After a day of fairly atrocious weather, the skies finally took pity on us and cleared just in time for our Tuesday evening mission to the Lighthouse & Gardens, hidden away behind the fences near Stratford International. If you’ve walked past without realising what’s there — trust us, it’s a brilliant little community space.

It was great to welcome Fuad and Eugene back after a few busy weeks at work, and the team set off on a scenic jog through the Olympic Park towards the gardens. A tube strike delay meant our host Sharon was running a little behind schedule, but GoodGymmers are nothing if not adaptable, so we filled the gap with an impromptu football skills session that definitely featured more enthusiasm than technical ability (speaking for myself at least).

Once Sharon had arrived and given us some directions, we got on with dismantling some rotten wooden planters that had seen better days. This turned out to be a satisfyingly varied task: digging out the soil, then deciding which demolition technique to deploy. Some sections responded nicely to careful unscrewing, while others required the much more cathartic “smash it apart and hope for the best” approach.

By the end of the evening we’d cleared quite a few planters, making a real difference for the small number of regular volunteers here, who wouldn’t have been able to tackle such a structural job themselves. It’s always rewarding knowing that our evening’s effort can make life easier for the volunteers who dedicate so much time to maintaining this valuable community space.

A lovely evening, a hidden oasis, and just enough dry weather to get the job done — we’ll hopefully be back in a couple of months to help again!

Check out all our upcoming sessions — including a bonus Saturday morning mission at Little Ilford Community Garden this weekend!

It was a warm one this evening, so well done to Adam, Graham and Nick for heading out into the late afternoon sunshine for a return visit to the Forest Gate Community Garden. When we arrived, Fiona our host asked us if we’d mind doing a particularly “nasty” task – having just run in the tropical heat from either Stratford or Leyton we were up for anything, although in hindsight…

She asked us if we’d mind emptying a large plastic water butt that had clearly been storing water since the dark ages – the moment the plastic lid was lifted, a swarm of flies escaped closely followed by a most unpleasant smell. Not to be deterred, we lifted the butt around the corner to the nearest drain and turned on the tap to start emptying it – it had a coffee coloured tinge to it, and downwind was still incredibly unpleasant – we followed it with a couple of watering cans as chasers down the drains...

This evening’s main event though was to get out and water the various planters that Fiona and the team tend to around Forest Gate – so armed with wheelbarrow, trolley and enough watering cans to open a decent corner shop with, we worked our way around the streets – with a convenient refill stop at the fountain to replenish supplies, and then on to the furthermost planters to give them a drink before heading back to pack everything away.

And so ended another successful evening at the gardens. Forest Gate Community Garden are hosting a garden trail on 6/7 June, and all are welcome to come along - further details can be found on their website (www.fgcommunitygarden.org).

A welcome return to visit Sybil and the team at The Emmanuel Parish Church this evening, after what had felt like quite a long winter break - even the evening sun made a welcome appearance after our run across from Freaks and Geeks started under forbidding skies and passing rain showers.

It was also a very warm welcome to Kevin on his first mission in Newham. Regulars Hilary, Brad, Graham, and Nick made up the rest of tonight's gang.

Of course Sybil had much planned for us to do, and so with tools, gloves, bags, Iris plants and compost at the ready we were tasked with weeding a border bed at the far end of the Church garden, as well as removing Ivy from the wooden fence, and then preparing and planting the Irises and laying compost across the top surface. With much helpful assistance from other volunteers from the Church group we were soon down on our knees removing all the unwanted greenery from the bed and fencing, before trying to turn the soil in preparation for the planting. Helpfully a hose was at hand to make the soil a little more compliant, and with trowels in hand it was a case of dig and plant at roughly even spacing, followed by a thick layer of compost to feed the plants.

Before we knew it, the time was upon us to pack up, and as we walked back into the Church hall with tools in hand, the team produced plates of sandwiches and fruit to "replenish our energy" - always welcome after a hard day of bordering. Hilary led us on a chatting speed run back to Freaks and Geeks, where we decided to have an impromptu social in the pub to celebrate another successful Tuesday evening of weeding and planting.

