On a grey and damp Sunday, Adam from Woking GG and Jassy from Kingston GG got stuck in helping at the Kingston Edible Forest. Wedded to the task of getting as much done outside while it stayed dry(ish), we started off by helping our hosts to move a bridge so as they could redirect the pathways through the forest. Once that threshold was crossed, next up was digging up some privet that had formed a ring around a plum tree, and replanting it elsewhere so it could fill its own space instead of competing with the plum. Lastly we took woody cuttings of blackcurrant and redcurrant and planted them into a freshly dug bed before getting warmed up with a hearty feast of Brian's parsnip soup and Christmas cake from a local bakery. It was a lovely task and we look forward to going back again soon. Thanks to everyone for their hard work and good spirits!

We needed a bit of good fortune today with a lovely mild fine autumnal day at the Edible Forest to help make up missing a couple of folk. And well done to Amy for her first mission with GoodGym and to Jane’s nephew Luke who completed volunteering section of his Duke of Edinburgh.

Today’s tasks were the inaugural sowing the tree seeds which GoodGymers and the folk from the Edible Forest have been collecting over the last few weeks, for the 100,000 new trees scheme for Kingston.

We planted mini avenues of rowens, acacias, maples, Judas. And we remain curious about our mysterious avenue called Kingston Medley - a lucky dip of tree seeds we could not identify!

We now hope and pray that the Edible Forest may see a few healthy saplings sprouting next spring, that they can in turn donate to areas of Kingston in need of trees.

We also achieved clearing growing areas, transplanting black currant and gooseberry bushes and picking the last of the quinces and medlars.

Thank you to Ben and Brian for hosting us and making a forest campfire to heat Brian’s delicious homemade pumpkin soup, quite literally of Cordon Bleu quality, served with dash of cream and freshly grated nutmeg and Jane’s homemade cheese scones no less!

Great team work everyone!

Look out for the next Forest Foray same time next month...

Rob, Jane and Jassy delivered our first batch of seeds tonight to the Edible Forest - as part of the 100,000 trees for Kingston scheme.

They are now being stored in the dry shed in the forest till we're next back for the planting session on 18th October.

So runners have plenty more time to keep gathering more tree seeds till then (remember small and medium species only... avoid oaks, chestnuts, plain trees etc)

Before leaving, we shook the remaining apples of a tree and Rob with a long-arm contraption with cup on the end managed to get the last quinces from the heady heights of the quince tree for his Quince Crumble coming up soon!

As summer draws to a close at the forest and it moves into autumnal mode, it has come up with a top seed of an idea as have Good Gym!

4 of us - Adam from Woking, Jane, Rob, Hannah and task owners Brian and Ben got to work on their seed of an idea - we are going to be organising a community mission to collect seeds from small and medium trees across the borough. A primary school and scout group will also be collecting too to enable the forest to plant 1000s of seeds in order to get a supply of trees to plant to make our borough greener.

So our task was to build a couple of beds ready for their seeds! And cover it with chicken wire and cardboard to stop the squirrels, foxes and weeds taking it over.

Our other seed of an idea is a result of all the fruit that GoodGymers have benefitted from over the summer and still the apples kept coming last night.... how about a GoodGym Forest Bake Off (includes drink making too...damson gin etc!)???

And watch this space for the seed mission - we have the next 2 weeks to make it happen!

No one was deterred by a bit of warm rain and Kingston was delighted to welcome back the damsels from Bristol Uni and Steve who came all the way over from Greenwich - amazing!

Thanks to Brian and Ben for letting us pick from the luscious damson trees to put them out of any distress! We left with a bag full each. Maybe even enough to make our first batch of GG damson gin?

We also made light rope work of putting to bed for winter the netting round the gooseberry bushes and anchoring branches of an errant plum tree to ensure they grow low for easy fruit picking next year.

And if anyone has any good tips for damsons please let us know!

This weeks report title is in honour of our friend Neil from Bexley group who ran all the way from that side of town. A long winding road doesn’t even do it justice - 18 miles to get to the Edible Forest.

Then a bit more leg work scaling ladders high into the heady heights of plum trees to cut off all the dead wood to let more light in for future growth.

We also chopped a useless cherry tree down that was about to fall across the gangway.

Congrats Neil and we hope you enjoyed your train ride home with some forest fruit to graze on. And are not to ‘saw’ tomorrow.

Thanks to Ben and Brian for hosting us. See you in 2 weeks.