We arrived at St. Matthew's Church on Saturday morning ready to get stuck into the gardening club, only to find the gardens to ourselves. With no task owner around, we simply got on with it.

First-timer Helena saved the day by nipping home to grab some bin bags, and we got to work tackling the bindweed left over from Monday's session and doing a quick litter pick around the gardens.

A big welcome to Helena on her first GoodGym task: turning up, taking initiative, and getting stuck in.

(Pun credit to Chloe!)

There have been a flurry of GoodGym community missions at St Matthew's over the last few months. Maintenance of the ample garden space surrounding the classically designed 18th Century church has driven a swell of community-minded spirit.

A genteel counterpoint to the more sinister sense of dread that may have swirled around these parts in the days of its two most famous former parishioners, Ronnie and Reggie Cray. The twin kings of London's criminal underworld were both commemorated with funerals held here 30 years ago.

With all that well in the past now, Monday gone saw the GoodGym firm return to keep up the momentum of kindness and goodwill, on what was a lovely, warm mid-summer evening. Slightly hazy skies, there was also a swift breeze swaying and creaking through the trees, a little askew from the GoodGym bonhomie in the air.

Whatever spirit was blowing about, walking, running and rolling into task came each member of the crew, most of the team members arriving well ahead of time. Some of the clan sneaking in a little after, excuses and alibis provided, naturally enough, under intense interrogation, with nervous smiles and the odd chuckle.

The initial friendly greetings quickly bubbled over into a lively hubbub of upbeat camaraderie. On the brink of a full-scale turf war, @John, as session lead, stepped up to shush the growing cacophony. Thus formal proceedings began with a calming round of introductions, before running through the carefully laid blueprints for this community heist. There was a reason we were all there. There was a job to be done.

As a marker of their usual thorough preparation, Linda and the St Matthew's family, our mission bosses, had identified four operations where muscle was needed. Furthermore, for our reassurance and comfort, they provided the means to honour three sensible security basics to avoid leaving prints: wear gloves, use tools and stay hydrated. The fulfilment of the latter with ice-cold squash and chocolate rice cakes at the back of the church exceeded hydration to bring us back around replete with sugar-fuelled stamina, after all our exertions.

Whilst busy digesting all the instructions and precautions, local heavy, @Lobo, wheeled his way to join us, dressed in unorthodox but eye-catching pink, lending his support to consolidate our protection racket; i.e. helping everybody find the task, despite our straying from the official meeting point. Rendezvous check noted for our future jobs. Perhaps a tall pink flag is needed?

Altogether, the team converged on the business of the evening, choosing tasks in a seemingly chaotic fashion while somehow remaining focused throughout. We dispersed thus, rather randomly, across the varied church surroundings, a site made up of paving and then lawns, interspersed with paths and a scattering of benches. A territory increasingly familiar to our regular enforcers. One or two seem to know it like the back of their hand.

Now to task: by far the most popular activity was the ongoing battle with the bindweed, a plant pest well-known in this corner of Tower Hamlets, one that had engulfed the poor, innocent circular flowerbed in the area behind the church.

@Jo and @Ilana, seasoned in bindweed disposal from previous experience here and elsewhere across East London, untangled bindweed from the shrubs along the perimeter. @Chloe and @Frankie played a more central role in operations, fighting through to the centre of the flowerbed, cutting back bindweed from the plants in the middle. Frankie, terrific performance for a newcomer. We all hope to see more of you. @Sam and @Kareem stooped and scrambled in the between areas, intercepting knotted threads of the same pervasive vine.

@Ciarán provided bags of welcome enthusiasm for this challenge, along with the actual body bags needed to amass all the severed greenery discarded in crude piles about the immediate area. The bindweed, and any unforeseen collateral damage, needed bagging up and disposing of in an orderly fashion. And there's only really one GoodGymer for a clean-up job like that.

The second major activity was litter-picking, where the assorted items the team gathered up offered the usual insights into the life and crimes played out here. Remnants lazily left behind were the typical mix of mundane and extraordinary, both of which raised eyebrows amongst those who know.

@Chantal and @Nuunuu accumulated sackfuls of contraband cups and cans so efficiently they were asked by a dog walker: had they accidentally collected an expensive dog collar gone astray? Clearly not.

