Tonight 3 GoodGymers had a run down to St Stephen's Church Hall in Kirkstall to dig up the weeds & plant bulbs ready for spring.

We've gardened here throughout the summer & it's all looking much better. It will be nice to have some flowers growing in the spring!

Tonight 4 GoodGymers went back to St Stephen's Church Hall in Kirkstall to clear the weeds once again. That's the problem with weeds...they keep growing back!!

We got lots done and had a good chin wag whilst working. We'll done gang!

Tonight we went back to St Stephen's Church Hall to get more of their overgrown garden cleared. We cleared many many prickly plants....how exactly do prickles get on the inside of your gardening gloves?! We got stuck in and cleared a large area, improving what we did last week. It's now ready for planting. Well done team!

This week we went back to Kirkstall Valley Farm.

We had 3 seperate areas to tend to, so split into pairs

Katie and Nik got to work planting broccoli, whilst Helen and Shannen began by clearing weeds around the broccoli, and Tom and Rob cleared up some weeds further along the plot, around the kale.

We worked away, with the speed of 100 scouts (not just 7!) - Goodgym knows how to get the job done! We admired our work, before promptly starting to cover it again.

Tom and I got talking about Endure24, and about how good it would be to enter a team from GG Leeds... anyone interested? https://www.endure24.co.uk/events/leeds/entry/

Well done everyone - 6km run and lots of work done! We headed to The Golden Beam for a catch-up before parting ways.

This week we were a group of 8. We all gathered outside HPBC and eagerly started our run in the sun down to Kirkstall Valley Farm.

The Run

On route , about 10 mins into the run , we headed into Burley Park for a 500m time trial. It became a serious - it was time to race!

The top 3 runners finished within seconds of each other, and everyone gave it a great effort. Well done Team 👏

We ran the rest of the way to the task and met Rhian.

The Task

This week's task involved moving lots of compost - 40 barrows(!) - and deposting it along several plots.

We had a team of two - Tom and Alex prepare cardboard and lay it on a new plot , Rachael on raking duties, and everyone else doing a marvelous job of loading and moving the barrowfulls of compost.

After this - we moved on to broadbean planting. We split into two teams- 4 on each side - and raced to plant as many beans as possible. It was great fun and in the end we were all winners. This inspired Rachael to ask the question that we were all (most certainly) thinking:

Don't you think it's mad that beans make more beans

Well done everyone on a great effort this week- we managed to get a lot done. I'm sure we'll be invited back again soon.

Have a great week!

8 brave runners left the warmth of home behind and braced the cold weather- and snow - to volunteer for Kirkstall Valley Farm.

In stark contrast to last week, this week has brought back the winter layers, long sleeves, gloves and head warmers. Staying inside as long as possible, putting off the inevitable, eventually we ventured out into the snow.

After a quick warm up and question - finding out your favourite karaoke songs - we ran the 3km to the farm 🚜 in good spirits and good time. There we met Rhian ,our task owner, and were shown the farm and what was in store for us.

Kirkstall valley farm is a community run farm which uses organic farming practices, producing vegetables for the local community. Tonight's task had us joining the effort to cultivate some veg, by moving and layering compost. And there was lots of compost to move! It was no bother to us, as working hard meant that we kept warm on this chilly evening.

It was great to meet new goodgymer Nik, who had run seperately to the task. He has now completed his first good deed, give him a cheer!

Helen was straight off the mark, and had already filled a wheelbarrow by the time the rest of us had realised we'd started. Soon afterwards, we all joined in. Katie, Shannen and Rebecca started with loading the barrows and took it in turns to move it to the field. Here, Tom and Alex did a great job raking the compost flat, whilst Nik was getting to the root of the problem, with a decent gardening folk and determination.

Well done everyone for moving heaven and earth for goodgym- we managed to move and spread at least 50 barrows of compost - that's impressive! I'm looking forward to seeing you next week on our next group run to Meanwood Valley Urban Farm.