Making a Final Push in Church Community Garden Transformation

After many months of dedication, persistence, and muddy boots, the GoodGym Worthing team returned once again to the Church Community Rooms garden — a space we’ve been battling with for quite some time. The weeds nearly won on more than one occasion, but our team’s resilience and determination proved stronger. Through every season and in all types of weather, we’ve shown up to transform this once-overgrown patch into a usable and welcoming garden space.

Finishing Touches With Val and Rik

This evening’s task saw us helping our longtime community partners, Val and Rik, with the final touches. On our last visit, we had begun the groundwork for laying membrane under paving slabs — a key step in reclaiming the garden from the weeds. Today’s mission was to complete that task and edge the slabs with recycled bricks for a neat and finished look.

A Team Effort

John, Ryan, and Craigrolled up their sleeves and tackled the heavy-duty job of positioning and bedding in the final slabs. Working with precision, they ensured the black membrane was neatly in place before setting each slab down securely.

Meanwhile, the precision team — Sarah, Gillybean and Megan took on the meticulous challenge of laying the recycled bricks along the edge of the path. This wasn’t a task for the just anyone ! Each brick took about five minutes to dig in and position perfectly, and their attention to detail made all the difference ( even if Sarah did keep shoving soil into where I was digging ! 😂

Ricky and I were on some solid groundwork, digging out and preparing the final areas with spades before the precision team moved in to finish the job.

Whilst all this was happening Belinda Belinda was a whirlwind of efficiency, busily weeding and hoeing the entire garden area with energy and flair. Her efforts gave the space an instant lift and left it looking tidy and well maintained. Craig also helped by transferring over from the slabs and raking over the freshly hoed area.

With some final massive slab action from John , Ryan and Craig together with Gills finishing touch of sweeping the slabs we called it an evening.

A Victory Over the Weeds

What once seemed like an overwhelming and never-ending battle with weeds has been transformed into a meaningful and beautiful community space. It’s been a long journey, but one defined by teamwork, consistency, and a shared belief in making a difference.

A huge well done to all involved — tonight and over the many months that came before. The garden stands as a testament to what can be achieved when good people turn up, again and again, rain or shine.

Heene Community Gardens has been a long-term project for Worthing GoodGym – and tonight, we hit another major milestone in this journey .Over the past couple of years, we've fought the battle against weeds, uneven ground, and wild overgrowth... and it finally feels like we're winning!

We were warmly greeted this evening by Rik and Val, the tireless volunteers from St Botolph’s Church who have supported the garden’s development from the very beginning. Val’s long-held vision for the garden was visibly closer to reality tonight – and she couldn’t have been more grateful

The evening's mission was to lay paving stones along the garden path leading to the notice board, on top of a weed-suppressing black membrane. A precise, physical task – but nothing this team couldn’t handle.

Paul , John and Rickygot straight to work preparing the ground, as best they could , ensuring it was as level and firm as possible before the slabs went down.

They were soon joined by El and Roxy who set about weeding and tidying.

In just one hour, the transformation was complete: a smart, clean path guiding visitors to the notice board, with surrounding areas freshly weeded and looking their best.

Val was delighted. We were proud. The garden is starting to become the beautiful, welcoming community space she always imagined.

👏 Huge well done to Paul, John, Ricky, El, and Roxy – each of you brought something different tonight, and together it made a real impact.

Thank you all :)

Julia xx

The Return of the Weeds: A Garden Showdown at the Community Rooms

It was another sunny session at the Community Rooms garden, and our team of GoodGym volunteers turned up ready to do battle with a familiar foe: the relentless, ever-returning weeds! We were greeted by our task hosts Val and Rik.

Val's vision was clear - to create a pathway through the overgrowth in preparation for laying paving stones down the middle of the garden. The weeds had clearly not taken a break since our last visit, but neither had our determination.

It was lovely to see Daisy back again, joining Barbara in tackling the thickets of stubborn weeds with impressive speed and stamina. Roxy and Ricky were on weed-duty too, digging deep to loosen some particularly entrenched roots.

Meanwhile, Paula was on paving slab patrol — shifting heavy stones like a pro to clear space for the path. Paul and Craigproved to be absolute machines, digging out vast amounts of weeds and making light work of some truly overgrown sections.

