Armed with head torches, bright lights and an hour to make a difference, Kingston GoodGym headed into the darkness at Claremont Gardens to help Kingston Council improve the pond area.

After a briefing from Georgina, we split into two teams. Jonathan, Dave, Rachel and Anna tackled the invasive sumac threatening the pines, quickly filling garden waste bags with the help of saws and loppers.

Meanwhile, Jana, Tom and Georgina took on the two willows beside the pond. Tom sawed through the larger willow’s main trunk, and we chopped up the branches before turning our attention to the smaller tree.

Small willow, BIG roots! All three of us dug and cut our way around its surprisingly deep root system, discovering that the rope edging the pond was tangled in it too.

The larger willow proved too much for our tools and one saw sadly met its match during Jana’s attempt! We focused on the smaller willow instead, managing to remove most of its roots through a determined team effort.

An hour well spent, with bags filled and good progress made. A community group is being sought to help care for the gardens, so hopefully our efforts will sow the seeds for more local involvement.

Well done, everyone! Where there’s a willow, there’s a way!

Tonight’s happy band of GoodGymers went to Jubilee Square to the scene of the Great Woodchip Mountain!

We shifted, spread and raked our way through a serious amount of woodchip, filling every available nook and cranny around Jubilee Square.

The result? A much more even surface underfoot, a considerably tidier and more pleasing-looking space, and hopefully a few less opportunities for those pesky weeds to stage their next invasion.

There was also time for a good old litter pick.

And a big GoodGym welcome to Adamtonight. Always great to see fresh faces joining the gang — new blood is very much encouraged!