A week of turbulent weather at the beginning of June left GoodGymers wondering what Saturday would bring to the Horsenden Farm session. Delightful sunshine or dreadful rain? It turned out that neither rain nor shine was winning in the morning - what awaited us was overcast and gusts of wind, but the storm held off during the volunteering session.

Among the 11 GoodGymers at the farm were two new joiners: Anal and Ana, both very enthusiastic and keen to roll their sleeves up, no matter the task - what a great attitude to have at the first session!

Before the start of the task, Elsa from Friends of Horsenden Farm gave everyone an inspiring talk about the farm's history, from its humble origins as a derelict site to a thriving community space and a nature reserve - all brought to life by a decade of persistent work by a group of dedicated volunteers.

Elsa had two jobs for us today: first, making sure the farm plots have a source of homemade compost ready to use, and second, creating a new seating area for gatherings. Anastasiia, Amy, Delphine, Iram and Kaja have moved two huge piles of compost we had constructed in May, then combined another two (also last month's creations) into a single, tall heap.

Meanwhile, Anal, Ash, Kash, Maxime, Sevan and Steph Ducat moved heavy - and I mean heavy! - logs to a secret woodland area behind the sheds. They used a range of techniques from individual and paired carrying, through rolling to wheelbarrowing, to transport the timber blocks to a clearance in the woods. Later, we all enjoyed a break on the self-made seats in that truly magical place.

"I feel like a forest fairy here!" - Iram.

Although that job was really tough, the team still had some energy and over an hour to spare before the pizza o'clock. They decided to join the composting team and, based on Elsa's instructions, built a new, massive pile of fertiliser, layering fresh manure with woodchip - the famous lasagna technique!

The visit to the farm was a great opportunity to see some of the animal residents. No cats and cows this time, but we got to meet the two goats, a family of the rare breed of red-coloured Tamworth piglets, and harvest mice babies. We had to keep quiet when viewing the latter and refrain from taking photos in the nursery.

The harvest mouse is Britain's smallest rodent and has been recently reintroduced to Horsenden Hill and adjoining areas. To enable this rewilding endeavour (which even caught the attention of Sir David Attenborough!), the mice had to be brought from far corners of the UK. That's why some of the tubs with the rodents were labelled with descriptions like 1 pregnant Scottish lady.

The other highlights of the day were the introduction of a new pizza type, the creamy Jean-Claude, and a wedding reception, which pushed all the pizza lovers outside the main yard. We decided not to crash the party with our manure-scented boots.

If you think that sounds like a fun thing to do on a Saturday morning, join us in July at Horsenden Farm!

Another unusually hot weekend in May, another trip to Southall for GoodGym Ealing - this time to Western Road Urban Garden to help Southall Community Alliance with planting exotic crops ahead of the season.

The garden was visited not only by six GoodGymers but also, unexpectedly, by three police officers on patrol. While the GoodGym team started preparing the veg beds and erecting trellises for beans and gourds, the hosts Janpal and Ash gave the officers on duty a comprehensive tour of the food-growing space. And there were novelties since our team last visited the garden - a new beehive had been built behind the polytunnel, with dozens of stingy pollinators already getting busy around it!

On such a hot day, many would choose an indoor task in the shade, rather than digging weeds and shovelling compost in full sun. It wasn't the case at WRUG, where the only place that counted as indoors was the polytunnel. While the early arrivals, Maxime, Sevan and Kash were responsible for preparing the outside raised beds, Ash was assigned to help Janpal construct trellises. After almost an hour (with breaks, of course!) of roasting in the 44°C "oven", he developed such an engineering skill in trellis building that his capabilities were sought for outdoors, at the raised beds, freshly weeded and topped with compost. Ash swapped with Kash and Sevan, who, together with Lena, entered the polytunnel for the planting phase. Meanwhile, Ash taught Harvey and Maxime all his trellis know-how, and all three got to planting in the raised beds.

It was a special session for Ash, as he not only survived the polytunnel sweat challenge and spread the construction knowledge, but also hit a milestone of 25 good deeds - halfway to the black T-shirt!

