Not sure exactly what makes these branches Special, but who are we to question Marian's judgement!

So when the call came asking Goodgym for some muscle, we were happy to come and meet Marian to sort out the branches she sourced to be delivered to the different locations needed.

Linda, Elegia & James tackled the transfer of the big log to the roundabout, while Peter went to find the other branches to be moved from the green to the gravel garden.

Fashionably late arrival Julia managed to dodge a haphazard trip around Wanstead to try and catch up with the different transports and spend some quality time with Marian instead, 'networking'....

The 2024 account of Wanstead Community Gardeners X Goodgym has its first entry!

It has been a while, but this Monday evening we again had the pleasure of joining Marian, Queen of the Wanstead Community Gardeners, for a little adventure out on the High Street of Wanstead.

One of the local cafe's had been a bit exuberant in spreading coffee grinds on the flower/plant bed outside their place, resulting in the soil going more acidic than what the plants could cope with. So tonights challenge was to rescue the few surviving plants, remove the top layer of soil and replace it with fresh soil from Marians secret supply.

The lovely Joscelyn joined us for her first ever Goodgym experience (give her a welcoming cheer!) and already got acquainted with Linda & James on her way in to our base at Wanstead House, with Aj joining us soon after.

The quintet strolled/jogged down to the Cornerhouse to meet Marian and collect kit required, before setting to work sorting this poor flower bed. Many hands make light work, especially with Goodgym bringing the energy (we are nicknamed locally as Marians Muscles...). Even though the light was faded quick, the energy didn't so the job was done in good time.

After tidying up and a chat discussing the various plots and how they fared in the hot summer, it was time to leave a grateful Marian and go on our way again.

Next week Julia is planning something around Hainault - sign up here

In two weeks time we are back at Wanstead House starting the yearly challenge of leaves around our 'home' - sign up here

The plants at the station were looking decidedly crispy due to the heatwave, so we decided to come to the rescue. With many of the usual gardeners off on holiday, we met at the station on a super sunny Sunday morning after a cycle (James) and a gym workout (Jenny). Carrying some watering cans rounded off our morning's exercise nicely. Go team J! 👏

For those who don't know Marian, she is the driving force behind the Wanstead Community Gardeners, a team of locals taking pride into caring for neglected pieces of land in the Wanstead area. Walking down Wanstead High Street, you cannot miss the different patches of land now showing a variety of lovely plants & flowers, decorating the landscape and cheering up the locals coming past.

Her latest protect has finally gotten the go-ahead, the car park at Snaresbrook station. A strip of neglected land along the edge of the car park has been handed over for a make-over. Today the focus was to clear rubbish, sift out rocks, spread soil & manure and in short get the stretch ready for planting.

As before, Marian put out the word that the project was on and the Goodgym crew was more than happy to get stuck in, delivering the usual level of energy and smiles, as well as welcoming the lovely Jenny on her first visit to this corner of London. Cedric popped in as well, having heard rumours about another project, as always a pleasure catching up.

Thanks to all joining in, we'll be keeping an eye on this to see how it develops and no doubt there will be more GG involvement!

Report/Feedback received by Marian:

"It was such a pleasure as always to have the Goodgymmers with us today. Very appropriate because they were there at the beginning of this project Nov 19th on a Monday evening, a group came along headtorches at the ready and took down a load of ivy from the wall. The bed we have adopted is long and narrow and was swamped by thick ivy growing wide from the wall. All that stuff was put in jumbo bags and they finished the job today by jumping up and down on it to compress it down so that the three bags could be put in the vehicle and away to the dump. Apart from that, more ivy roots dug up, rubbish taken out, another layer of leaf mould and top soil added, raked smooth and footed down. We've decided to have one more load of top soil added but that will be done from the garden centre vehicle so not a problem for us. Very soon, it will be time to plant this new border all 35 metres of it. (As usual, we've bitten off more than we can chew but usually manage to chew it.)

This is going to look so amazing. We're all so excited about it. We've already been given a wisteria and a rampaging climbing rose. Both needing new homes. Thank you from us to the GGs that helped us today. Your group really does make our projects possible. It's more than marvellous.

All good wishes, Marian. "

We started the session with a good old warm up and a jog - it was great to see so many goodgymmers getting out on Monday evening to do good and get fit!

Our run took us through greenman roundabout past whipps cross, all the way round to eagle pond to finish at Snarebrook Station where Marian from Wanstead Community Garden was ready to put everyone to work! We pulled off a lot of ivy, sowed down some dead mini-trees and cleared a lot of leaves! Great evening to catch-up whilst getting a workout through gardening for a good cause!

Afterwards, we raced it back to Wanstead House, making it overall 5.5km run - great job everyone!

Cool down and chat to finish the evening was just what the doctor ordered for a great start to the week!

A special shout out to Cedric for completing his 10th Good Deed!

What a wonderful morning spent helping at the Corner House project. It was great to see the gang from GoodGym there, helping to clear the huge wall of Ivy. We were all given tasks to do, to help the amazing team of women, who have dedicated their own time to help to create a beautiful garden. Looking forward to going back to help next month.

• Val

It was a nice sunny morning indeed, ideal for a little session at the Cornerhouse and almost perfect for Pauline's first GG session! (give her a cheer)

The main target was the amount of ivy growing over the top of the wall, with Jan (one of Marians team) going up the ladder while Sharon tackled it from the ground. Pauline & Valerie got stuck in digging over & emptying (leave) composting bins. Blink and over an hour is gone, several compost heaps moved and a mountain of ivy packed into green waste bags and additional huge bag.