Ms E's health had gotten worse since Kash and Sevan's last visit. That was worrying her and as she was proud of her garden, she was almost as concerned about the state of it. As with a lot of recent gardening missions, things had grown despite the lack of water recently and needed to be kept in check to not cause bigger problems later.

Before being able to get tools from the shed, Kash and Sevan had to deal with a drunken tool container that had toppled over and blocked their path. One of its supports had buckled and even once it was emptied, it was still leaning forward dangerously. Propping it up didn't work, then Kash had the smart idea of spinning it around. As the ground underneath wasn't level, the leaning ground one way and the leaning storage the other way equalled out and at least for a while, the storage will stay standing.

With that sorted, it was on to trimming back the plants. The three challenges were to stop any invaders from neighbours' gardens, keep the path along the centre clear of branches and cut everything down to head height. On both sides, creepers were sneaking in so Kash and Sevan did a neat job of trimming along the fence line. Ms E's own plants had some sharper edges and points, making bagging them into thin black sacks a fun task.

Roses were lopped and hydrangeas were chopped and eventually the pair managed to complete the highest priority tasks, leaving some smaller bits to be tidied up for next time.

Miss S from Chiswick had broken her back during the pandemic, which affected her life in many ways. Not only could she no longer hike or play tennis. Bending her back became out of the question, unless she was ready to spend 30 minutes trying to get back to standing upright. This lack of mobility had led Miss S to accumulate piles of magazines, mail, leaflets or even food packaging on the floor in her living room. With time, islets of papers became islands, islands became continents, and, eventually, a supercontinent of clutter swallowed all the floor space in between.

One Sunday morning, Sevan and Kash, the movers and shakers of decluttering, visited Miss S to introduce some continental drift into the lady's living room. The ultimate goal was to regain access to the back garden to have it cleared, with green waste removed through the house.

In 90 minutes allocated to the task, the GoodGymers separated the tectonic plates of clutter into:

• General waste - those seamlessly drifted into the black bin
• Recyclables - as above, but with a blue wheelie bin as the destination
• Paperwork - a bag of unopened mail formed a dreadful island that Miss S will have to go through at some point
• Unopened bottles of Sanpellegrino water - they formed a delightful peninsula full of alpine mineral springs
• Unopened orange juice bottles at varying stages of decay - deported in a bag to a quarantine island, to be disposed of later
• Cash in coins and notes - where else could those have landed if not on a small treasure island?
• Books - primarily about bridge, but not exclusively, formed a volcanic island with two peaks towering over other land that emerged in the process
• Useful stuff - kitchen gloves, bin bags, a towel, a bottle of wine and other things that may come in handy in the future formed their own continent in an unassuming M&S tote bag

One bag of forgotten baby Jersey potatoes deserves a special mention for literally turning into liquid, producing terrifying sulfur compounds that could be smelled without even opening the bag! That volcanic island drifted straight into the outside bin before a potential eruption of dreadful consequences.

Eventually, a sea of clear floor formed in the middle of the living room. It seemed as if a meteor impact had formed a crater as impressive as the Gulf of Mexico, pushing the remaining unsorted clutter towards the walls. Was Sevan's and Kash's help like a meteor that came to Miss S's life from outer space? We are not sure - but there certainly has been a big impact!

Today was thankfully cooler than our last visit to Acton Junior parkrun. Either due to that or more of the runners not being away on their summer holidays, there were a few more finishers today and by the next time we're here, schools will be back and they should return to the normal numbers of children 🤞.

For today's run, Maria took centre stage, leading the warm up session again. Steph, Kash and Sevan marshalled around the course, Chris took on the role of timekeeper and Maria completed the circle of parkrun, being at the start and the end, by scanning barcodes too.

Sevan paired up with a new-to-Acton marshal at the roundabout and showed them how and when the children would appear at their marshal point. He also tried to explain the complicated course layout, which is still indescribable. Is it like a snail? 🐌 Some of the new children didn't get it either, needing the marshals to point them in the right direction to get them to the finish. They'll have learned from the guidance and will know what to do next time.

