Opening Of The Nature Garden

After months of hard work today was the grand opening of the Knaphill School Nature Garden 😃

Goodgym Woking have been helping Vicki & Mark over the last few months getting what was a waste land at the back of the school into a educational nature garden for the kids of Knaphill Lower School. After months of cutting back brambles to making TP’s, painting fixing the once tired and broken trim trail through the cold wet winter months and even through the recent heatwave we had done it.

This morning Wayne, Julie & Katieheaded to the school to meet Vicki & Mark & Victoria who helped with the designed of the garden as well as the headteacher along with a special guest to officially open the area 🌿

The weather did not seem to get the memo 🌧️. But that did not stop special guest Charlotte Hawkins from GMB to come.

Charlotte arrived about 9am and Vicki introduced the whole team and even mentioned some of our team who unfortunately could not make this morning

Brollys were up ☔️ and a little walk around the garden showing all the different play zone. Charlotte was very impressed by the bird Boxes 🐦‍⬛ that were done by the Goodgym team, Ola’s box was picked out 😃

Charlotte was also keen on hearing more about Goodgym and was really impressed and was going to get her husband to sign up to a local session 🤣

As the weather got worse we headed into the school for a warm beverage and chat.

Hopefully as the weather gets better the kids can get out and enjoy the play area.

Charlotte then said her goodbyes and headed off.

The finishing posts are in sight as the finishing touches and final tidy up got done. It was lovely to see Katie who did a great job weeding the brambles out of the wild flower area and the herb beds, and Stephanie who battled with the ivy and more brambles trying to reclaim the bird watching area. A lot of raking up dead leaves and a few more plants in place means that we're nearly ready for the big opening on 8th June. It's been a long journey and i hear that the children are getting very excited about the new area as they watch it come together.

Knaphill Lower School Nature Garden

This morning Wayne, Kirsty, & Julie met at the Knaphill lower school nature garden to finish off the last few tasks before the grand opening in a few week ☀️

The weather was amazing 😎. We were as always met by Vicki & Mark. Wayne first task was to get the whose pipe working as there were issues with the connections 🤔. After 10 mins of re-configuration we had water 💦.

Once the hose pipe issue had been rectified Wayne onto to the bug hotel 🐞🐛 to fix and attached the the fence around the hotel 🐜

Kirsty was tasked with painting the seated area 👩🏻‍🎨.

Julie was in charge of the positioning of the plants that had been donated to the school as well as clearing some logs. 🪴

We have one more visit to finish off which is next weekend before the grand opening 😄

Back at Knaphill Lower School and the nature garden is really coming into its own—so close to the finish line now you can almost hear the bugs moving in! Today’s task was all about the details. The concrete mushrooms made last week got a coat of paint, bringing a pop of colour to their new woodland home. Just the spots to paint on them now! Meanwhile, Vikki and Mark were busy working their magic on some logs, drilling in specialist dowels to create a mushroom growing bed—setting things up for some real fungi to join the party in time. Another small but satisfying step towards a fully flourishing garden 🌿

A great turn out today of 6 Goodgymers meant that we made great progress on the school garden. Luan and Kirsty started by collecting plants from another area of the school to add to the previous planting which is settling in and looking amazing. Anne and Katie painted the bug hotel with lovely red paint inspired by the Good Gym branding. Stephanie got stuck in to making some concrete mushrooms - we are very excited to see how those turn out. Julie finally got to use some of the massive compost heap to fill a wormery so that the children will be able to see how worms aerate the soil by creating tunnels and pull down leaf litter from the surface to help decompose it and create more lovely soil. A great team effort today - Vikki is planning a grand opening after half term so watch out for the date for this.

A small but mighty team of three GoodGymers headed back to Knaphill Lower School’s nature garden today, and with the finish line in sight, it was all hands on deck to bring the space closer to completion.

We kicked things off together, planting the last batch of flowers to add even more colour and life to the garden. With the beds blooming nicely, we then split off to tackle a few key jobs: Katie got creative, giving the bug hotel a fresh coat of paint – making it not only a cosy spot for insects, but a real feature in the garden. •Kirsty took on the perimeter, cutting back some wayward branches and helping to tidy up the edges of the space. •StephanieStephanie (that’s me!) took on the task of digging a deep hole for a post. It took some perseverance (and a bit of sweat!), but we got there in the end 💪 With the sun shining down on us, it was one of those sessions that reminds you why these tasks are so rewarding – great company, meaningful work, and a lovely setting. To top it all off, Vikki and Mark were really pleased with the what we achieved and how the garden is coming along. As a thank you for all the help over the past few months, they kindly gifted us a mug and a crochet coaster – such a lovely thing! The transformation of the garden has been incredible, especially over the past few weeks and it’s now looking absolutely fantastic. Just a few final touches to go… 🌿✨ Can’t wait to see it fully finished!