Equally tenacious, @Louise picked up detritus hither and thither, a half-eaten tray of takeaway food here and a small sports jacket there, one inscribed with the name of a highly feared local crew.

@Dan and @Darren collected debris left from the full range of suspicious human activity: eating (forks aplenty), smoking (groups of cigarette butts) and inhaling nitrous oxide gas (a large and heavy canister akin to something incendiary).

The third activity caught @Jack's attention. He dedicated the evening to scraping moss and weeds from between the paving stones, creating a much neater getaway route for visitors to stride or saunter around, however they prefer. Attention to this detail brings out the pride in those who cherish a place of such significance. Credit due for the hard graft that now looks, at a glance, like all is neat and tidy, and really rather well.

Bringing our mission's efforts to a close, current Capos @Lucinda and @Emma introduced us to @Nazifa, who is one of GoodGym's first cohort of Future Leaders. Nazifa will be joining the leadership team to help coordinate sessions over the coming months, thus igniting the next generation of GoodGymmers giving time and care to their local community. One to watch.

And another one amongst our number deserving of a special moment. For Lucinda, we joined our voices together, a bit like an evensong choir, but less tunefully, singing a sketchy but heartfelt rendition of happy birthday to celebrate thus dedicated and dynamic volunteer. Three cheers ring out still for our Lucinda!

FYI, the GoodGym Taskforce is for any volunteer who has attended ten missions and completed a short online training session: set up to do that bit of extra behind-the-scenes work to prepare, deliver and evaluate the GoodGym calendar of task activities we all sign up to each week. If that sounds like something for you, chat to any of the Tower Hamlets Taskforce (listed on each task listing on the website). We will happily give you the lowdown!

But, what of that fourth and final activity? Nettle removal. Overlooked or forgotten? Or maybe a little intimidating and foreboding. My thought, maybe just too tricky and prickly for a warm summer's evening. And yet, perhaps a fresher weekend mob might be better set to take the sting out of St Matthew's gardens...

Be it nettles or other gardening activities that spark your interest in this patch of Tower Hamlets, you can join GoodGym and friends on Saturday morning, where you can help stirring the spirit that started this Goodgym team's week: https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sign-up/let-s-grow-together

We will be with you. And, wherever you are, we will be watching.

This time, we had a plan. A five-point plan! Complete with a treasure map!

Point 1:* Clear bindweed from the flower bed*. Once Ilana had found out what bindweed is, she joined Emma (new Emma), Jo and Lucinda in untangling said weed from the greenery

Point 2 : Litter collection. There wasn’t any litter. So we didn’t bother with that one

Point 3:Lawn maintenance: Identify and fill in any holes in the lawn and make the ground level and safe to walk on. Sam and "tree-hugger" Darren made themselves useful, identifying so many holes that they hadn’t got enough earth to fill them. But the ones they did fill, did indeed make the ground very safe to walk on. No-one was tripping over holes at all

Point 4: Path Clearing: sweep the paths. We let Dan use the big broom, to celebrate his 50th good deed. He also used a trowel to de-weed the edgings. This was something we were working on last week, after which the Bishop of Stepney, no less, remarked on how tidy the gardens looked!

Point 5: Woodchip removal: clear loose wood-chippings off the lawn surface. This was as a result of a tree which had been chopped down after becoming hollow inside. I undertook this task, along with enthusiastic young Ivo, who’s looking for new outlets for his enthusiasm and is planning to take the necessary training to join GoodGym Tower Hamlets Task Force!

Because one of our number (a Task Force member!!) arrived late, I had to keep everyone behind for an extra ten minutes’ detention at the end.Or more truthfully, they were so engrossed in their tasks, it was hard to get anyone to finish. But we eventually got people together for a photo, taken by a random passer-by who enthusiastically took a GoodGym promotional flyer away with him. So maybe he’ll be around for his first good deed, when Dan moves on to his 51st!

You may be aware that the one-time Bishop of Stepney – whose patch covered Tower Hamlets – was recently appointed Archbishop of Canterbury! So what’s that got to do with GoodGym? Well, the local mitre has now passed to the Venerable Rod Green, who’s visiting our favourite Lady at St Matthews Church, Bethnal Green today - so an urgent tidy-up was required!