The crops planted today, including many South Asian staples, were:

• Snake gourd
• Bottle gourd
• Kerala
• Pumpkin
• Melon
• Tomato
• Red bell pepper

As usual, Janpal prepared a feast for the volunteers, with plenty of ice cold water to keep us hydrated, bananas, strawberries, tangerines, giant blueberries, and staple samosas. Breaks in the shade with refreshments in reach definitely helped the team keep going!

We should see the fruit ready for harvest in a couple of months! Meanwhile, we are planning another community day at WRUG in June to prepare space for additional water storage at the garden. Sign up now!

Clean Up River Brent (CURB), led by Ben Morris, has been very successful in recent years in removing Himalayan balsam from the banks of River Brent. What is Himalayan balsam, and why would anyone want to get rid of it, you may ask. The plant, native to the Himalayas, was brought to the UK in the 19th century for its ornamental qualities. Over the years, it became dominant on many riverbanks across the country. If left unchecked, the invasive balsam can exclude other plants and decrease biodiversity, as it’s not compatible with species living around it. This tallest annual weed (reaching even 3 metres in height!) dies each year and leaves no roots in the soil, which does not help hold the soil together and stop silt from washing into rivers. Silt, in turn, decreases water quality by blocking sunlight from reaching the water and helping spread pollution.

CURB’s plan for 2026 was to reduce balsam in Ealing to zero, and GoodGym Ealing were excited to find a Saturday to help Ben and the team with that ambitious mission. One walker, two runners and four cyclists from GoodGym met the regular Balsam Bashers at Brent Viaduct to walk up- and downstream the river and scour for baby balsam to curb it (pun intended) before it grows and flowers.

James, Richard and Kash went with basher Rachel to visit last year’s balsam hotspots, including a vast area GoodGymers helped clear in 2025. Rachel and Kash, who had done bashing in the nearby locations the previous year, were astonished by how much the place had changed. It was so hard to find any balsam - that might have felt unsatisfying to the bashers, but at the same time, it was proof that the strategy of fighting the invasive plant was working very well. Meanwhile, Sevan and Jo went downstream and found equally low numbers of balsam. With such slim pickings, part of the team - Ash and Amy - were redirected to litter picking, as rubbish in the river seemed way more abundant than the Himalayan invader.

The whole party came together, and regrouped after 90 minutes, as it was nearly impossible to spot any more balsam - the last year’s teams did so well! Resourceful Ben, having spotted “accessible rubbish”, proposed to GoodGymers to spend the last 30 minutes of the session on a litter blitz in the shallow part of the River Brent. The GoodGymers agreed, and in a very short time, retrieved a bag of rubbish each, and hauled some soaked, flytipped duvets - what an impressive and disgusting find!

As the area has mostly recovered from balsam invasion, CURB is now planning to use its budget to buy native plants to plant in selected areas once the balsam has been eliminated. Watch this space for the future sessions with them.

Was it the whopping nine GoodGymers who brought the sun to Grove Farm on April Saturday morning? Or was it the other way around? The long-distance walkers, Danny and Kat, covered 13km to get to their monthly Ealing session. Their early morning walk was a crisp and chilly one - quite a contrast to the scorching, sunny afternoon the same day! Sevan and Kash ran their usual hilly 7.5km run, which never gets easy if you do it only once a month! Thaiza was back to one of her favourite environmental tasks, all bright and clad in GoodGym red, apart from her yellow wellies - proof that sensible GoodGymers who show up prepared with appropriate footwear exist! Shubham, Ash, and Steph, already regulars at Grove Farm, came over as well. But the most exciting cameo, perhaps, was from the former Grove Farm die hard attendee, Christos. It was great to see him back after a longer break, fitting the Saturday session into his busy work and family life. Mike and Portia, Friends of Grove Farm, completed the count of the strong April conservation day team.

Mike took the gang to the hazel patch to cut back everything that didn't look like a hazel tree before Greener Ealing gets there. While the council team was very efficient at chopping things down, we felt they could pose a threat to the hazels, unknown to them and hidden in the overgrowth. We didn't want the young trees to be in danger. We were The Danger… To brambles, nettles and some wonky hawthorns.

