Proving that GoodGymmers go gladly where others fear to tread, the sound of hard work and giggling filled the air in Barnes last night as we continued Saturday's task to remove the tarmac on Walnut Close. This unused area in a Housing Association site was not only unloved, but attracting some unsavoury activity. The Barnes Community Gardeners have a vision to turn it into a Mediterranean-style garden for those who live there to enjoy and for children to grow things in. But to get there, the old tarmac had to go.

Saturday's Community Mission group had torn up huge chunks of tarmac, stacked up on the side. Last night's job was to break down the chunks so that they could fit inside cars to go to the dump (big shout out to Jp who volunteered his own car boot to help shift some of it), to remove the determined roots that had somehow still managed to come to life under the tarmac, and to get into the edges of the tarmac where it was tricky to get hold of an edge and get it away from the walls.

A fab physical task followed with members jumping on the tarmac chunks to break them down (see our Instagram page @goodgymrichmond for a particularly enthusiastic demonstration by Lucy!), Divya and James working non-stop to prise the tarmac from the edges and everyone getting involved with clearing the area.

Many hands make light, if somewhat filty, work and the area was left looking ready for the very exciting next stages by the end of the session. We look forward to returning for the creative stages and seeing this wonderful project come to reality.

Mrs L had a lot of branches to clear after the tree sadly died. These were broken down and disposed of neatly (and safely!) in the chimnea. The next task was to cut the grass but unfortunately the mower preferred to dig up the ground... so a path to the shed was cleared using trimmers. After a chat about cats and flowers while tending to the chimnea, she produced a cutting of a succulent to tend to, and there were bonus cat cuddles.