This week we walked and ran from the town centre to the Ferndale allotment on Dallow Downs.

Many of the plots have been out of use for some time and needed a clean up to remove all the old debris, bits of old wood, plastic and metal littered the site but we gathered it all up, sorted it into piles for later collection by the council. We may have munched a few ripe blackberries and raspberries while we were there!

With a big team combing the site we got it all clean and tidy in just a single session, leaving the place looking much more attractive and less like a rubbish tip (or will do when our pile is collected and disposed of! Now its clear and clean the council will be able to advertise the vacant plots to people wanting to grow their own vegetables! 🍆 🥒🥦🌽🥬🧅🥕🫛🫑🧄🥔

This week's group run/walk had two tasks. Runners were sent off to take on the long distance task, painting the hand rail at Holy Trinity church. Walkers took a more sedate journey to the Riverside meadow, hunting for invasive plant species.

Runners were met by William at the church who got the team set up with paint and brushes. Before too long the hand rail leading up to the church was green and so were many of the painters fingers!

Meanwhile over at the Riverside meadow, the efforts of previous years in pulling out the invasive canadian Goldenrod plants had paid off hugely, there was hardly any to be seen, native plants had regained their territory here. After a bit of hunting some young shoots of Goldenrod were found springing up from the roots left behind after a pulling session a few weeks ago. These were pulled up to stop them taking hold again and then a couple of small patches of tall goldenrod about to flower were spotted in the long grass.

Checking further along the river a lone stem of Himalayan Balsam was found and removed before it went to seed.

Calling victory in the battle for native wildlife and painting railings, we all headed off home quickly to catch the second half of England's Victory over the Netherlands 😄🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿⚽🥅🇳🇱🥲

The weather was not in anyway appealing this morning, but a little rain was not going to stop Goodgym Luton getting out and supporting the monthly community litterpick at People's Park. Especially when there is a GG milestone to celebrate 🍾 🙌 👏 👌 👍🏻 😀 🍾. We joined the Friends of Peoples Park and a group of volunteers from another organisation in Luton and litterpicked around 12 bags of rubbish. As I mentioned before though, the highlight was celebrating Rebecca's 100th Goodgym task, well done for achieving this milestone, I can't wait to see you with your wings.

This week we welcomed Omar to his first session with us and then split the team up to tackle two tasks.

We had a long range running crew of 4 people who headed off to Dallow and up Winsdon Hill, where litter picking was the task of the day. After 50 minutes rummaging around the long grass and woods on the hill an impressive pile of bulging litter bags and general dumped junk was hauled out and left by the roadside for collection by the council.

Meanwhile, a walking team headed off to South Luton armed with flyers for FoodCycle who need to find some more volunteers for their Tuesday night dinners. Their target for the night was a climb up the steep and twisty Armstrong Road, where effort is rewarded with a commanding view of the airport from the top.

Finally, a pair of runners who fancied a shorter run chased down the walkers and ran straight up to the top of the hill and started flyering their way down until they met the walkers again.

The flyers were all delivered in double quick time with so many on the task, whereas the litter pickers, despite bringing in an impressive haul, had to leave most of the hillside unpicked, but we will be back!

It was a scorcher at Leagrave Park this morning for this months litterpick as 8 of our dedicated Goodgymers got there sun hats and sun block out so they could support the Friends of Leagrave Park and abcd-in-luton with regular community litterpick. it was lovely to walk about in such a beautiful setting, which benefits so much from a monthly tidy up. Today there was roughly 15 bags collected, a buggy and a safe... yes a safe. Its fair to say it was a workout carrying (and dragging) it back to base. The folp had provided water for everyone that wanted it which was greatly appreciated at the end of the task. Magnificent effort today team 👏

5 of Luton Goodgyms finest had an early start at Leagrave Park this morning. The team set out to maintain the trees planted as part of the peace garden initiative run by Luton Borough Council. We cut back the long grass around the trees and weeded, mulched and watered them. Getting the water was a workout itself as Duncan and I filled up a couple of large containers with water from the river Lea and carried it across the cricket field to where the trees were. 🌳 The weather was nice and we managed to tend to the majority of the trees 🌳. Great effort team 👏