“Bring me all the greens you can!”
Said Mr G, a big cabbage fan.
So I bought him some kale,
Sweet cabbage on sale,
And broccoli, then home I ran.

Cliff, the chief gardener at St Mary’s in South Ealing, told us that the cemetery behind the church was meant to be a pollinator-friendly wildflower space, and not an ostensively manicured garden. Yet, after the spring was in full bloom, the back of the churchyard started getting out of control: nettles, green alkanet and other weeds took over the graves, and even Cliff’s superhuman gardening capability wasn’t enough to keep on top of that expansion. That’s where the GoodGymers stepped in.

Sevan led a group of ten nettleslayers, hungry for an evening pull session in a local jungle. Among them were two new faces in GoodGym Ealing: Giovanni, who cycled to his very first task, and Diana, who, despite being active for a few months as an Achilles guide runner, hadn’t completed an Ealing session until today. She also brought a four-legged support, the pooch Padron (pardon me if I misspelt the name), who made all the hearts instantly melt. Welcome Giovanni and Diana - we hope you’ve enjoyed our collective weeding frenzy!

Steph Ducat, Giovanni, Andy and Cliff attacked the left-hand side of the overgrown churchyard back wall, while Anna, Kash, and Harvey started from the right. Sevan, Diana, A.B., and James worked in the middle and eventually met the other two teams, having pulled or cut all the weeds on their way. In an hour, the stretch of graves along the entire brick wall at the back was weed-free!

Every GoodGym session is an opportunity to learn something new. Harvey told us about soldiers who used to whip their arms with stinging nettles to stay awake during their night watches. Since I wore a short-sleeved top while pulling nettles today anyway, I decided to test that method. I am pleased to report that the nettle stings still work, and I haven’t fallen asleep writing this report on Tuesday night.

As the days are now so long that it is still bright outside when we complete an evening task, there’s no excuse not to take advantage of it and come to the Tuesday night session. The weather has been a sheer delight, too! The next opportunity for an evening experience with GoodGym is next week - don’t miss it and sign up now!

After 4.5 hours of GoodGymming in Hanwell, Sevan and Kash left their home borough and left for Brentford, running 4.5km through picturesque Boston Manor Park and towpath along the River Brent. The riverside run took them to Ms N, who needed help with weeding her back garden.

The priority: to get rid of the “big leaves” growing in between the tall grass. Was it spinach? Kale? Burdock? No one was sure. Ms N claimed she tried one of the leaves raw, and it was okay, but rather chewy. Not proving to have significant culinary potential, the plants were destined to be dug out. But how? Ms N gave the GoodGymers two types of forks and a spade - none was highly effective against very dry and a bit rocky soil. The pair resorted to breaking into the dirt, then breaking the weeds’ roots as low as they could.

A few clusters of young brambles were discovered along the fence and immediately cut close to the ground to prevent the development of a dystopian bramble jungle. Bindweed, nettles and alkanet were the other usual suspects GoodGymers encountered and removed. The wildflowers Ms N was very keen to keep were the poppies, bringing vivid colour into the lush green of a rather untamed lawn. The lawn had to remain untamed as the strimmer with a metal blade Ms N provided wasn’t effective against tall grass.

Scouring through the overgrowth, Sevan uncovered hemlock, which he immediately recognised by its carrot-like leaves and stems dotted with red spots. Sevan knew that hemlock was poisonous when eaten, so he warned Ms N against tasting the plant, then dug out the treacherous root. The knowledge acquired at the sessions in the HANGOT orchards paid off!

In 90 minutes, Sevan and Kash filled the whole green waste bin with weeds, and called it a day, then ran back to Ealing to enjoy the rest of the Sunday.

Mrs L's house was a stone's throw from this morning's Hanwell Hootie wrap up task, so Kash and Sevan made a return visit a week after their last mission for her. They thought they knew what to expect. Trimming, weeding, few tools and very helpful neighbours. That was mostly true today.

Mrs L did want the rest of the flower beds weeded and the trees in the garden to be trimmed. Last week, Kash and Sevan's mission was earlier in the day, so today the helpful neighbours were out. Crucially, Mrs L's loppers that the pair used a week ago were also missing in action. Neither Mrs L nor Kash could remember where they'd stored them 7 whole days ago. They weren't in the shed and they weren't in the house, so Kash made do trimming tree branches with secateurs, which wasn't ideal.

The tools Sevan used for weeding last week were borrowed from a neighbours, so today he used a tiny trowel discovered in a plant pot. Kash dug out some weeds with a large spade and most of the rest weren't too deep rooted, so the small trowel was good enough for Sevan to clear the remaining flower beds.

Near the end of the session, with Mrs L trying to track down another pair of loppers to borrow, Mrs L's pair were found in a potting cabinet. She remembered that she'd put them there because they were broken. Broken or not, they were still just usable, so Kash and Sevan paired to cut down the final branches and get 4 bags of garden waste moved to the front of the house.