Sol, Gillian and Sheila were at the community allotment this evening, carrying out the staple activities of watering and weeding. We left the allotment all well-watered, the water butts full, and significantly fewer weeds

An amazing 8 Goodgymers turned up the community allotment on a sweltering hot evening. With so many helpers the watering was done in no time, and the hose left filling the water butts while we got on with the main task of the evening. 3 fig trees already planted in the ground needed digging up, repotting into larger containers, and replanting into larger holes. Digging up the trees was the easy bit! Making the holes larger meant we had to contend with buried, bricks, tiles and tree roots as well as brambles and nettles on the surface. Sol arrived just in time to give us a much-needed boost, spurring us on to dig deeper. The trees were put into their new containers along with some bits of pottery, top soil and manure, complete with a good helping of worms. What more could a fig tree need? We sank them into their new holes, filled any gaps with soil and gave them a good water. A great effort by everyone on such a hot evening and we all went home to cool off!

Meggie, Gillian and Sheila helped out at the Community Allotment. We did a bit of watering, moved some raspberries, weeded in the broccoli/spinach and leek/pepper beds, and finished up with weeding between the paving slabs. Meggie took some delicious-looking salad leaves home for her dinner. Great job, team!

Despite being a very rainy evening, Meggie, Kelley and Sheila still decided to go along to the community allotment to carry out some tasks. The skies had already done a good job of doing the watering for us, so we moved straight on to the next task. Kelley planted a donated strawberry into the strawberry bed, and we planted a raspberry cane each, in with the others. The main event was to attempt to control the brambles which were re-sprouting around the newly-planted fruit trees. We decided, rather than cutting them down, it would be better to dig them out, for a longer-term solution. We started around each tree, working our way out. Luckily the rain had loosened the ground but some of the roots were well established. Meggie perfected the art of digging whilst still holding her umbrella! By the time we called it a day, we had a clear area around each tree, but there is still some way to go. We were drenched through and very muddy, but all agreed it was good to get out of the house and get some fresh air. Thanks to the Men in Sheds team for offering to wash the gloves, and to Meggie for the report title

Roberta, Kay and Kanika helped out at the community allotment this Friday afternoon.

We started with the watering but after a slight confusion about the task with some other volunteers that turned up, moved to setting up a new bed for the raspberries. We lay down the black weed suppressant, topped with some horse manure and few bag loads of soil before planting the raspberries.

Here's hoping they thrive in their new bed.

4 Goodgym chicks met at the allotment to tackle one of the raised beds.

They needed to know the difference between radishes and celeriac and weeds and carrots! They started by removing all the chickweed and other unwanted visitors from the raised bed to prepare the area for planting.

Once the bed was cleared Gillian and Jess collected horse manure from the compost bin whilst Angela and Amy spread it around the bed. Then Amy and Jess lugged the topsoil bags over and this was spread over the top. They had to carefully negotiate the already planted carrots and lettuce to ensure they had enough space to grow.

With the bed prepared, it was time to tuck in some celeriac plants. They were small seedlings and needed some gentle handling as they were poked into the soil. Finally everything got a healthy watering with some added garlic to keep the slugs off.

After a nosy around the garden to see what has changed and what was growing the team set off for home looking forward to the next visit to see the fruits of their labours!