Jo Milton
Oxford
Doing good since February 2019
60Good deeds
60runs
225cheers
Oxford
Marston Community Garden Orchard
Marston Community Garden cooperative includes a community allotment, flower garden, the Forest Garden, a chicken coup, an orchard and a new Community Wood on New Marston Recreation Ground, plus much more. We have a few visits planned through the summer, so you'll be getting familiar with a lot of it!
This week we will be at the community orchard on Court Place Farm Allotment site.
Bring your gardening gloves. All tools will be provided.
Let’s go to the Victoria Arms after the task for a post-GoodGym drink and chips.
Meeting locations:
* If you would like to join a group run to the task location please meet at 5:45pm outside East Oxford Community Centre, Princes Street, OX4 1DD. Please note the community centre is now closed for redevelopment so we won’t have access for toilets etc. It is approximately 2 miles to Marston Community Allotment from there.
* If you prefer to meet at the task meet at the Boults Lane Recreation Ground entrance to Court Farm Allotments at 6:15pm. OX3 0NT
Oxford
Mare's Tail, bee outfits and Sam-fear
We were back with the Marston Community Gardeners again this week, but this time in their new flower garden.
The vision for the flower garden is for it to be somewhere members of the community can come and pick a bunch of flowers for free/a small donation. There are already some lovely flowers growing there - certainly more colour coming through than a couple of months ago when we were last on the plot.
This week's main task in the garden was weeding - the mare's tail (looks a bit like samphire) and bind weed were our main targets. These needed digging out all the way to the roots and bagging up to be taken off-site. The rest of the weeds could be pulled up and dug through to fertilise the soil. We discovered it's a surprisingly slow job to get the beds weed free, but as ever many GoodGymers make light work of a big job. There's more to do but we made good progress. Sam, Henry and Ben even had time for some watering at the end of the session - much needed in the warm dry weather - although I'm not sure how much Ben appreciated the dowsing Samantha gave him too!
Thanks to Julia for leading us along the lovely run route back to base after the task.
Oxford
Marston Community Garden
Marston Community Garden cooperative includes a community allotment, flower garden, the Forest Garden, a chicken coup, an orchard and a new Community Wood on New Marston Recreation Ground, plus much more. We have a few visits planned through the summer, so you'll be getting familiar with a lot of it!
This week we will be at the flower garden weeding existing beds and digging over more areas for planting.
Bring your gardening gloves. All tools will be provided.
Meeting locations:
If you would like to join a group run to the task location please meet at 5:45pm outside East Oxford Community Centre, Princes Street, OX4 1DD. Please note the community centre is now closed for redevelopment so we won’t have access for toilets etc. It is approximately 2 miles to Marston Community Allotment from there.
If you prefer to meet at the task meet at the Boults Lane Recreation Ground entrance to Court Farm Allotments at 6:15pm. OX3 0NT
Oxford
In for a Penny, in for a Pond 🐸
4 intrepid GoodGymers ventured to Naturescape in Florence Park on arguably the hottest day of the year so far...
Naturescape took over and converted a disused mini golf course in the hopes of turning it into a nature education area. The team at Naturescape have a new pond and despite the recent rain asked if we could help them fill it manually. Combining wheelbarrows and a continuous cycle of manual lifting we quickly filled the pond and Jo ensured that there were measures in place should any little creature fall in. Overall, it was the perfect task for such a warm day!
Oxford
Pond filling at Naturescape
Naturescape is a lovely project in Florence Park, converting a disused mini golf course into a nature education area.
Last year we helped lay turf, plant trees and lay paths. This time Naturescape would like some help with filling their new pond. They had hoped it would naturally fill from rain water, but the dry spell we've been having has forced them to make alternative plans.
Bring your own gardening gloves just in case there are other tasks too. Any tools required will be provided.
The Naturescape garden is just inside the park as you enter from Rymers Lane, right next to the tennis courts. Location pin here.
Oxford
Hogacre x Oxgrow x Goodgym
Hogacre Common is a brilliant wild space tucked away West of the Abingdon Road.
OxGrow have a community growing space there and have requested some Goodgym muscle to get various tasks completed.
OxGrow community garden suffered quite a lot of damage in the winter storms, so we will be helping with repairs, getting irrigation lines in, and various other jobs.
Tools will be provided, but please bring your own gardening gloves.
Meeting Options:
If you would like to join a group run to the task meet at Falcon Boat Club car park, Meadow Lane, OX44BJ at 5:50pm. It’s under 2 miles to the task location from there.
If you would prefer to meet at the task meet at the railway bridge at the end of the track which goes down between South Oxford Adventure Playground and Grandpont Recreation Ground, location pin here. Meeting time 6:10pm.
Oxford
That's a wrapper for Magdalen Wood
As part of the annual OxClean Spring Clean, we chose to take on the tough task of clearing Magdalen Wood in Wood Farm of any litter and discarded items. The bright sunshine and warm weather surprised quite a few Goodgymers with some layers of clothing needing to be removed before donning gloves and wielding litter pickers. We had some extra help too from Susan Brown, leader of Oxford City Council.
On the surface there wasn't too much litter but a little exploration off the beaten path revealed a whole range of rubbish. There was the standard array of drinks cans and crisp packets, including what looked like the leftovers of a party with 40-50 empty cans of cheap lager in one small area.
Other more unusual items included:
- Records
- Shoes
- A very dashing gold and black dress (upping the class of clothing finds on litter picks)
- A Henry Hoover casing
- A bike wheel rim
- Discarded needle stash (appropriately removed in sharps boxes and bio-hazard bags)
- An Arsenal FC towel (probably worth discarding anyway...)
- Lots of empty condom wrappers!
Magdalen Wood is a really nice place for walks and bike rides for locals so it's always a shame we find so much rubbish here. Hopefully the locals will be able to enjoy the area a bit more now with less rubbish littered around! ODS very helpfully picked up the laden bags and other rubbish items after we had finished.
Welcome to Ketai for joining for your first Goodgym session and hopefully see you again soon! Thank you to our Lord Mayor Mark for reaching his 100th Good and Amy for reaching her 50th before leaving for pastures new.
Oxford
Happy Birthday to Us
We had a lovely evening of chat, drinks, dressing up and games at the Lord Mayor's Parlour to belatedly celebrate GoodGym Oxford's 3rd Birthday.
Congratulations everyone for smashing past 5000 Good Deeds in 3 years!
Thank you Mark for hosting us.
Good luck to Amy and Laura who are both moving this month. We'll miss you!
Barnet
Rubbish runners!
A few Goodgym Member‘s over the month of February picked up a load of rubbish in their local streets and towns. well done I’ve listed again for March our work is never done! don’t forget to invite a friend..
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