Two Goodgymmers joined Friends of Whirlowbook park and many other volunteers to muck in and plant over 300 hedge mini trees, including a lot of fruit trees.

This was achieved under 2 hours in rainy conditions, which, though not ideal for humans, is perfect for trees.

We dug, heeled trees in, mulched with woodchip and hops from the local Abbeydale brewery.

I'll be sure to check on the growth of these trees in years to come!

Many hands make light work!

There was an Abundance of volunteers this Wednesday lunchtime to harvest apples with Friends of Whirlowbrook Park, and thank goodness, because what a crop!

We met Nicola and other "friends of" at the entrance to the park and were led to the recently unearthed orchard, where there were 5 or so apple trees that had been hidden and not harvested for an estimated 30 years, plus lots of newly planted baby fruit trees.

Celine kicked things off with a wassail, blessing the trees with a verse, some apple cider vinegar and toast(!)

We then set to the usual work of clearing windfalls, getting in with telescopic pickers and then the fun of shaking the trees and catching fruit with a big tarpaulin. Yoseph was our intrepid tree-climber today, taking on the branch shaking from the top.

The bumper crop was quality control sorted into firsts, seconds and thirds. Most of the thirds were left for nature and, after we took as many as we wanted, the firsts and seconds will be distributed to good causes.

We were invited back for a 3rd year running to help out at the annual fundraising plant swap + sale for Friends of Whirlowbrook Park, and it was certainly the weather for a morning outside 🌞.

We helped with set up, assisting people to cars with their purchases, recruiting donors and take down at the end. Not only was a lovely time had by all, over £900 was raised towards a new orchard area! 🌳🍏🌳🍎🌳🍐🌳

You too can help out completely free by voting for FoWP to win more funds here: https://ticketsource.wishpondpages.com/ticketsource-community-fund-2024/entries/205493928

Friends of Whirlowbrook Park put on lots of fun family activities today for the Easter weekend. There was archery, face painting, a book sale and the main attraction, the Easter Egg trail!

Families followed the bunny hop footprints around the park to find eggs with letters on, then rearranged the scrambled egg letters into a seasonal punchline, which they then exchanged for choccy eggs:

What do you get if you pour boiling water down a rabbit hole?

Our volunteer role was marshaling the car park, directing visitors to free spaces and also controlling traffic where the trail crossed the road.

It was a beautiful day for our first community mission of the year and a great turnout of 6 Goodgymmers (plus hanger-on Devon - maybe he will be tempted to join us proper...). We had an energetic start - most of us on our bikes and 3 of us having been to Parkrun beforehand! 🌞🏃🏻‍♀️🚲

Jobs included:

• Hammering staples into a new boardwalk for grip 🔨
• Pruning Magnolia ✂️
• Brushing/scraping leaves and soil away from the edges of paths and car park 🧹

Shelagh says they would welcome us back any time for their regular volunteer session on the 1st Saturday of the month. I will be listing a task with them on Saturday of Easter weekend marshaling an Easter Egg hunt (that seems so far away!) 🥚

GoodGym members joined Friends of Whirlowbrook Park to help set up and run a plant swap and sale raising funds for kid's activity trail through the woods, nicknamed the "WoW" trail.

We helped set up and take down signs to advertise the sale. One was a very prettily painted and large. We found it tried its best to blow away with any big gust of wind...

It's a plant sail!

During the sale, we were on hand to help people carry their heavy goods to their cars and we all took the opportunity to pick up some plants for our own gardens too.

The event raised more than £700, doubling last year's total! 💰