Laurie Wilkinson
Oxford
Doing good since April 2022
6Good deeds
6runs
39cheers
Oxford
Ark-T Centre Sensory Garden
The Ark-T centre have a Summer Celebration event on Friday 15th July and have asked for some help getting the gardens ready.
They need some help sprucing up and installing some items in the playspace for the sensory garden, including putting together a solar-powered water feature. There are also some planters that need a bit of tlc, and some signs to be designed, painted and put up, a wigwam to paint in funky colours, plus we'll give the pathway a good sweep and scrub, trim the trees back, and tidy up the mud kitchen area.
As always, bring your gardening gloves, and if you're up for a bit of painting then wear clothes you don't mind getting some paint splatters on.
Meeting options:
* Anyone wishing to run to the task as a group please meet in the car park of the Richard Benson Hall, 276b Cowley Rd at 6pm. There won’t be a bag drop available but we can use the toilets there. It's a little over a mile to Ark-T from there.
* If you would prefer to meet at the task please meet us at 6:15pm at the Ark-T Centre playspace garden.
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
Having a Kale of a Time
It was lovely to be back at the Children's Allotment for the first time since they opened up last autumn. It was quite a different sight than when we first came to help out back in the spring of 2019 - now there's a polytunnel classroom, mud kitchen, running water, loo, lots of produce thriving in raised beds, and barely a bramble to be seen.
This week we were back on wood chip duties...the play mound needed making safe by covering with weed suppressing fabric and a thick layer of woodchip. A few bits of glass and metal had been making their way to the surface so the nice thick layer of woodchip will ensure that the area is much safer for playing. Elsewhere Mark and Julia sharpened their carpentry skills repairing the mud kitchen work bench, a handful of GoodGymers were given a composing masterclass, and everyone else snapped on the gardening gloves and got weeding the polytunnel raised beds and around the raspberry canes. Watering was done, peas were eaten, and a generally wholesome evening was had.
Welcome to GoodGym Oxford Emily!
Thanks to Ben for the excellent pun/report title!
Oxford
The Children’s Allotment
Rescheduled from 15th June
The Children's Allotment is a gorgeous space near Florence Park. We helped them with the massive 2.5 year undertaking to get the site ready to open, and now they've asked for a bit of help with maintenance.
The main task will be replenishing the paths with new woodchip, but there are bound to be other jobs to do too.
All tools will be provided but please bring your own gardening gloves.
The Children’s Allotment is at the East Ward Allotments, off Cricket Road. The entrance is off the cycle path, not the main allotment entrance. Location pin here.
Meeting options:
* Anyone wishing to run or walk to the task as a group please meet in the car park of the Richard Benson Hall, 276b Cowley Rd at 6pm.
* If you would prefer to meet at the task please meet us at the location pin above at 6:15pm.
Laurie is a now a pretty committed GoodGym runner. They've just run to do good for the fifth time
Oxford
Scythe it Baby, one more time
After a COVID-related cancellation of our planned task we headed to a hastily arranged task at the OxGrow Community Garden at Hogacre Common instead.
The runners took the shady route along the river, daydreaming of icecream and wild swimming, while the rest of the gang joined us at the bottom of the infamous steps of doom. Heading up and over (thankfully not carrying a tonne of woodchip or a sofa this time!) we arrived in the garden to find Simon and the OxGrow team all set with a list of tasks for us. No surprise that with the recent hot, dry weather one of the most urgent jobs was to give the whole place a thorough watering. To-ing and fro-ing to the water system with watering cans (and sometimes using the extra troughs around the garden for which we dug channels for the water pipes on our last visit) the whole place got a good drenching, which will hopefully keep the plants happy until the weekend rain.
Meanwhile a smaller group dug over a bed in the TAP Social area of the garden. Tap Social haven't been able to do much with their corner until recently and so it has got a bit wild. Digging over one of their beds should help them get growing again sooner rather than later.
Last but definitely not least, our final group raked up the cut grass around the community garden while they waited for the scythes to be ready. You can't keep a GoodGymer from a scything task, so as soon as the scythes were prepped and sharpened they switched tools and headed out into the main common to scythe the long grass in the orchard. A veritable masterclass in scyronised scything ensued (try saying that 20 times fast), with long grass falling and pollen flying. I'm always grateful to get through a scything task with everyone's toes still intact, so well done Poldarks!
New GoodGym rule - the only acceptable outfits are GoodGym Tshirts or Britney Tshirts.
Oxford
**NOT** The Children’s Allotment - Oxgrow
PLEASE NOTE CHANGE OF TASK DUE TO CIRCUMSTANCES BEYOND OUR CONTROL.
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.
We will be weeding, watering and also undertaking some jobs around the nature reserve.
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 on Donnington Bridge at 5:45pm. 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.
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