The last session of a hot Saturday took Sevan and Kash to Isleworth, where, according to Kash, who had visited Mr C's property the week before, they would find shade. But not for long! They were about to cut some trees!

"Welcome to the jungle" - Mrs J, Mr C's wife.

The garden didn’t look much like a jungle to Sevan and Kash at eye level, but, looking up, they could see that the tree crowns had grown out of control.

Sevan first tackled a wisteria plant that had climbed up a magnolia tree, and now rose even above it. He cut two wisteria branches, twisted around each other, at head height. The hope was that anything above, hanging on the magnolia, would eventually die out, freeing the tree.

Sevan then took a long-reach pruner to decimate the branches of a bay leaf, which had started as a herb in a pot but ended up as a full-grown tree, several metres high.

Meanwhile, Kash reunited with Mrs J to form a sniper and spotter squad, which had been very effective the previous week in cutting bits of a very spiky wild plum tree. With Mrs J holding the ladder and collecting the cuttings, Kash managed to take down several big branches with a saw, leaving only the thickest one that grew upwards from the tree trunk.

Cutting down most of the plum tree’s crown not only allowed more light into Mr C’s and Mrs J’s house, but was also beneficial for neighbourly relations.

"Wow, the tree is gone! It looks great. Thanks so much. J, we'll buy you a plum tree in a pot for getting rid of this horror!" - Neighbour.

A return visit to Mrs M for Kash and Sevan brought a similar request. Over the summer, one of the trees that the GoodGymers trimmed 4 months ago had shot up and needed to be brought back to a manageable height.

"This should be a quick one" - Kash

After 40 minutes of trimming, the pair were almost finished and were neatening up shape of the tree. As Mrs M walked past, she casually doubled the GoodGymers' work.

"Can you do the same to that one" - Mrs M

Mrs M was pointing to the neighbouring thuja tree, a type of cypress. This would no longer be a quick one...

The thuja was a different beast. Much more wild. Sevan found the right technique as he started shaving the sides from bottom to top. Kash tackled the top of the tree, which was much trickier than the first as there were fewer branches that formed the point and they were each much thicker. A long saw was found in the shed and together with a long stretch, Kash managed to saw the tree down to size and everything was packed away to the garden waste bin.

It's been over 50 consecutive days - and counting - without any rain in some parts of London, and Western Road Urban Garden in Southall required a constant effort from Janpal and volunteers to help the site keep up with the ongoing heat. The exotic vegetables inside the polytunnel were doing well, and the veg plot we had cleared, woodchipped and partially planted only a month ago started already producing crops such as aubergines and tomatoes! None of that came without a price. Manual watering of veg beds took a lot of time and energy and wouldn't be sustainable in the long term. That's something the architect of Western Road community garden Ash wanted to address for a while.

In February this year, we had taken first steps towards executing Ash's vision of installing two 1000-litre rainwater containers. The mud wasn't going to serve as a reliable base for a tonne of water in a single container, so after digging out the soil, we'd been looking forward to pouring the concrete into the square spaces for a few months. Today was the day to make Ash's vision reality!

Seven GoodGymers came to support Western Road on a Saturday morning in August:

• Walkers: Angela
• Runners: Sevan and Kash
• Cyclists: Scott, Amy and Steph
• Cyclists/parkrunners: Richard

The Plant Squad

Angela, Amy and Janpal had plenty of tasks to do: from weeding the bed alongside the polytunnel, to harvesting and watering the new veg plot. In the polytunnel, they discovered a watermelon that looked pretty good on the outside, but a closer look revealed a small hole and the fact that the fruit was half eaten inside! Judging by the size of the hole, it looked like a rat, rather than Mr Fox, was the prime suspect this time. To save the other juicy crops, Janpal ordered the harvesting of the green tomatoes before the rat laid its eyes on them. Amy found some very long chili peppers, and everyone had a chance to see ripe snake gourds.

