We marked, sawed and bundled recycled pallet lumber for building planters. There were more volunteers than work, so we finished early. It was difficult to find the place - it was through an overgrown iron door in an alley behind the Lewisham Arthouse.

Sometimes you just don’t have time to finish the task. And that can be great, as Good Gym had to go back to Florence Green to plant the trees we didn’t have time to plant last week. The local volunteers are transforming this little pocket park to make it greener and prettier, and we were there to help.

Having already done a lot of the prep that we needed to get the trees into the ground on a previous visit, only the planting remained. After marking planting spots with canes, roots were soaked in what we were told was a nutrient solution (although it looked suspiciously like wallpaper paste) and the trees placed in a trench. Next was replacing the soil and popping rabbit guards around and before we knew it a very impressive tree line emerged. And after that and a bit of admiration of our work it was time for a well-earned cup of tea.

Deptford high street has been voted one of the coolest streets in the world https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-62693537, and just off one end of it you can find Florence Road, where four of the eternally cool members of Good Gym could be found one Saturday morning.

The task for the day was to plant trees in the small park on the street, and we were soon put to work: first the ground was to be dug over, after which a hugely accurate and not in any way jerry-rigged pair of sticks with attached string was used to measure the right distance for the planting of canes. The preliminary work done, it was time to plant the trees, a mixture of rose hip, hawthorn and 3 others, all of which needed to be dipped in a special solution before being planted and wrapped in a protective casing.

Soon many trees were in the ground and many biscuits had been consumed and Good Gym sashayed our way off into the afternoon.

We arrived a group of 5 today. Had a quick look at all the jobs and got the bulbs to start cracking on with it.

Each tree had roughly 60 bulbs all around it of different flowers which should looked amazing by summer unless the squirls get to it before 🐿

On a cold sunny Sunday morning, 4 Good Gymers descended on Florence Green in New Cross. The volunteers there needed help developing the space and Good Gym were soon put to work digging trenches ahead of future planting of new hedgerows, and equally importantly clearing away mud and dug-up grass to prevent the remaining grass from dying. Before you knew it the work was done and we were rewarded with tea and biscuits. This is a lovely task that will need help for a while so look out for future sessions.