Did you know that Pitzhanger Manor in Walpole Park, along with the surrounding area, will soon be the filming location of the Antiques Roadshow? Because of that, the rangers and volunteers are carrying planting activities, turning the ordinary grass patches into elegant flowerbeds.

A small but effective team of GoodGymers had a go on the planting task one Saturday in April. Tonight, GoodGym was returning with some experience and twice as many people to try to finish off the planting. Was the work easier this time?

There are no great GoodGym adventures without challenges!

⏱️ We were tight on time! It was a group run, so we needed to adjust the timings to account for that (well done Ijo on keeping a steady pace! 🙌)!

🍕 We had a booking for a monthly pizza social! That meant time was even more precious! The planting team - including the newest addition to the team, Georgina, worked extra hard to complete the whole geranium patch - and we did it! We only managed to wrap up on time because we had Milly leading the group to the venue, and Steph staying to help with putting away the tools.

⛔ The code to the lockbox didn't work! Luckily, the ranger was on duty 🫡 and saved the day, answering the call. Otherwise, we might have gone straight home (or for the pizza 😋)!

🖍️ There were no markings on the ground this time! Luckily, Annabel kept her eyes wide open and figured out the exact planting location from the photos we had! Sevan's knowledge of the location from the previous task allowed us to start digging right away.

🌱 The soil was not prepared this time! We had to deal with removing a large patch of grass first. It was a blessing to have Claire on the team, with her gardening expertise and the brilliant idea to use forks, not just shovels, to quickly prepare the ground.

🧱 There were bricks in the soil! In some areas we used brute force, in others we worked around the bricks. The plants may not ended up evenly distributed, yet they made their way to the soil!

🍂 We had to do some mulching too! With a bigger team, not everyone could do the planting. Taskforce Mike, Milly and Steph knew the drill and volunteered right away to wheelbarrow the woodchip and distribute it gently between the existing plants.

Thank you, Amazing Team, for the incredible effort in such a short time! 🤩 You totally deserved the pizza prize after the task!

Next week we are finally back to St Andrew's Church to help create gravel paths in their Pocket Allotment. Sign up now!

What is the standard modus operandi of GoodGymers at Walpole Park? Sneak into the Rickyard tool store when it's dark, take some wheelbarrows, rakes or shovels, then make a gardening transformation while shrouded by night. When our amateurishness in the gardening craft comes out, at least no one can see it until the morning! Today's session was nothing like that.

GoodGym Ealing had already a busy schedule of evening group runs in the spring. But how could we turn down Ranger Jon's offer to do planting by the Walled Garden - especially knowing that three episodes of Antiques Roadshow would be filmed around Pitzhanger Manor and Gallery in May? We decided to take a challenge and perform in front of the audience on Saturday morning as gardeners.

"Excuse me, can you tell me if those flowers that you are planting need a lot of maintenance?" - asked a passerby seeing our exploits.

We must have been making a good impression out there, in the open, if we were asked for gardening advice! Unfortunately, we didn't know the answer and that's where acting experts ended.

"What are those marks?", enquired another lady looking at the markings on the ground below us, "I thought there were large snails. They leave trails."

Until now, we were sure that the clear markings with boundaries between planting sections, plant codes and the expected quantity of plants were left for us a couple of days before by Ranger Jon. Now creeping thoughts have entered our minds: snails as garden designers! Did those crafty creatures dictate to us which plants to put nearer to the wall and which closer to the path so that they would get easy access to their favourite leaves to munch on? Or maybe Antiques Roadshow tried to cut on budget by hiring snails?

Whoever had put those intricate trails on the ground, we followed them. With four people on the team, we managed to plant:

• 10 x iris foetidissima
• 13 x tiarella wherryi
• 13 x bergenia cordifolia

We will have a chance to finish the job at the 7th May group run, so go ahead and save the date!

We are hoping that the garden designer snails and the GoodGym volunteers will be getting a mention in the Antiques Roadshow credits!

Walpole Park on Tuesday nights can get surprisingly busy. Tonight, the enthusiasts of a stroll in the park after dark were startled by the sight of bikes approaching them - only to find out that the cyclists were actually runners with powerful head torches!

One group of GoodGymers ran two loops around the park while the second, smaller one, decided on a slower, single round. Everyone eventually met near the Rickyard, where Ranger Jon had left a few shovels for the volunteers. He also gave them a task in the walled garden.

The walled garden was originally an ornamental kitchen garden to the 18th century Pitzhanger Manor House, the home of architect Sir John Soane. The practice of growing food and flowers in that part of Walpole Park continues today, and the GoodGymers were about to become a part of that tradition.

A newly built raised bed was waiting to be filled with compost delivered last week in four massive bags spread around the bed. Jon carefully positioned the bags for GoodGymers to make their work the most efficient. Did they stand up to the task?

The team picked up a range of tools they thought were worth trying in a small space they had. Annabel, who just came back to running and GoodGymming, following a recovery, picked up a good, old shovel. So did Miriam and Steph. Sevan opted for the fourth, last shovel. His movements had far more impetus, so he practically had a bag for himself as no one would dare come closer to his deadly, sweeping shovel. Helene was left with a spade which she used to fill a big bucket. Chris and Kash found using smaller buckets the most effective for their bag which was further down from the bed. When the two compost bags which were closest to the bed were empty, the third bag was moved nearer to the destination. Steph and Kash attacked the furthest source of compost with shovels and a wheelbarrow.

