We quickly split into two teams to get the job done - the shovelers and the forkers! Shovelers were tasked with loading the wheelbarrows with compost and then transferring it to the beds. With a perfected wheelbarrow wiggle the compost was deposited expertly ready for spreading. Forkers then got to work turning over the soil and incorporating the new compost. With the music pumping, we managed to clear a whole compost bay and get the beds ready for the farm volunteers to plant the Elephant garlic. We look forward to seeing that when it’s grown!

We were initially a bit worried as the gardener had made a surprise visit to the planned community garden over the weekend and cleared a lot of the weeds we were there to tackle! However, after a great "Too weed or not to weed" briefing from the wonderful Gill we had plenty to be getting on with. There was lots of digging deep to get all the Demogorgons out (or roots as some people might term them!). There was also some reaching high for Wilson and Helen to get the brambles out of the tree. We were hoping for some rare artefact finds with all the digging and were not let down with a tiny pink plastic rocking horse and a racing pigeon ring! It was great we welcomed James from Energise Me to his first session this evening. He was a great addition to the team, digging right in! We hope you can join us again soon.

7 GoodGymers visited Holy Saviour Church for the first time to help with weeding and trimming the hedges. After some initial confusion about why we didn’t have lawnmowers with us (Wilson and I just didn’t think we’d manage running lawn mowers up the very big hill to get there!) we were set to work with the tools available. Around the church building was weeded, and we trimmed back some tricky brambles and holly in the hedge while being careful not to disturb the wildlife. The brambles required some epic teamwork to chop them down. We also managed to clear bonus brambles from the cut-way next to the church to make it a much less prickly approach for pedestrians!

Well done to Hannah who managed to fit in double volunteering this evening, donning her first responder hat (we hope there’s a hat!) as soon as the task had finished. We also loved welcoming Vicky and Janine this evening for their first GoodGym tasks. We hope they will join us again soon. Janine already volunteers at the church so was a super hostess providing us with some refreshing drinks to finish. We hope to be back again soon to help out the church with their many community projects.

We said our goodbyes, then Wilson and I set off for our run back with an added bonus of mosaic spotting along the way. I didn’t know about these mosaics hidden all over Southampton and can’t wait to find some more on our runs and walks.