Since Mike didn't anticipate such a turnout, more tools had to be brought from the container to supply them to GoodGymers, hungry to make environmental impact. Steph wasted no time in the meantime and grabbed a bag and a litter picker to clear the rubbish next to a tree trunk some inconsiderate people evidently use as a bar stool and leave their drink cans behind.

Mike cleared paths to individual hazel trees so that we could see them and chop things around them. The trimmings were piled up around each hazel tree to protect its roots. We went deep into the wilderness to find our way to the grove of more mature hazels, which Horsenden Farm volunteers were interested in - they would use the trunks for their projects like hazel weaving, provided we created access to the copse. It took a couple of daring GoodGymers with trimming equipment and one with a rake - all wearing shorts - to cut the stinging nettles around that area (I am still feeling a funny stinging on my shins seven hours later as I write this report!). We haven't cleared the full circle surrounding the hazel grove because one of us spotted a bird's nest, so we left that section intact.

Having cleared a large patch of overgrowth and freed the surviving hazel trees, we’re delighted to report that no tools, birds, humans and, hopefully, hazels were harmed during the session. We are looking for another opportunity to help nature at Grove Farm at the May conservation day.

Finally, the GoodGym team got to experience a proper spring day at Western Road this year! Everything seemed perfect: the morning was glorious, Janpal was back - after having to miss a couple of community days - with his trademark joviality, hospitality and refreshments. Ash brought his usual engineering insights and a vision of what the urban garden could become. With his head full of improvement ideas, we could never get bored at WRUG! Today's two projects had a lot to do with levelling and enhancing surfaces: around the polytunnel and the outside toilet.

The space behind the privy needed to be paved, and although the area wouldn't be immediately visible to the visitors, the slab laying deserved Swiss precision. Due to a lack of Swiss people, two French men, Maxime and Steph Ducat, volunteered to complete that technical task: laying a membrane, a layer of sand and carefully arranged slabs: heavy, but fragile. Armed with high spirits and a spirit level, they've done a tip-top job!

Meanwhile, GoodGym's Ash, Afshin, Sevan and Kash removed the weeds from the side and back of the polytunnel with shears and hoes.

"What should we do with the green waste?"
"Give them to the Dalek" - WRUG's Ash.

The designer of the Dalek-shaped compost bin at Western Road must have been a Doctor Who fan. Now, that begs a question whether at the next session we'd be repainting the outside toilet to look like TARDIS!

After levelling the ground by the polytunnel, the team was going to lay and peg down a 1 metre-wide sheet of Terram. The challenge was that Terram didn't come in that size. GoodGym's Ash, known as "good with the saw", volunteered to saw a thick piece of Terram roll, held in place by Afshin and Sevan. It turned out to be tough work...

"It's like cutting an anaconda" - WRUG's Ash.

...and a hazardous one.

"Sevan, don't breathe in this dust. Later, you might be growing a moustache... in your lungs!" - WRUG's Ash.

While we're still waiting on the development inside Sevan's lungs, our Ash didn't saw off anyone's finger. He made an even, clean cut in the Terram, which was then pegged down on the long side of the polytunnel. While Afshin and Ash cleared the back of the polytunnel and Sevan started spreading the last layer - woodchip - over Terram, Kash went to dig out some soil to fill the uneven ground.

"This soil is a bit lumpy." - Kash.
"It's perfect. The best soil for filling is a bit lumpy. Just like the best custard, a school dinner classic." - WRUG's Ash.

We took a break to enjoy delicious samosas, tea, coffee and fruit, including those big, sweet blueberries that no one knows where Janpal gets them from.

After the refreshments, the energy levels spiked. We completed levelling, Terraming and woodchipping the back of the polytunnel - more than WRUG's Ash anticipated. What an impressive result!

Next month, we will finish the work around the polytunnel to prevent the weeds from creeping in. There will also be also weeding as all the plants - wanted or not - feel the spring in the air and start growing like crazy! Sign up now.