The GoodGymers had so much fun that they were surprised to see how quickly they filled the raised bed to the required level. They packed up the three now empty bags and tools to return them to the storage at the Rickyard. Hopefully, Ranger Jon will be happy to see the compost getting comfy in its new bed tomorrow!

Our next task for Ealing Parks is next week - at Elthorne Park. Sign up now!

Tuesday group runs are the perfect place to blow off some steam after a long workday. Sevan, Steph and Kash got active by doing a nearly 4km run together, looping around Walpole and Lammas parks. At the end of their route, they went full steam ahead when they spotted a lonely headtorch on the other side of the bridge near Rickyard. It was Madhan!

The team picked up steam when Claire and Milly arrived. Armed with...

• 3 wheelbarrows
• 4 shovels
• 2 rakes

...we found our way in the darkness to a fresh woodchip pile. Maybe we were guided by the smell of Christmas trees reincarnated as mulch?

Ranger Jon had a job for us: to woodchip a path near Rickyard. Our gang didn't want to employ a steam engine to crack a nut, so we split into smaller squads of shovellers, barrow drivers and rakers. We soon discovered the work goes quicker when the wheelbarrows are in operation all the time, so one of us ran to fetch a fourth barrow, which kept the shovelling crew occupied. With this optimisation came less time for breaks, and it became easy to run out of steam! The GoodGymers swapped jobs with each other when needed. No one had to work under their own steam as we tried not to leave anyone alone in the dark.

As we uncovered lower layers of woodchip, the pile released warmth and clouds of steam. According to Milly, it was an unexpected pleasure to fall into such a warm, steaming heap.

When we were nearly done with the path, and the phrase "just four more barrows" started sounding like truth, everyone picked up steam to finish the task in an hour. It was tough to see how flat the path was in the dark, but Madhan and Sevan did their best to smoothen the surface. Our 6-person dream team got the job done!

For those who missed the woodchipping workout tonight, we have an opportunity next week in Blondin Park. There are other tasks and attractions planned so don't miss that one!

Rumour has is that Grim Chippers are prowling around Ealing Parks. On Halloween Night, three dreadful Runners of Apocalypse, Sevan, Steph Ducat and Christos ran around Walpole and Lammas Parks. Woe to those who saw them!

Ranger Jon had put tools in the haunted tool store at Rickyard. After nightfall, shovels, rakes, loppers and wheelbarrows had disappeared and then, an hour later materialised again. Some people say they saw three ghosts that night. The first ghost, Kash, is the one who always makes noise by shaking the chains at the gate. The second one, Madhan, used to be a very active GoodGymer but then disappeared almost a month ago and no one has seen him since. The third ghost called Alex was never seen in Ealing before. She was welcomed by the rest of the ghosts to the other side of GoodGym and shown how to draw terrifying ancient symbols in woodchip with a rake.

When the ghosts were scouring the tool store, a shadow sneaked on them to teach them how to scare people in shady parks. The phantom looked like Liv but it was just a shadow with no one to cast it!

The ghouls with tools entered the playground to spook some kids hanging around after dark. Empty swings started swinging with no wind to move them and all the kids ran away. The ghosts disturbed a nearby woodchip pile with shovels and, suddenly, a hand from beneath the chips thrust into the sky. A group of zombies emerged from the woodchip piles. Claire, Emily and Mike grabbed the shovels and rakes and began tirelessly dig the woodchip to revive a whole army of undead buried underneath.

The Three Runners of Apocalypse arrived, joined by the fourth one, Chris, and entered the shovelling party. The demons took wheelbarrows and spread the woodchip all around: on the paths around the playground, at the entrance and even inside the play area, covering the muddy puddles. They couldn't find the undead army, so they stopped and put the tools back in the tool store. The angered terrors cut low-hanging tree branches on the way out of the playground.

Next week the Grim Chippers will be haunting Blondin Park and searching for the undead army in the woodchip piles over there. Join them if you dare!

Last week's group run in Walpole Park enriched us with some wisdom: woodchip is a rare, valuable resource that can be hiding behind iron bars. Today we came prepared with our revised plan of how to get to the heap of that treasure just outside the park gate - to be precise, the closed gate. We needed the fresh woodchip to spread on the paths in the walled garden that we cleared of the old woodchip a week before.

We met outside Bodyline and retraced our run and walk from last week. Lionel, on the roll after the last Saturday comeback, cycled to the start location and was ready for a run. Raj, Sevan and Kash warmed up by running to the start point and also opted for the run. The group of four looped around Walpole and Lammas Parks. Jenni and Ben chose to walk and did a loop around Walpole Park to meet Mike at the secret tool store.

It took us a while to pass the security systems only to trigger the alarm. Uh oh! The team quickly secured the wheelbarrows, shovels and rakes and took an escape route. Kash stayed behind to call ~~their lawyer~~ park's security team. Thanks to our proactive Taskforce, the group knew the action plan and right away set off to collect the woodchip outside the park. Yes, we walked with the wheelbarrows out of the park and then around the fence to get to the woodchip gold. It was not the most efficient way - but it was a good arm workout and an additional brisk walk. That's what GoodGym is about, isn't it?

Eight barrows of woodchip that we imported from outside the park were enough to cover the two paths between the vegetable beds in the walled garden. We finished just about time - it started to rain and the temperature dropped. Guess what happened when we returned to the tool store to put back the tools? The alarm went off again and we couldn't disarm it. We disappeared from the crime scene and hid in a pub - we cannot reveal which one as Walpole Park's Department of Defence must be on our case!

Today's pun has been supplied by Mike.