Tonight, 9 of Luton Goodgyms finest came together to support Penrose roots to recovery. The team made there own way to the task, some running from town, and others making their own way. Tigger even parked up early then went for a cheeky 10k run 🏃‍♀️ beforehand.
We were welcomed by Lynne at Penrose with all the tools to get stuck in to turning over a vast bed, preparing it for planting potatoes 🥔. There were quite a few weeds to clear and the team cleared quite a few wheel barrow full. We didn't get to dig the trenches but we'll no doubt be back to support again soon. Great job team. You're all awesome.

This week the GoodGym Luton team gathered once again at the Town Hall for our weekly Group Run.

We were heading for the Penrose Roots to Recovery allotment project where their team use gardening to engage with people recovering from lives of crime and addiction, give them a place to talk through their issues and help them stay on the right path.

The garden has grown tons of produce this year but one of the heavier jobs, harvesting potatoes, was right up our street.

We set off at dusk with our usual walking and running groups and made it to the garden in good time where we armed ourselves with forks and dug for the buried potato treasure.

Loads of potatoes were uncovered as we made our way across the plot which we had thoroughly prepared for planting back in the spring, so it was nice to return and see the final product!

With all potatoes tucked nicely away in the poly tunnel we headed off to the nearby Wardown Park bandstand for a good stretching session to keep ourselves nice and limber.

This week we welcomed Yasin to the team as we made our way to the Penrose roots to recovery garden.

There were signs of crops popping up in the various plots with parsnips, garlic and lettuces already well on their way. The potatoes we dug trenches for in the spring were also doing well.

Weeding the plots was our task for the evening, hoeing in between the potatoes and digging over the end of another plot where things are yet to be planted.

With a good number of us we made good progress and many barrows of weeds ended up on the compost pile.

Walkers set off while the runners headed to Wardown park for a quick and gentle workout on our cores, it was too hot for anything more strenuous!

Goodgym weekly group run on a cloudy but warm-ish evening took us from the town centre on a 2k walk, bike or run (OK Sam was the runner) to the Penrose Roots to Recovery garden. The overnight rainfall has made the ground slightly easier to work but also promoted speedy weed growth. With directions from Peter we took up the garden forks and worked our way along the designated plot cleaning a very thistley patch and making space for more planting.

We set off in two groups this week, walkers and runners, to meet Peter at the Penrose Roots to Recovery garden for another stint at bringing a potato plot back into use. We dug an extra two trenches for spuds and de-turfed a further area that will also be trenched soon. The garden is going to be full of taters this year!

This week our team came together led by Sam, a last minute Taskforce stand-in, as our regular leader was laid up with injury 🤕.

Our task was at frequent partner, the Penrose Roots to Recovery garden, where a plot we had weeded previously was scheduled for potato planting but needed the trenches digging.

The team dug away making three straight and true trenches, all ready for Penrose's clients to come in and get planting.