On a very sunny Sunday afternoon in September, when it felt like summer was making a comeback, seven GoodGymers assembled in Pear Tree Park to join a riverside path-clearing session organised by Ben from Clean Up River Brent. The event was part of Ealing Climate Week and coincided with the ActForEaling social. ActForEaling is a coalition of nature & climate groups, and GoodGym Ealing are their partners.

While some of the other organisations opted to have a stall to promote their cause, GoodGym was all about hands-on action, so we headed straight towards the River Brent for the task. With shears, loppers and litter pickers in hand, the team disappeared into the thicket, opening up the overgrown entrances and cutting back vegetation to allow safe, comfortable access for visitors. Perhaps even more fittingly for Ealing Climate Week, we also collected litter that was plaguing the sides of the path. The further west we travelled, the less obvious the route became, meandering around a dried-up stream ditch or getting swallowed up by the previous flooding.

After more than an hour of clearing and tidying the path, we returned to the ActForEaling event near Pear Tree Bistro to collect free drink vouchers and meet some familiar faces. The occasion brought together several past and present task owners: Mary from ActForEaling & Ealing Repair Cafe, Elisabeth, formerly leading Acton Litter Collective, and Trevor from Ealing Transition.

Trevor had some great news: hedgehogs had been spotted in the Lammas Orchard, so our support with building their habitat had finally paid off! If you are interested in more projects led by Ealing Transition, including energy saving, schools' solar generation, food-growing skills, beekeeping and biodiversity restoration, join Trevor's storytelling talk next Sunday morning in South Ealing.

Kash knew some of what to expect in Miss G's back garden. For Sevan it was the first time after having tidied up in the front before. Talking to Steph after Junior parkrun, Kash reminded him that it was "the garden with the fridge and brambles", which was pretty accurate.

Entering the garden, the brambles weren't as bad as Kash remembered. During the last mission, Kash and Steph had dug out the bramble roots, so today's vines looked younger and easier to chop.

Looming over the garden was a big tree from the neighbour's side which turned out to have grapes on it, making it a third food related mission this weekend for Kash and Sevan. Miss G hadn't tried to eat them, so Kash was the guinea pig and declared them tasty 😋.

Miss G's rubbish sacks were very thin, so the brambles ripped them to shreds. Sevan chopped the longer grape vines and Kash tried to line the black bags with them to protect the bags from the bramble thorns. This allowed them to pack 6 sacks by the end of the mission and the sometimes-double-bagged sacks just about held together.

The last job came when Kash discovered 2 trees growing in the narrow gap between the back fence and the other back fence 😕. Rummaging in the tool bin, Sevan found a long tree pruning saw and he was able cut and snap the trunks fairly low to the ground, with a satisfying crack!.

The 400th Acton junior parkrun (big celebration, woohoo!) brought 94 little finishers and some GoodGym legends as well!

Maria and Steph looked fresh and energetic, not indicating at all they'd just walked an overnight marathon, The Shine Walk! Congratulations both! If completing the race in 6h 19min itself wasn't enough of a feat (it was!), then how about reporting to junior parkrun duty in the morning to help set up the course? Some of you may call it craziness, we call it dedication!

Maria, with a shiny diamond still left in her hair from the race's glittery outfit, directed children into the funnel, and Steph gave the first timers a warm welcome and briefing, and then marshaled near the funnel.

Alan and Kash were the gatekeepers - marshaling at the South and North gates. Kash dealt with an emergency shoelace fix for a boy whose mum apparently hadn't heard of double knots.

It was quite a gap between the supersonic two leading girls and the tail walker, so the marshals enjoyed more time in the gentle autumn sunshine until the brand new fluffy fox tail has passed them. What a fantastic morning was it, finished with a chat over coffee!

There was a new task waiting for Kash and Sevan in Mrs K's front garden after last week's mission trimming roses and over other overgrown plants in the back. The path to the front door and pavement in front of the house were being taken over with Mrs K's shrubs, bushes and trees. Mrs K was also worried about damaging her car on them when she opened the door.

