This week, GoodGymers Catherine, Daiana and Alan headed to Fox Den Allotment for an evening of gardening, wildlife spotting and plenty of hard work! 💪🏼

This was my first visit to Fox Den, and the 10th good deed with GoodGym! I was pleased to see the nice work done there and I could also learn a lot about gardening, plants, medical effects of the plants and how rich and diverse the environment can be! 🌳

Our first task was creating a hedgehog highway. 🦔 We cleared an area before carefully layering some logs, smaller branches, twigs and finally leafy cuttings on top to create the perfect habitat for our prickly visitors. Alan’s strength and speedy log-moving certainly made light work of the heaviest part of the job! 🪏

Following this first move, we turned our attention to preparing a bed that will become part of the site’s growing forest garden. We learned how these gardens become increasingly self-sustaining over time, with established fruit trees and bushes already thriving. After turning the soil into a rich, nutritious bed ready for planting, it will soon be home to raspberries, artichokes, strawberries and plenty of other perennial plants. 🌱

As if that wasn’t enough, we also shifted some hefty rubber sheets into place to cover borders that had been overtaken by weeds. The sheets will help suppress the weeds over the coming months, leaving the beds ready for even more planting later in the year.

There was plenty of wildlife to enjoy too! We spotted a tiny cricket, rescued a thirsty bee with a well-timed drink of water, and a ladybird seemed particularly fond of Alan’s T-shirt – a very fitting companion for the evening. 🦗🐞

A brilliant evening of teamwork, learning and getting stuck in. We can’t wait to see how Fox Den continues to grow over the coming seasons! ✨

We had a brilliant start to our Sunday sessions at Fox Den Community Allotment, welcoming Blessings and Sandra to their first GoodGym task 🙌

We were met by Lorna, who gave Sandra and Blessings the tour and history of the site, while I started some watering. Despite the heatwaves, the crops are looking very healthy with the courgettes, beans and tomatoes all boasting beautiful green leaves.

Our main job of the evening was to continue creating a woodchip path through the site and around (what will be) the pond area. I had not realised there are so many steps to laying woodchip! Growth had already been suppressed by large rubber sheets, and once we had removed these, we had to cover the area in cardboard (removing all sticky tape and staples). The cardboard then needed watering (I'm not sure anyone had that on their bingo card for the evening) before finally covering in a good layer of woodchip. Blessings and Sandra led the way prepping the cardboard and then Blessings and I got busy shovelling and wheel barrowing the woodchip across the site to Sandra who raked it into position. A very efficient GoodGym production line 💪 We took a much needed water break and enjoyed sitting in the peaceful surroundings, soaking up the evening sun before doing it all over again for a second layer!

The area was transformed. We admired the progress and had time for a quick photo before heading our separate ways. With just the right level of physical activity and plenty of time to chat, it was a beautiful way to round off the weekend. We look forward to returning later in the month. 🌿

This week saw our return to Fox Den Community Allotment for the first visit of 2026! Scott, Christopher, Catherine and Caroline slapped on some sunscreen and our gardening gloves and got stuck in. Chris and Catherine were busy shoveling, barrowing and laying woodchip to protect the ground. Meanwhile, Scott and I watered some very thirsty plants, admiring the tomatoes and potatoes and comparing to our own efforts 🍅

Working up quite a sweat, it was time to head to this month's social! While Scott set off on foot, Catherine, Chris and I grabbed our bikes and took the scenic route, enjoying a riverside cycle. Heading to Engineers House, we met Ilsa and refreshed ourselves with some drinks and pizza 🍕🍻

On top of it all, we also celebrated Catherine's birthday! How lucky to have another fantastic GoodGym activity AND social on the big day 🎂

A lovely morning spent with Abbey People at Fox Den Community Allotment nourishing and clearing the beds ready for planting. It was atmospheric with the low mist making it feel wintery, but was almost T-shirt weather! Ideal for a morning spent working outdoors.

After a briefing from Caitlin, our first job was to spread nutritious topsoil on the beds ready for vegetables to be planted in the coming months. We learned that the soil was Fen soil, based on peat, so not only packed with nutrients, but produced locally meaning very few carbon miles. Once we'd decided the most efficient way to open the bag (piercing it a couple of times with a rake) the spreading was relatively quick work with many hands and rakes helping.

Next up was weeding one of the planters that had become overgrown with grasses and nettles. It's not clear why, but I thought starting with the nettles was a good idea, so focused on really getting them out by their roots, learning quickly that my gloves weren't thick enough and ended up very with tingly fingers. The grasses were also well rooted, so it was quite an effort and took more time than expected. Usually liking to finish all tasks I start, it was hard to leave the bed half done, but it will be a good job for someone next time!

It was great to be back at Fox Den and we are looking forward to more sunny evening sessions later in the year 🌻

Two GoodGymers and whole lot of grit

We joined Abbey People for the last evening session of the season at Fox Den Community Allotment. 🦊

Caitlin tasked us with weeding and clearing the beds and covering them with cardboard, and having seen the brilliant work started by other volunteers, we set to work.

After a good start and a nice chat, we soon realised we were up against a fierce challenger in the form of mallow. Being so prolific with deep roots makes it particularly stubborn! Leveraging with a spade, we dug and we tugged, eventually clearing as much as we could - a real team effort 💪

It's always a pleasure to work on the allotment and we came away commenting on how much calmer and uplifted we felt after the task. We will miss our visits, but look forward to returning in the spring!

Rain paused play...

...but it didn't stop five brilliant GoodGymers watering, weeding, and wielding another beautiful batch of tomatoes. It also gave us chance to have a chat and sample the produce. Win-win!

Welcome to Alan who joined us for his first GoodGym task 💪

Well done team 🙌