As always, the teamwork and shared sense of purpose made even the toughest bits feel manageable. With the path almost ready for its new paving stones, we’re well on our way to transforming this community garden into a more accessible and welcoming space for everyone.

Until next time, weeds — we’ll be back!

Check out all the good stuff that's happening in the next month or so !

Have a great week 😄

Julia xx

With Sarah achieving her Century last weekend, today Roxy discovered a Centaur(ie) of her own. Which will turn out to be more valuable, the coveted "wings" shirt, or the undergrowth find?

Christmas! Already!

As we arrived Belinda declared "Noel". It turned out she wasn't really seasonally muddled, but wondering aloud who was signed up for the task. Just as she clarified our puzzlement, who should turn up - El.

Always prepared

As usual Val had the task board prepared. With heavy, medium and light tasks available everyone got quickly stuck in. Stumps were removed, crumbling walls protected, weeds expunged, and more of those stinking irises extracted from the ground.

Worthing's most overplayed pun

"Is there a rake?" asked Ryan. "lf there was we'd make more progress", Sarah promptly declared. Not every GoodGym session is like a school day, but we certainly learn stuff!

From high to low

We've discovered a variety of interesting items over the years supporting St Botolph's. How exciting might Roxy's find today turn out to be? A pendant depicting a Centaur heading into battle, bow and arrow in hand. How old might it be? Is it a hidden treasure from time long ago? Will Roxy be wealthy beyond her dreams? Or will Sarah ask her dad about it and he'll say it came from Claire's Accessories circa 2022!

Celebrate Good Times! come on..... Next week we are gathering for Milestone and Birthday celebrations after the task. Will we get a record turnout - we do like to party together. Roxy has a target to meet before next Monday. Will she make it? Come along and find out........

It was a bonus Wednesday session this week saw four of us back at Heene Community Rooms where we are starting to demonstrate that Worthing GoodGym is as determined as those pesky weeds.

One El of a GoodGymer

El arrived at the task with a tin of freshly baked biscuits. Really delicious biscuits they were too!

Don’t change, Barbara

Barbara regaled us with tales of wearing the same clothes day after day and not going as far as the toilet to pee. She then told us about her recent adventure. She seemed particularly proud of having avoided being eaten by a puma.

Puppy love

Roxy got a round of a paws when she arrived with her new charge Mali who spent the task peeping out from the bag over Roxy’s shoulder.

Weed had a good idea. It worked!

Where we had managed to lay and cover the pieces of cardboard on previous visits you could see that the weeds were gradually admitting defeat. They clearly still have some fight in them, but their resistance is becoming rather, well, weedy for want of a better phrase. We focused our attention on the path side of the garden clearing remaining weeds and planting a range of plants provided by Val. It’s good to see some wanted planting going in to replace the seeming mountains of green we’ve removed over a number of tasks.

Light evenings are back again

What an absolute delight it was to arrive and finish the task in the light. Head torches and Uncle Ivo's GoodGym lights be gone!!

It's kind of traditional that we kick off BST at one of our favourite tasks at St Botolphs Church with our hosts Val and Rik.

Val is always super organised and has all the tasks they would like done listed alongside their intensity level, meaning everyone can make a considered choice.

This evening Belinda and John chosen the more challanging option of sawing a large tree trunk into 3 pieces. This was quite some task which they completed very successfully illustrating what 37 years of marital team work can do!

Roxy and Stéphane got stuck into some digging with Ricky also joining them too.

Meanwhile Mel was bare handedly stripping ivy out of the wall which appeared to be quite therapeutic after a stressful day working !

Gillybean and Paulgot stuck into some fine pruning of trees and bushes on the outskirts of the church wall.

It was great to see our OG Beth back in the borough. She wasted no time in getting stuck into cutting up prunings that Gill and Paul had kindly provided ! El and Sarah got stick into removing ivy from the wall surrounding the doomsday font that we unearthed a few years ago. Sarah was fresh from her recent seamless move with Ryan into a beautiful new town house nearby whilst El had the brilliant idea to ask if we could take a look around inside the church. We didn't need to be asked twice and all processed into the church behind Rik who was the keeper of the keys! We all really enjoyed marvelling at c the size and beauty of the church and I was particularly interested to see a large lady chapel being there too.

We got back to work after our impromptu visit before finishing up fur the week.

Thank you St Botolphs - you didn't disappoint!