It was a chilly night for our last bulb-planting session of 2023. This time we took a section of the Marston Road which we planted up last year but had not flowered too well, in the hope that a few extra bulbs would help fill in the display. Despite being a select team of only the most hardcore GoodGymers we got 5 buckets of bulbs in the ground.

A sprint back up the hill to Oxford Brookes helped us warm up after an hour out in the cold.

Great work team - looking forward to the Marston daffodil display in the spring!

This evening a bunch of gardening Goodgymers indulged in a spot of speedy planting.

Teaming up with Alistair from Marston Community Garden we continued our bulb plabting project around Marston. The idea is to cover green spaces on the drive into Oxford with bulbs to create a colourful welcome to the city come the spring.

With limited light and time we cracked on quickly and managed to work our way through several buckets of bulbs.

Congratulations to Alistair on Marston Community Gardens recent award!

More congrats to Oliver for reaching 10 good deeds and to Fred for reachinf 50!! Thank you to Fred for the delicious cookies. Almost made up for my lck of posh pesto.....

A warm welcome to Marta visiting us from Greenwich. Please come and see us again next time you're in Oxford!

One more planting session in 2023 folks!

GoodGymers in Autumn are basically bulb-planting machines. We have been sprinkling daffodil bulbs like fairy dust all over Marston for a few years now, and it's always a pleasure to see them sprout in the spring (phew! we didn't do it wrong!).

This week's race against the rain and darkness was along Oxford Road. Team work makes the dream work, and despite being accused of digging up/stealing the ground (a new complaint for us), we planted buckets and buckets of bulbs between Cherwell Drive and Gordon Close.

Nice to meet you Gaby!

Every autumn since 2019 GoodGym Oxford have joined Alistair (the mastermind behind Marston Community Gardeners) planting daffodil bulbs around the streets of Marston. This year we are turning our attention to the Marsh Lane area. It is one of the main routes into Oxford, particularly if you are heading to one of the hospitals, and so it would be great if it had a sweep of daffodils all the way along the route to welcome people into the city.

Thanks to it having been a wetter summer it was a lot easier to get a spade in the ground this year, so we made great progress planting up around the junction with the ring road until the failing light stopped play.

Watch out for the blooms in March!

Congratulations Bethan on reaching 300 good deeds!

This evening might have to go down n Goodgym Oxford annuls as the soggiest task yet! Even before we started we all had rain dripping off our noses!

This was a return visit to Marston Rec to mulch and weed saplings which we helped to plant. Greeted by Alistair and Sylvie, we tried to work as quickly as we could to get all the tasks done before we were soaked beyond our actual skin!

We weeded, card-boarded and mulched some existing saplings and planted some more fruit bushes. At least we won't have to worry about the new plants being destroyed by unusual heat like last year.

After a quick celebratory Viennese Whirl to celebrate the birthdays of Fred and Axelle we dashed off, some of us to run (once you're wet, you're wet right?!?) and some to warm up with burgers and jazzy onsies!

We've seen orchard triangle through from the beginning of the project - turning out in the winter a few years ago to clear the brambles and other vegetation which had grown out of control and covered the footpath through, and then coming back regularly through the summer months to care for the fruit bushes and trees.

Last night's task was weeding around the fruit bushes along the fence line, then laying cardboard around each plant, mulching with woodchip, and giving them a thorough water. The cardboard and woodchip should help with water retention, and give the plants the best chance of thriving despite the dry weather.

After giving all the fruit bushes some tlc we still had a little time in hand, so were able to weed a stretch of hedge line and remove the guards from the saplings there, and also spread woodchip on top of the cardboard along the footpath entrance to help keep the vegetation at bay along the right of way.

We had a post-task trip to the Up in Arms since this was likely to be a last task for both Suzy and Sam who are both moving away from Oxford. Good luck in your new cities!