We look forward to seeing these latest plants flourish in the garden, and we'll be back again in early July to do a closer inspection!

A great turnout this evening on our second visit to the team at INUF on the Romford Road - welcome to Abdul on his first GoodGym mission, and a welcome back to Miguel after a two and a bit year GG hiatus - it was also great to see Steven and Bianca again, along with Brad, Hilary, Adam and Nick. We also welcomed Dilly who was here to take some "action shots" for the various social media feeds.

We weren't quite sure what was in store for this evening's activity, but we knew it would involve the garden...and probably not involve (sadly) any more wooden chair destruction.

Except it didn't, at least not initially, as we were tasked with moving wooden frames and panels from their drop-in kitchen area round to the back of the building where the Chair Smashing Olympics had taken place a fortnight ago - this time an added hazard had been introduced in the shape of a car that was now parked a lot closer to the footpath and made access just a little tricky.

With the wood disposed of, we split into smaller groups to declutter the garden - one group was heavily into branches and sticks, whilst the other got seriously knee deep into the weeding, and if ever proof were needed that with 10 pairs of gloved and motivated hands we can get a lot done, by the end of the session (just as the rain drops were starting to fall), we'd largely cleared the garden per our leader's instructions - 8 black bags full of weeds, and enough kindling to light a large bonfire were proof of our collective efforts - a very productive Tuesday evening's work all round.

It was a bright evening along the Greenway as the GoodGym crew headed out to the orchard for a session that turned out to be equal parts gardening, community engagement, and bramble‑based acrobatics.

The orchard team had set us loose on a particularly tangled patch, and the brambles did not intend to go quietly. There were vines looping through branches, weaving into fences, and generally behaving like they’d signed a long‑term tenancy agreement. But the group got stuck in with enthusiasm — and only occasionally got stuck on the brambles. We also had a steady stream of curious passers‑by stopping to ask what we were up to. Several people showed real interest in the Orchard as well as GoodGym and idea of combining fitness with community action. If even a couple of them sign up, that orchard might have more helping hands very soon.

A special shout‑out goes to our visiting GoodGymer, Catherine from Cambridge — it was brilliant having you with us, and we’d love to welcome you back any time you’re in town.

Meanwhile, Adam took on one bramble root system with the determination of someone reenacting an epic battle scene. At one point it wasn't clear whether the root or the gardening fork was going to give way first. But victory was eventually claimed, and the root was defeated with honour.

By the end of the session, the orchard was looking clearer, the brambles were significantly less smug, and the team left with that satisfying post‑task glow that only comes from doing good together. Nice sunset too.

Thanks to Adam for this week's run report title...as he smashed the fifth wooden chair onto the path this evening at the INUF's Mental Health Community Garden, he commented that this was definitely one of our most physical tasks in ages - a proper GoodGym workout.

On our first visit to INUF, our welcoming host Pat outlined the tasks she wanted us to complete this evening - the first being to empty a greenhouse packed full of wooden chairs, that could then be broken up into pieces and thrown into the corner of the garden - and so as Hilary and Bea played a game of life size Jenga to get the tightly packed chairs out, Graham, Adam and Nick lined up along the pathway and formed a chair destruction chain gang - there really is nothing more satisfying than smashing things up when you've been given the green light to go right ahead - apologies to the neighbours who's quiet Tuesday evening was rudely shattered by the sound of multiple chair legs hitting concrete. Once we'd worked out the technique to break apart each chair, we raced through the queue in what felt like no time.

Onto next task - moving some furniture item out of the communal kitchen, and then task 3, which was removing a stack of sticks and branches from the garden and disposing of them on top of the wooden remains of the chairs. Adam commandeered a nearby shopping trolley, which proved ideal for shifting the broken branches and twigs, and before long we had the whole area cleared...ready for our return visit on 5th May.