Saturday's Community Mission saw us tackling some much-needed garden maintenance at the HMP Bullingdon's visitor centre. With the heatwave finally drawing to a close, we made the most of the slightly more forgiving weather by giving the newly planted hedging the care it deserved. Our main mission was to weed around each plant, clearing away any unwanted competition so the hedging has the best chance to establish itself.

Once everything was weed-free, we gave the hedging a thorough watering - very much needed after the scorching conditions of the past week. We then finished up by spreading cardboard and mulch around the plants to help lock in moisture and keep future weeds at bay. It was satisfying to leave the area looking tidy and knowing the plants are now set up for success. We like to think the hedging is now on the right root to recovery!

After a warm morning’s work (thankfully the last of the heatwave!), we were treated to some well-earned refreshments; water and fresh strawberries, went down an absolute treat. It was a lovely gesture and gave everyone a chance to cool off in the shade and chat after the session.

Overall, it was a productive and enjoyable hour and a half, with plenty achieved and lots of chat along the way. The garden is already looking much neater, and with a bit of luck - and a splash of rain - the hedging will continue to thrive.

We were delighted to welcome David to his first GoodGym task.

This morning we returned to Kate's Place in Florence Park. This is a regular haunt for Goodgym, previously we've planted trees, trimmed hedges, laid turf, created paths and cleared litter from the site.

With an upcoming family fun day on the horizon some piles of (quite prickly) hedge cuttings needed to be shifted, the dead hedge topped up with a few branches and litter and tennis balls cleared up!

In true Goodgym-flash-mob style we had everything cleared uo, ship shape and shiny within an hour, finding an amphibious friend and a duck in lederhosen along the way!

Welcome to Goodgym Steven and Thura! Thanks for getting stuck in, hope to see you at a task again soon!

On Saturday we built a dead hedge at Kate's Place in Florence Park. It was a very satisfying task - easy to grasp the system, pleasing to see progress, and a really good way to use up waste material. It creates a wonderful additional habitat as well as a barrier.

Chatting chickens and kittens while we worked made for a wholesome Saturday morning.

Welcome to GoodGym Ocean!

Seven Goodgymers helped with various jobs around Kate's Place in Florence Park. We moved some wood to make a "dead hedge" habitat, lifted some turf to plant some seeds, and weeded around trees. The main task however was transporting many many watering cans (and even a flexi trug bucket) full of water from the tap at Flo's cafe over to the trees and hedges that needed it after the dry spell we have had. Of course, at the end of our session it began to rain!

Yesterday we made a welcome return to Kate's Place. It was lovely to see it so well established given that we have been involved since it's early days. We did a variety if tasks including hedge trimming, raking leaves, and sowing yellow rattle seeds, then warmed up over a cuppa on Flo's cafe.

A quintet of GoodGymers spent a couple of hours spreading wood chip around the fire area of Naturescape garden, creating vertical log habitats, redoing the tyre planters in the pathway and setting in posts to form an archway. It was warm work but lovely to be outside on a sunny day.