What a fantastic time we had helping out at The Community Hospice!

This was our most popular community mission so far, with GoodGym members coming from Greenwich, Tower Hamlets, Camden, and of course, Bexley. It was great to see so many friendly faces ready to get stuck in!

Jason, the Head Gardener, had lots of jobs for us to do to get the garden looking at its best before the Open Gardens Festival next weekend. And wow—we got loads done!

✅ We pulled out weeds

✅ Cleared ivy and brambles from the wall

✅ Cut back some bushes

✅ Tidied up the whole area

Everyone worked hard and made a big difference. The garden is now looking fresher and ready to welcome visitors!

We also had some brilliant milestones to celebrate:

🎉 A huge congratulations to John gaining his GoodGym crown with his 500th good deed—amazing 👑!

👏 Well done to Zita, Robert, and Caroline for reaching 10 good deeds each.

Go team!

Thanks to everyone who came along—it was such fun, and we’re already looking forward to the next one. 🌼🌳

Today’s mission: bring life, colour, and order to the garden at the Community Hospice—with a dash of GoodGym sparkle.

When we arrived, Jason—the Hospice’s amazing gardener—welcomed us with a modest goal: “If we can get five privet plants in, I’ll be chuffed.” Well Jason, prepare to be thoroughly chuffed… because we planted TWELVE!

But that’s not all. While some of us were digging, planting, and lovingly patting down privet plants, the rest of the crew grabbed their brushes and got stuck into painting.

Talk about multitasking heroes!

Paint flew, shrubs settled in, and the space was transformed.

The difference between the ‘before’ and ‘after’ was genuinely heartwarming. A massive well done, Team GG —you absolutely nailed it.

In glorious sunshine it was a task of two halves at the Community Hospice gardens this morning.

Working on the children's outdoor play area, some of us pulled up a weed membrane to allow the soil underneath to return to nature. It took heavy-duty effort and a coordinated approach to get it up. A proper workout 💪💪💪.

Elsewhere we set about tidying up the overgrown flower bed to give a better view of the play area from the rest of the garden. After taking out a couple of shrubs and clearing the dead parts of last year's growth, we removed some substantial stones that had once been laid to create a kind-of rockery. More muscle power 🏋‍♀️🏋‍♂️!

Then, that's the idea of GoodGym, using our workouts to make a difference.

Shout out to Ashton as this was his 50th good deed. What a fab achievement in just six months since he joined 🥳🎈 !

This was the perfect session for GoodGym's partnership with WWF's Workout For Nature initiative, getting out in nature while giving it a helping hand.

There's still plenty more to do to help Jason, the Hospice's head gardener, realise his plans to transform the grounds, so we'll be back again on the fourth Saturday of each month. Do come along and join us.

This is our new monthly session working with Jason, the head gardener at The Community Hospice.

Our focus was the long border, taking out unwanted plants so the plot can be re-planted when it's been properly prepared.

'Team Roses' got physical digging out several rose bushes to allow the remaining Tender Loving Care roses, bred especially for the Hospice, to be the stars of the show.

'Team Sedge' also needed muscle power to uproot the grassy clumps of Carex pendula that were attempting to crowd out other plants.

'Team Leek' took a more delicate approach, carefully removing the invasive Three-cornered Leek plants - Allium triquetrum - that had been stealthily invading the area. Getting out the entire bulb and roots was the aim of the game here, all with the aroma of onions!

It's always amazing to see how much a team of enthusiastic GoodGymers can achieve in such a short time.

After tidying away the tools we enjoyed tea and coffee in the Hospice café.

We'll be back on the fourth Saturday of each month. Come along and together we'll help Jason realise his plans for the gardens of this wonderful charity.

Today we had our very first gardening session at the lovely Community Hospice! Jason the head gardener, met us for a brief intro before heading down to the long border where the task was to clear out as many of the plants and weeds as possible. Challenge accepted.

Special welcome to Chris who joined his first GoodGym session today!

An hour and a half later and 6 trips to empty the big bag of foliage, the border was much clearer than when we started and those of us able to stay trotted off to warm up and have a nice cup of tea inside.

We'll be back here every month to continue transforming the long border so keep your eyes peeled for the next session!

On wednesday we're painting at Holy Trinity Lamorbey School - join us if you're free.

Until next time!

Well, not exactly dancing but we were leafleting about the Community Hospice's Boogie Wonderland party night, and it was in the moon light...

After a short warm-up we headed off on a gentle run around the streets, leap-frogging each other to deliver the fliers through letterboxes.

Sue did the task with a broken toe - that's true dedication to helping out a good cause!

It's amazing how going up and down driveways and garden paths clocks up the distance and step count. And with six of us on the go we got the job done in no time.

That's one of the things about GoodGym, we try to keep our sessions short and sweet!

Next week it's all change for a spot of painting. Hope to see you there.