Nearly every possible weather had been present in London yesterday in quick succession, so who knew whether the afternoon thunderstorms would return while we were engaged in the task? So full marks to those who were prepared to brave the elements, despite this being our third group session in as many days. A special welcome to Theodore, embarking on his first ever Good Deed!

Rather than set us to work in the now-swampy planting area, Lady Andrea decided that our most effective tidying operation be to tackle the area in front of the church entrance, where numerous pesky weeds had emerged from between the paving stones. In this respect, the rain was our friend – it had softened the usually resistant roots, making our task rather less hard on the wrists. After an hour and a bit, the area was entirely cleared of weeds and muck, looking so much tidier – fit for a bishop in fact! Even Barry the dog helped, with some jaw-based litter-picking

It only remained for our super sextet to navigate the puddles of E2 and return to the more predictable environment of their fireside. And don’t worry if you missed all the fun – we’ll be back there on Monday!

It was a bright day in May, and the clock was striking 15:48. Yes, it was the first ever GoodGym bell-ringing social! The secret, according to task owner Lady Andrea (she’s really a Lady!), is to pull down sharply and just hold steady. Which various GoodGymers succeeded in doing, and all of them (well, apart from Kate) even stayed on the ground! The bells peeled out and the local populace probably emerged from their homes expecting a church service, some kind of jubilee, or just the surprisingly early arrival of four o’clock

Earlier, we did fulfil our usual “big-Monday night task”, albeit in the afternoon this time, with our efforts endorsed by the good Lady, who gave us "many thanks to all who attended". Emma J was trying to unearth a stubborn root, while litter duties were undertaken by Ilana, Fiona (all the way from Highams Park) and Jackie (all the way from Camden Town). Meanwhile Jack (all the way from Redbridge), Chloe (all the way from the next block but one) and Kevin beavered away at the growing plot, oblivious to some mayhem going on nearby

Four GoodGymers struggled for some time to separate a large bush from the earth beneath, then Lucinda arrived from nowhere (Tooting), applied her well-practiced carpet-rolling technique, and the roots just surrendered. Emma R was doing excellent work manoevering the dug-up weeds, dead leaves and large picked-up branches into small bags, while Emma J was pulling furiously, in a valiant attempt to unearth the stubborn root

Zak appeared for his first GoodGym and threw himself into the task and the conversation. Louise didn’t sign up until the clock was striking two, but that was nothing to do with us, this time

Nia, fresh from doing her first ever half-marathon - faster than she ever expected - introduced us to a first-timer, Alex. In contrast, Kate is a veteran, having undertaken her debut task all of three years ago before disappearing to the far North. Meanwhile Emma J was making a sterling effort, trying very hard to unearth that stubborn root

Sam had just about recovered from his amazing efforts in the London marathon, where he somehow evaded the gaze of every mile-24 GoodGym cheerer. Rue kept everyone informed with a stream of fascinating facts, before we moved on to our bell-ringing duties - all apart from Emma J, determined to unearth a stubborn root…

On a bright morning in the Bethnal Green oasis that is Saint Matthew’s Church gardens, six GoodGymers tackled a sun-drenched task. I got to the church on time after ParkRun, but Lucinda wasn’t going to miss her post-ParkRun coffee. I was going to football, so left the St Matthew’s "pitch", appropriately at half-time, to be replaced by substitute Lucinda

Chandrima, Chloe, Emma and Kareem put in proper shifts and everyone worked hard. There was a large walnut tree in the centre of an earth bed, but if anyone had fancied a walnut, they'd have been thwarted by the mass of foliage surrounding it. It looks a bit like nettle, but it didn’t sting like one. Until someone plunged his thin-gloved hand into a bunch of the green leaves, and got more than a bit stung. That was grasping the nettle all right…

We soon cleared half the area, making sure we got the roots to prevent re-growth. Task owner Andrea was a delight, very grateful for our help, and wanted us back as soon as we could arrange it. She even supplied refreshments, including more bars of chocolate. We’re getting used to this!

Thanks a lot to Chandrima for setting up the task, and Emma for the pictures. And well done newbie Chloe for attending four tasks in six days!