Beth and Anita spent a couple of hours in Buccleuch Gardens, Richmond finishing off the planting of new plants donated by Petersham Nurseries, all bar one huge, vertically trained Caenothus that will have a special spot beside one of the park benches - keep a look out for a special Buccleuch Gardens mission led by Beth.

As well as planting we also removed a few rogue acers and an enormous sedge from The Three Pigeon Plot, dead-headed the giant aliums at The Arcade and gave some of Monday's new plants a good water.

The transformation of both the Arcade and The Three Pigeons Plot over the last few days has been fantastic: weeding, filling gaps and replacing a number of key plants that didn't survive the wet and cold of last winter. The praise and 'thank yous' we were getting from passers is a testament to the huge effort put in by GoodGym and the generosity of Petersham Nurseries.

Ensuring all the new plants are well watered over the next few weeks is crucial to giving them the best chance of surviving and thriving. So please please help during rain free days by using the watering cans tucked away at the side of the Arcade compost heap to water beside all the benches, at The Three Pigeons and around the Arcade. Don't forget to take a photo and self-log any such 'Watering Can Workout' you undertake ( log onto the GoodGym website, click on your profile photo top left and find the 'self log a mission' option).

The second Monday of the month for Richmond GoodGym is the night when the all the might and manpower and enthusiasm of the weekly Group Run is focused on our sponsored garden plots in Buccleuch Gardens by the River Thames. Monday September 11th was a particularly monumental challenge but with a lot of hard graft we proved equal to this Herculean task and finished a massive amount of planting and watering and still had a bit of energy left for the monthly social afterwards.

It was a particularly challenging task as we were attempting to plant an incredible gift of over 50 plants donated by the nearby Petersham Nurseries. Beth and Anita had collected the donated plants from Petersham Nurseries earlier in the day, and were surprised, delighted and awed by the Nurseries’ generosity.

This influx of high-quality, well-established plants left the Group Run runners with a Herculean planting task, exacerbated by an additional 5 trays worth of Verbena Bonariensis and blue catanache grown from seed waiting to go in .

Early arrivals Beth, Anita and Rosie did some preparatory weeding around the Buccleuch Garden benches and The Three Pigeons Plot and sorted a planting schemes and a rough division of labour. Meanwhile Liz led the main Group Run from The Tap Tavern in Richmond and arriving at Buccleuch Gardens everyone was allocated into one of three teams led by Beth, Anita and Rosie (GG Richmond’s Buccleuch Gardens Task Force Team). In this way and with just two spades we somehow managed to complete an extraordinary amount of new planting around The Arcade, The Benches and The Three Pigeons Plot.

And, with three non-stop water carriers working throughout, we were able to water in the new plants and bring much needed water to some of our plants struggling in the September heat wave.

We can’t thank Petersham Nurseries enough for such an amazing donation of plants. Hidden away near St Peters Church, Church Lane, Petersham, TW10 7AB you’ll find not only a high quality plant nursery but also a unique café, shop and an acclaimed restaurant . It is the most magical spot. Please do go visit and say ‘Thank You’.

https://petershamnurseries.com

Anita and Beth had a very successful morning collecting plants from Petersham Nurseries for the 3 Pigeons and Buccleuch Gardens sites. It was unclear how many plants would be donated, so Beth's car and Anita's bike trailer were brought on the off-chance there were a few. As it turned out, it was a whopping 65, big and small - an incredible offer from the nursery that would make an incredible difference to the plots.

The lovely team selected many, then took Anita and Beth to the discounted area with instruction to take whatever would be suitable. Beth also took on an accidental role of staff/cafe-recommender numerous times, as the nursery cafe is closed on a monday (but rather enjoyed it and is considering a career change).

After profuse thanks, the spoils were brought to the 3 Pigeons for inventory - a notable being the Wavy Gravy, described as 'weird and wonderful' (how should aspire to be). Anita and Beth picked the best locations at the rockery, the arcade, and the benches in between - ready for the larger GG team to plant them later that evening.

The biggest thanks to Petersham Nursery for their donation - a list of what was provided is below:

11 Dahlia 3 Cirsium atropurpurea Core oasis grandiflora 2 Erysium bowles maeve 4 Veronica bubble gum candle 4 Achillea pomegranate 2 Penstemon electric blue Farfugium wavy gravy Thalictrum splendid purple Achillea chassis 2 Thalictrum black stockings Honeysuckle Ceanothus concha Foeniculum bronze Ribes sanguineum King Edward 6 Hydrangea 3 Spirea Anthony waterer Kolkwitzia pink cloud Athemis sauce hollandaise 4 Ferns (Polystichum Proliferum Woolsstonii) 1 Viburnum Hawkwoodii 2 French Lavender Devonshire compact purple 2 French Lavender Devonshire compact white 1 French Lavender Devonshire compact lilac 1 lavender fairy wings 1 lavender purple essence 1 lavender Munsteadm 1 lavender Night of Passion 1 lavender Melissa Lilac 1 campanula Genti white 1 Deutzia Strawberry fields 1 Deutzia Raspberry Sunday 1 Astibe Ellie

More heat wave watering of the acers in the Three Pigeons Plot and the new planting around the benches in Buccleuch Gardens. Luckily the tunnel under the Petersham road was still flooded from high tide which made the water carrying much easier.

Then onto Petersham Nursery to see if they could spare us any ‘end of season’ plants to help fill some of the gaps at The Three Pigeons plot. They have donated generously in the past and have come up trumps again, with a gift of plants to be collected on Monday morning, ready for planting during Monday evening’s Group Run task ( Look out for a mission on Monday morning to collect the donation)

A watering can workout in Buccleuch Garden, Richmond concentrating on the acers in The Three Pigeons Plot and the new planting around the garden benches ( these plants need extra help to get established, particularly in this heatwave).

Plus some litter picking and weeding.

A beautiful evening by the riverside awaited GoodGym Richmond at the plot we sponsor at Buccleuch Gardens. Starting at the Tap Tavern, the group welcomed Ian for his first GoodGym mission, and shared news on the upcoming packed diary of tasks and social races. A team of runners set off from the Tap to take in full evening sun views on the way, while others headed off as a walking group.

Task owner Anita was awaiting our arrival at the plot, where she had already been hard at work for some time. Anita was as efficient as ever ensuring that everyone had a job to do to maximise time:

• Spot-weeding the lawn with trusty dinner knives, the best tools for this particular job!

• 'Haloing’ around the tree in the lawn : removing weeds and grass cuttings in the halo and sharpening up the edges of the circle.

• Sweeping the Arcade and Arcade shuttering.

• Dead heading the stachys (but still leaving plenty for the bees).

• Weeding the rockery to remove ever-keen chickweed.

• Removing hypericum and other weeds growing out of the pointing in the wall below the Petersham Road bus stop.

• Watering and weeding around the new bench planting that we started in Big Green Week.

And on top of all of this work, we were able to find the time to admire the views of the setting sun over the river and the vibrant flowers that fill the riverbanks at the moment, the stunning Purple-loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria).

A light jog back to the Tap completed the session before monthly drinks at the pub to celebrate another month of good deeds and milestones.