it was the May edition of the social gardening club at St Margarets House and GoodGymmers Chloe and Sam showed up ready to tackle a thick ivy bush out on the front road. We snipped away and had to avoid being showered with dust as we the older inner roots came down. A focussed hour of work saw us fill 10 sacks of green waste! Come along next time for this regular midweek mid-afternoon task.

Here are the dates for the next four months:

Tuesday 23rd June, 4-7pm Wednesday 22nd July, 4-7pm Thursday 20th August, 4-7pm Wednesday 23rd September, 4-7pm

Two GoodGymers, Sam and Chandrima, joined the St Margaret’s House Gardening Club for a late-afternoon session of garden TLC under sunny spring skies. 🌞 Emily and John welcomed the pair and set out the jobs for this month’s social gardening meet-up. 🌿

Sam got stuck into weeding the landscaped beds and pathways in the garden, helping to keep the borders looking neat and the planting areas clear. Then, he assisted John in lifting some heavy gardening equipment. 🌱 💪🏻

Chandrima focused on litter-picking both inside the garden and around the wider settlement, then tackled the chaos caused by the local squirrels by sweeping up stray leaves and displaced soil, and brushing some of the mulch back into the beds to tidy the edges. 🧹🐿️

By the end of the session, the pathways were cleared, the beds looked freshly tidied and weeded, and the whole space felt ready for the next wave of visitors. ✨

It was dark. It was wet. It was very wet. But this garden was swept like a hurricane.St Margaret's House has today the most pristine garden East London as ever seen.

At this month's monthly social gardening club we were following the lead of John whose landscape gardening company completed the transformation into the appealing space it is today.

GoodGym's task was to lay a pebble path. We loaded bags of the muddy stones into wheelbarrows, rinsed them until their natural light colour returned and unloaded them on the snaking path.

Join us for the next social gardening club on Wednesday 19th November

Three GGers made it along to Emily (pictured middle) from St Margarets House's social gardening club, joining a handful of others who turned up to volunteer. She started with an interesting history lesson of the renovation that's taken place there over the last few years and how the garden has been designed and built, including detail such as the different shades of green of the shrubs, carefully with those recovering from trauma in mind. So it was for this good cause that we went along to help out. Frankie put in a true shift around the decking area while John and Sam chipped in with the leaf sweeping and working on the compost. Next social gardening club is Thursday 16th October 4-7pm so please come along!

There are some very nice berry trees at St Margaret's Gardens, but tiny bits of the fruit drop between the slats of the patio, getting crushed and mingling with dirt and tiny stones. It's quite messy

We worked on clearing the cracks, and the entire area, of morsels of fruit and other dirt, and sweeping the paths. It certainly looked better when we finished than when we arrived

Welcome Gabriella for her first task, while taking a summer break from studying. We hope to see you back, all year round!