As the Eurythmics sang…'Thorn in my side you know that’s all that it was worth' this time though, the thorns came with a bundle of laughs to champion a blooming lovely and very bushy Hollybush Gardens.

This evening’s GoodGym team met with the wonderful Margaret this fine summer’s evening. Emma led an enthusiastic bunch of GoodGymers and with Leo conquered overgrown prickly brambles, itchy ivy and that sticky long stuff. While the remaining team got stuck into the compost heap and helped repot some blooming lovely petit pois and watered 24 community raised planters.

Everyone enjoyed supporting prep for London Bloom which will be judged at the start of July.

A whole bunch of wonderful GoodGymers turned up to help Alex and Nadia with the task of getting the playground ready for its grand reopening in a few weeks time.

Play areas were swept, cleaned and power washed, terrorising beasts were painted and brought back to life, the vegetable garden was tended to and growing pyramids created from bamboo, the shed was painted, and vast trees/bushes and parts of the garden was weeded. All done with lots of style and vigour.

Alex joked that he won’t need us for a while. I think we’ll be going back every week for a while, which is good news because it’s always such a pleasure to help out there.

Paula even stayed later to play ping pong.

A good sized group met in the sweltering Ackroyd Drive sun today to meet Ken from Friends of Tower Hamlets Cemetary Park (FoTHCP) and Bablu from Trapped in Zone One.

Did you know the listing postcode takes you to a church miles away?

The group managed to find their way to the task... Amazingly, as a well-meaning Area Activator had researched and listed the wrong postcode. Ahem. Thanks to the team, Grit and Rohan, for helping to rectify, and apologies to John and Emma who clocked up zillions of additional cycling miles.

After a brilliant intro from Ken, who gave us an insightful, dynamic introduction to the wild meadow area and the background of FoTHCP, we proceeded to tackle the invasion of the pesky Cow Parsley in the wild meadow area (producing large quantities of seeds, this plant is a somewhat invasive and unwanted addition to the area).

After we'd tackled said plant, the team moved to lopping elm, by roadside and arches.

It was hot, it was hard... It was thoroughly enjoyable. The time flew by and we really look forward to returning next week.

Big shout-outs

• Today's shout-outs go to Ewa who did absolutely brilliantly at her first task!
• ...to Bablu for organising and planning a brilliant, rewarding afternoon.
• ...and to Task Force pro Lieke who heads up next week's visit to Ackroyd Drive with Bablu!.

Part two of the epic Hemlock removal saga!

10 GoodGym runners, Tunde, and several volunteers from the lovely Friends of Meath Gardens met to tackle the Disney villainous poison parsley (Hemlock) that covered a large proportion of the grassy area near to the canal at Meath.

After tackling one side of the path in a terrible downpour a couple of weeks prior (please see report here if you're interested to know more about this murderous plant), we met to attack the much larger area of Hemlock on the other side of the path, except this time we were armed with spades, forks, secateurs, and sunshine.

We got straight stuck in with hacking away, trying to cut as close to the roots as possible before the plant goes to seed, so that it is unable to grow again. A hefty workout, grunts were heard all round, mixed with cheers as clearings started to appear where we were working and we could eventually see each other from behind the tall plants.

With a large group, some real hard work and good company, we managed to successfully rid ALL of the Hemlock, a huge achievement for such a short space of time. In doing this, It means that the council will be able to plant a wildflower meadow in time, meaning Meath will soon be embroidered with colour 🌺

Thanks everyone for all your hard work on a sunny Sunday morning, you literally saved (dogs/ cats, and maybe some silly humans) lives 💪