Another Sunday, another Sydney Gardens. After a night a heavy rain, the skies cleared and the weather became dry, just in time for our visit this morning at 10am. GoodGymmers Cosmo, Aaron, Nev and Meyrick were on hand to help with whatever the Friends of Sydney Gardens decided was the task for this week.

Turned out it was grass, hence the awful pun above. Over in the awesome children's play area there is a lot of it, and loads of different types. The larger ones, which to me looked like pampas grass (and immediately took be back to the 80s), there is a natural shedding that occurs. So any dead grass can easily be extracted from the main body of the plant and removed, to tidy the flower beds up and provide more substance to the compost heaps dotted around the park.

Seemed like a quick one today, the hour sped by, but we were successful in our task and can't wait to be back in two weeks.

We were back at the Bath Organic Community Garden today, where we now have a monthly slot. It was a beautiful crisp morning: snowdrops and crocus’ were looking vibrant, which was very welcome after all the rain. Everyone was in good spirits and after a debrief on the tasks for the morning we got stuck in. Emily and Cos took on the task of cleaning the poly tunnels, using an organic liquid that smelt of vinegar. Fish and chips anyone? They smashed through this and managed to scrub the solution over two sizeable tunnels in the two hours we were there. Once applied, this will kill all the algae and prevent the build up of grime which means the sun can get through to the plants inside! When we get any sun…

The rest of the group, Ruth, Meyrick and Kate, went to the apple orchard to do some pruning. We were given some good instructions (and some scary tools) on the bits of the tree that needed to be removed, but we were all a little bit tentative when left to our own devices, worried we’d remove the wrong bits of the tree! But we did our best which is all we can ask and managed to trim some bits off.

The morning was a success, and we were rewarded with the little tea break half way through; tea and homemade cakes in abundance. Even a cheeky Robin popped in to steal crumbs from our table.

Another great morning, everyone!

Back once again! At Sydney Gardens, for a festive session before Christmas and or last visit before the end of 2025.

Five GoodGymmers rocked up, some festive, some not, (some forgot), and our task today was to lay wood chip on the flower beds adjacent to Park entrance to the Holburne Museum. Cosmo, Aaron, Bennath, Nev and Meyrick were on hand to help the Friends of Sydney Gardens, who were busy removing leaves from the aforementioned flower beds in order to prepare them for our wood chip./

Roughly in keeping with the usual algorithm that the heavier the material, the further away from where it is needed, wood chip is fairly light, so we only needed to barrow it about 10 yards from where we refilled.

There was a bit of urgency towards the end, as we really needed to finish the beds before the hour was up, but we made it.

Many thanks to the Friends of Sydney Gardens, who invited us for cake and mulled wine in the Pavilion afterwards.