It was lovely to be back at the Children's Allotment for the first time since they opened up last autumn. It was quite a different sight than when we first came to help out back in the spring of 2019 - now there's a polytunnel classroom, mud kitchen, running water, loo, lots of produce thriving in raised beds, and barely a bramble to be seen.

This week we were back on wood chip duties...the play mound needed making safe by covering with weed suppressing fabric and a thick layer of woodchip. A few bits of glass and metal had been making their way to the surface so the nice thick layer of woodchip will ensure that the area is much safer for playing. Elsewhere Mark and Julia sharpened their carpentry skills repairing the mud kitchen work bench, a handful of GoodGymers were given a composing masterclass, and everyone else snapped on the gardening gloves and got weeding the polytunnel raised beds and around the raspberry canes. Watering was done, peas were eaten, and a generally wholesome evening was had.

Welcome to GoodGym Oxford Emily!

Thanks to Ben for the excellent pun/report title!

It is always a joy to go to the Children's Allotment and today was no different.

Alice and her team are busy putting the final plans in place for the grand opening at the end of October and needed a bit of Goodgym pixie dust sprinkled over a fee jobs.

Enjoying some surprisingly hot autumn sunshine we leveled off and membraned some area of the polytunnel in readiness for some new raised beds. The entrance to the site was also spruced up and tidied (all worms disturbed were given a new home in the compost area), kale was planted and compost ferried across the site.

We ended our task with some acrobatic apple-picking and were sent on our merry ways with apples for crumble/cake/juice etc.

Group runs are baaaaaack

A few of us celebrated the return of group runs by jogging to the Children's Allotment, tin of flapjacks in hand! Baked goods are always required to celebrate milestones, no matter how disintegrated they get on the journey over! Well done to Lorenzo and Sarah on your 50th and 100th good deeds!!

Tonight we returned to one of our favorite spots The Children's Allotment. We have loved coming here over the past few years and it is fantastic to see the progress of the site, and so exciting that it is nearly ready to open!

Alice set us to work weeding areas of the site, cutting back enthusiastic plants (ivy, brambles), shifting wood chip and painting the shed and new compost toilet structure. We discovered interesting spiders (the Fake Black Widow with its round bottom, the Kardashian of the spider world maybe?!?), accidentally gave woodlice a blue tinge and marveled at the plants in the snazzy new poly-tunnel.

A warm welcome to Jules and Matty joining us for the first time, we hope to see you again! And a huge thank you to Alice for allowing us our repeated visits and being so welcoming and joyous!

Another fabulous session completed at The Children's Allotment. This week we were able to admire the new polytunnel, complete with lovely new doors. It's been a long time coming, thanks to COVID, and it looks (and smells) brilliant.

As usual we had a warm welcome from Alice and her blackboard of tasks. This week the focus was on weeding, clearing grass cuttings, watering various areas of the allotment and laying down weed membrane and woodchip (our favorite!), and clearing the mud and weeds from the concrete path.

In true Goodgym fashion we all got stuck in. Long grass was raked and collected, bind weed was untangled from trees, strawberries and herb plants, raised beds, trees and grass seed was watered and various bits of rubble and rubbish was loaded into the skip. We also managed to lay down lots of weed membrane and started on the wood chipping to hopefully keep more weeds at bay!

It is always remarkable what a team of Goodgymers can achieve in just over an hour and we even managed to sample strawberries from a bed which we planted up in April!

A big well done to Matty on your tenth good deed - maybe the quickest new to 10 we've had so far, and thanks for your education on bugs!

Welcome to Aaron, Isaac and Claire. It was so lovely to meet you all and we hope to see you all again soon!

Today's task really did put the Gym into Goodgym.

We arrived at The Children's Allotment to find a slightly exasperated Alice. Her order of 20 tonnes of top-soil and compost had been delivered to the wrong end of the allotment site and was currently blocking an access gate. Step in Goodgym and our can-do attitude!

We quickly divided into three groups - one group at the delivery site armed with shovels, one shuttling back and forth with wheel barrows and one at the newly constructed raised beds ready to receive and layer up the soil.

It really was a case of all hands on deck - wheelbarrows materialised from allotment holders and the neighbouring Boundary Brook Nature Reserve (see you soon xx), barrows and bags were filled and scooted down to their originally-intended destination, and as Goodgymers had to go home new helpers stepped in to help.

Team work really does make the dream work.

Finally laying down our tools at 8pm we had managed to shift a whopping 6.5 tonnes of soil and compost and restore access through the blocked gate.

Huge congratulations to Isabella and Zoe on your 50 Good Deeds milestones - get those black t-shirts ordered!

This afternoon eleven (10 beautifully on time, one sprinting in sweaty and late) goodgymers descended on the Children's Allotment. We were greeted by the lovely Alice and her snazzy new blackboard full of tasks for us to get stuck into. A lot of these tasks built on work that previous goodgym sessions had started.

Splitting into appropriately socially distanced teams we sawed logs, spread woodchip (we are experts), unearthed bramble roots, watered fruit plants, spread and raked top-soil, sowed grass seed and finished the construction of the silver-birch border around some plant beds.

It was such a fantastic way to spend an afternoon. The sun shone, we discussed the zen-like nature of raking, discovered smutty labels on the top soil bags and at the end had a well-earned rest in the allotment hammock. We are already looking forward to out session in May - soon to be listed, keep your eyes peeled.

A huge welcome to Jo joining a group run for the first time - we hope to see you again soon!