Our final visit of the year to St Botolph’s Church garden was upon us, and there was no time for holly-dollying about! We were back in the poppy garden, continuing the clearance work we started last week, determined to get things looking shipshape ahead of Remembrance Day.

Elvira kicked things off by tackling the ivy and brambles before joining Julia in the somewhat prickly business of cutting down two holly trees. She pulled and pushed and nearly lost her feet on tackling the first one - the photos give the essence of that particular situation!! The bigger tree one needed a final bit of pulling and pushing from John to persuade it to give up its place. It seems our holly was no longer jolly, and the ivy was definitely getting ideas above its station!

Meanwhile, Belinda was working incredibly hard to get the ivy under control, showing impressive determination and an eye for every last detail. No sneaky tendril was going to escape her attention!

John and Stephane were busy digging out brambles, enabling Julia to collect the prickly spoils and ferry them off to the compost heap. A proper team effort, with everyone rooting for the same result!

Having already clocked up an impressive 7k run, Ricky pitched in to give Stephane a helping hand . Plus there was an extra reason to celebrate, as tonight marked Ricky’s 7th GoodGym anniversary! Seven years of running, volunteering and being part of GG Worthing , Brighton and parkrun — now that really is something to crow about. A lucky seven for a thoroughly deserving GoodGym member.

As a special 'end-of-term treat' we were invited inside the church to see the memorial wall in the Lady Chapel, bearing the names of the fallen servicemen. It was a very moving moment and a reminder of why our work in the poppy garden matters so much.

By Remembrance Day, there will be one poppy in the garden to commemorate each of the 89 men who lost their lives. Sadly, one of those named was recorded as a boy. 😪 A poignant tribute to those who never returned, and a lovely way for the garden to help keep their memories alive.

And, of course, no end-of-term celebration would be complete without a little appreciation for our efforts. We were presented with thank-you cards signed by members of the parish council, along with enormous homemade ginger and fudge cookies baked by Rik. Yum yum!

A huge thank you to everyone at St Botolph’s for making us feel so welcome throughout the year, and to our wonderful GoodGym gang for another evening of graft, good company and community spirit.

We may have reached the end of our gardening year, but the memories — and hopefully not the weeds — will keep on growing!

It was one of those thoroughly miserable autumn evenings when the weather couldn’t decide whether to rain, mist or just make everything feel damp! After a day of fine ‘wet’ rain, the heavens had settled on scotch mist, the gloom was closing in and the light was fading fast. Perfect conditions for a spot of GoodGym gardening, obviously! 😂

Thankfully, my four stalwart GoodGym buddies, Belinda, John, El and Roxy, weren’t going to let a little atmospheric misery dampen their spirits as we headed to St Botolph’s Church garden for an autumn tidy-up.

There was an immediate fashion mystery to solve. Everyone was sporting red… except El, who began to suspect she’d missed an important memo. We reassured her that no memo had been issued, although we did enjoy teasing her.

John, Belinda and El got stuck into pruning a large tree, with the sawing action providing a good upper-body workout. Meanwhile, Roxy and I tackled the ivy creeping along a fence surrounding a very special garden of handmade poppies. After finishing their pruning , John , El and Belinda joined us for some very welcome help.

These beautiful poppies are being prepared and added to ahead of Remembrance Day. By the time the special day arrives, there will be one poppy commemorating every fallen hero listed in the church’s Lady Chapel. A truly poignant project, and a lovely reminder of why our little gardening missions can mean so much. ❤️

Some of the ivy had other ideas and decided to spread itself over the fence. Never one to shy away from a challenge, I took the direct route and jumped over to deal with it. El and John were on hand to capture my acrobatics on camera, before El likened me to Spider-Man! 🕷️ Clearly, I was getting into the 'swing' of things… although I’m not sure Marvel will be calling any time soon!

We certainly had our hands full getting to grips with the ivy, but we refused to let it 'creep' up on us. We were determined to get to the root of the problem and 'leave no vine behind' ( Are you groaning yet ?!😂)

With the light disappearing quicker than our enthusiasm, we eventually called it a day. Despite the gloomy conditions, we all agreed we’d made a huge difference to the garden and were delighted we’d made the effort to turn out.

Another evening of good company, community spirit and a little friendly banter — proving that even when the weather is thoroughly 'unbe-leaf-able' GoodGym can still help things grow!