Tools were sourced from Mrs K's garage and most importantly, Mrs K's dog, T, again came to say hello to the GoodGymers 🐕. Once T was happy, she went back inside and Kash and Sevan could get started cutting things back. Like their mission earlier in the day, this one had it's own scent too, of rosemary not cat poo this time, which was much more pleasant.

Mrs K had specifically told the pair not to cut back her lavender too much, so Kash and Sevan tried to find the line between freeing up more of the path and leaving enough of the plants that they'd still look pleasing to Mrs K, her neighbours and T. With most of them, they cut back pretty harshly knowing that they'd survive and grow back strong. Sevan went easier on the lavender, leaving a bend in the line that took over more of the path.

After a bit of weeding, the front garden was complete and it was onto the back, where Kash and Sevan continued the job of removing brambles that Kash had started the week before. Sevan cut vines near to the ground and Kash chopped them into little pieces then bagged them. With the time they had left, the largest flowerbed was almost freed of brambles, at least on the surface.

With time up, T came to inspect the progress and give the GoodGymers a happy, licky send off. Just as importantly, Mrs K was happy with the progress too and that she wouldn't damage her car on the lavender (or more likely other shrubs). She stopped short of licking Kash and Sevan, expressing her thanks with words instead.

Today's mission for Ms P had 3 key elements. Weeds, pears and poo. Only 2 of them could be squeezed into the pun in the report title though.

GoodGymers had been to help Ms P in the past, including Kash and Sevan a few years ago. Kash remembered that the garden looked simple, just 2 long flowerbeds at the sides and slabs in the middle, but it was deceptively time consuming to tidy up. She had a good memory 🧠.

There were a lot of weeds in the first flowerbed and at least they were easy to pull out. There was also a lingering scent of Eau de Catlogne, even if whatever the cats (or foxes) had done wasn't very visible. As they worked, Kash and Sevan chatted to Ms P, who was feeling a bit lonely as her son wasn't able to visit. Soon enough, they'd cleared the flowerbed and the slabs around it, so it was onto the next area.

It was on the other side of the back garden where the GoodGymers found the source of the eau-dor in the second flowerbed. Kash spent most of the time on this side scooping things out of the giant litter tray. The weeds in this bed were much deeper rooted, so more digging and time was needed to clear the same amount of space. The neighbour's pear tree also hung over the flowerbed, so there were semi-rotten pears to be speared with forks and disposed of with the weeds. Surprisingly, there were 2 undamaged pears that Ms P said that she wouldn't eat herself, so she offered them to Kash and Sevan at the end of the mission. Pearfect 👌.

A week ago, GoodGym Ealing celebrated winning the Team of the Year award from Southall Community Alliance, the organisation behind the Western Road Urban Garden. This Saturday morning was the perfect opportunity to live up to that title!

We arrived as a team of six, ready to take direction from Ash, who never disappoints when it comes to sharing a clear vision for what we want to achieve. The community day was also a chance to meet Natalie from SCA, who normally leads some of the mid-week sessions at the garden, and Harry, a new volunteer she recruited.

We also welcomed a new GoodGymer, Nadia, who chose Western Road as her first GoodGym experience. Great choice and fantastic work, Nadia!

Ash's vision today was to move the outer border of the veg patches further out to expand the growing space. The job included:

1. Clearing the nettles alongside the hedge along the fence
2. Removing the paving grids and the membrane underneath them
3. Tipping, raking and stomping on soil (donated by the police!) to raise the plot borders
4. Laying and pegging down a Terram membrane (apparently much more effective than the old one)
5. Laying the grids on top of the Terram

We managed to transform the border on two sides of the growing area and made a start on the third, which was a result worthy of the Team of the Year! By the way, Kash brought the trophy to Southall to present it to the wider team helping at WRUG, as this had been 100% a team achievement.

By the end of the session, Ash was pleased to list three outcomes that the dream team had completed:

1. Delineating the new border of the plots
   
2. Making the outer hedge more manageable
   
3. Expanding the food-growing space

It was a lovely day of teamwork and doing something good for the Southall community.

We're at Western Road again very soon – check out the sessions and come along: Community garden day - Tuesday morning and Tuesday afternoon!