Janpal's top tip for cooking a snake gourd:

"Make sure to take the skin off and discard the seeds. We haven't done it last time, and that was the most bitter thing I've ever had!"

The Concrete Cowboys

The group keen to learn concreting skills joined Ash and started with combining the mixture for a base for the water container:

• 4 parts shingle
• 2 parts coarse sand
• 1 part cement
• plasticiser.

While Steph, Richard and Sevan mixed the concrete in a tray to wheelbarrow it to the destination hole surrounded by a wooden frame, Scott, Kash and Ash cleared the weeds inside and around the frame, assisted with pouring the mix, then levelled and tamped the concrete.

The team used up all the resources allocated for one of the bases, then threw in some rubble to bulk up the base, but there wasn't enough material to finish off that stage of the project. Despite great teamwork and solid progress, we'll need to come back to finish off the job when more materials are available. Join us next Wednesday!

Last Saturday, before the 10th anniversary celebration of GoodGym Ealing, our gang joined the Hanwell and Norwood Green Orchard Trail (HANGOT) to cut back orchard hedges and water young trees at the Elthorne Triangle Orchard.

But what about the older trees? How were they going to survive the extreme drought that has been affecting London since the end of June, especially with Hilary and Clive from HANGOT away for a week in August?

The GoodGymmers offered to take care of the mature trees in the Elthorne Triangle orchard, and, thanks to Ranger Jon, they were given access to 10 five-litre water containers. According to Hilary, that was just the right amount of water to keep the trees going that week.

What better excuse to perform the farmer’s walk routine than carrying containers to water fruit trees in a public orchard! And that’s exactly what the GoodGymmers did, hauling and tipping the containers around the orchard. It was the hottest day of the week, with temperatures reaching 37°C, but with five pairs of hands on the job, the task was short and easy, taking less than 20 minutes. In fact, a significant percentage of that time was spent simply opening the storage space where the containers lived!

The GoodGymmers decided to add a bonus task: weighted step-ups on the steps leading from the canal to Elthorne Park. Since the ranger had provided a bucket, funnel and rope, they also decided to fill the empty water containers with water from the canal, ready for the next time the trees needed watering.

The five GoodGymmers also used the session as an excuse for some extra light exercise on that very hot day. Scott cycled, Richard, Sevan and Steph Ducat ran, and Kash walked. It was a great way to get out of the house or work and into the outdoors, making the most of the golden hour before sunset.

It's been a tough summer for the weeds at St Mary's Churchyard Garden in South Ealing. First, the unforgiving drought, then the mighty gardener Cliff, and now this - a horde of GoodGymers!

Even the train disruptions during the heatwave couldn't hinder the unstoppable active transport enthusiasts: group runners led by Sevan - Steph Ducat and Kash, a solo runner Richard, cyclists Amy, Scott and Maria, and walkers James and Diana.

Thirsty and depleted weeds growing by the northern wall of the churchyard could not stand a chance against the assault of spades, forks, mattocks and shears carried by the gang in red t-shirts. Chopped, pulled or dug out, the weeds became green waste to be rapidly raked away and loaded into a wheelbarrow. From there, there was only one way - onto the giant compost heap.

The transformation of the area was remarkable: from a green (yes, it somehow managed to stay green, unlike the dried grass) carpet of weeds into a levelled layer of woodchip. Cliff was very pleased by the sheer power of teamwork, brought by GoodGym. When Ealing eventually gets some rain, the chief gardener hopes to seed some grass in the churchyard and bring the garden back to life with some pleasant greenery.

We will be back at St Mary's churchyard first thing in September. With Steph in charge, the team will attack the infamous northeastern corner of the garden to free it from the remaining weeds. Sign up now!

Next week's Tuesday session: Help women in Acton discover free, inclusive health and fitness opportunities.

More GoodGym this week?

Thursday: Help keep the orchard alive! 🌳 Watering fruit trees at Elthorne Triangle in Hanwell 💦.

Saturday: 🥦 Fun, exercise, food growing 🥔 August Community day at Western Road Urban Garden.