The garden is at its peak at the moment, filled with flowers in full bloom and bursting with vibrant colours. The weather was perfect too, sunshine with a cooling breeze. This month’s jobs included planting, watering and weeding, while Claire demonstrated her impressive skills with a saw as she pruned back the dead branches of the bay tree. Audrey snapped a fabulous emperor dragonfly and there were ladybirds everywhere. This is one of our most regular and best-loved tasks - look out for details of next month’s session.

With so many Goodgymers signed up for the main task at Raynes Park Station, it made sense for some of us to branch out and do an alternative job at one of Merton's nearby garden streets. So after our run up from the Leather Bottle, Adrian, James, Louise and I jogged from the station to Laurel Road to join Emily tackling the kerbside weeds. The residents have decided they'd rather keep the street free of weedkiller chemicals and do things the natural way, so we donned our gloves and got stuck in. Luckily the rain held off but we were still treated to a lovely rainbow. Our efforts certainly made a difference and after an hour we were able to uproot ourselves and head off to our pub social feeling satisfaction at a job well done. It was great to welcome James to his first Merton session and to see Louise again.