Message from Graeme about the day - I dished out 'magic' beans to little kids and had a great conversation about potato breeding :)

Tonight was amazing with 14 GoodGymers turning up, we love it at the Food Union allotments don't we gang?! We also welcomed back Jill for her second good deed, yey!

Jackie, James, Nigel and Stuart had arranged to meet us at the allotments, Megan and Tasha took a nice walk and the rest of the group enjoyed a sunny run to the task. Great to be out enjoying the nice weather and lighter nights!

We hit the allotments, facing 5 unruly beds crying out for attention. In 45 minutes we very nearly aced the job that would have taken them several hours. With weeding and composting we made a huge improvement and Marc was very happy with what we got done. Team GG Cov, smashing it!

Next Tuesday we will be at Harmony Haven which is a family hub in Hillfields https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/harmony-haven-garden-revival

9 Goodgymers braved the rain this eve to help out at the Food Union allotments. After it had chucked it down all day we were actually quite lucky and only really had to put up with a light drizzle for some of the session.

We welcomed Mohammad tonight and had the pleasure of Dale, Chloe and Dani returning to join in on another good deed :)

With us all running tonight we ran as a group to the allotments, looping back as and when we needed to and we met Jackie and Mohammed at the task. Greg let us in and explained the job in hand, he was a bit unsure if we were going to get it done in the time but we were well up for giving it a good go. Tools at the ready, everyone got cracking and with the help of Greg and Mark we got it cleared in no time. It was a fairly tight space for 11 of us to be working with sharp tools but you all managed it really well, fab work you lot! At the end, we enjoyed the fruits of our labour by trying out the plums on the plum tree above the space we cleared, loving all the free food recently.

The space can now be used for storage and to add logs for another little area for wildlife to thrive.

Hope you approve of the before and after photo's 😉 Dani

It was a glorious sunny evening tonight and 8 GoodGymers enjoyed a 2.5 km run and cycle over to Sherbourne Valley allotments. Greg was there to welcome us and it was great to see everything in full bloom with giant sunflowers and pumpkins covering the area we prepared on our last visit.

There was a few jobs to get stuck into, Deb, Laura and Lil tackling the bind weed, which has wrapped itself tightly around some of the plants. Graham, James and Meera were on the weeding in between the paving slabs whilst Georgia, Laura and Greg prepared a soiled area under some trees ready for wildflower seeds to go down. With this being one of the furthest runs we only had around half an hour for the task but we worked fast to get a much done as possible. Time had had flown and we managed a quick group shot in front of a sunflower stem which towered above us.

As our second good deed for the day Lil kindly suggested that we return a supermarket trolley that Food Union had used to transport some plants. We ran via Morrison's to put the trolley back in its rightful place and then took a different route back down a narrow footpath which took us out by the arches at Spon End.

Fab work everyone, well done!

There are a few events happening at Food Union in the next couple of months so check out their facebook/instagram page for more info.

We arrived at Sherbourne valley allotments and met Greg who explained what the jobs were that he needed doing.

We all got stuck in with picking the remainder of the dry runner beans off the plants which are being saved for seeds, then we cut the plant back and dismantled the cane wigwams. By this time it was getting pretty dark so out came the torches, we cut down the corn plants then went over to start prepping for the spring harvest.

Debora was mainly on light duty with Maddie and John raking the compost and digging holes to plant the cauliflowers whilst Greg was chatting to us about how challenging it is to grow them.

It was an hour well spent, it was nice to catch up with Greg again and be outside as it was a very mild evening. We said our goodbyes and went on our way home.