for a brisk walk. Meanwhile, somewhere in Croydon, the others started with a warm-up and Nik led the way to show us some artwork.

When we arrived at the task, Kate, Jack and Ian promptly began labeling the new donations. Meanwhile, somewhere in Croydon Nat, Nik and Liz set to work tidying the racks of clothing.

Finally, the team wheeled the racks into the cupboard and set-off for a well deserved beverage!

Well done team!!

Nine of us ran/walked to park hill to meet Josi from friends of park hill for another installment of peace poles.

The poles had been beautifully painted by students at the local school and members of the Croydon Soroptomist Group. After taking some time to ensure they were in the best positions in the garden, we began by digging a big hole. We then attached the poles to the ground stake and hammered them into the ground. It was important to use the spirit level to check they were straight! Once they were upright we were able to cement them into place where they make a vibrant and colourful addition to the walled garden.

Whilst we were doing all this we even had a bit of extra time to move some more woodchip onto the beds in the medicinal herb section of the garden!

Join us for our task next week to see what we are up to!

On Sunday we continued from last week's work turning the large overgrown garden into the Story Bee garden. Jack took up a pair of shears and cut back the hedge to neaten up the edges and make the path accessible for users again. Kate continued with removing the sticky weed from the bed to discover which flowers and plants emerged from underneath.

This morning two Good Gymers went out in the very hot sun to the community gardening at Park Hill's walled garden. One of the garden beds had become almost completely over grown with sticky weed, which had unfortunately killed off a lot of the plants underneath. We set about pulling up the weed and taking it away to clear the area ready for work to begin turning it into a story bee garden. We made a great start in one corner but there is still a long way to go!

A beautiful sunny morning we headed over to help at the community gardening session in Park Hill walled garden.

It was lovely to see lots of different members of the community come together to improve the garden and have a nice morning chatting in the sunshine. We set about weeding out some large thistles from the flower bed which were taking the water and crowding out the roses. We could only spot 4 when we arrived but as we worked we found the other two! Once we had cleared away a mountain of weeds to the compost pile other volunteers were able to come in to remove any leaves from the roses which were affected by the black spot fungus. We were able to hoe around the plants to keep the weeds away...for now!

It was clear to see the difference we made in just over an hour of work!