Yesterday, we headed to Harmony Gardens at Broadwater Farm for another GoodGym mission and the garden was definitely ready for some attention!

Mark and Imantha started off with a running session while Sarah reached Harmony Gardens on her glamorous bicycle.

we discovered a young tree that looked like it could use a little helping hand. So we scraped up some of the existing wood chip and that lovely dark, fertile soil and spread it around the tree. Basically, while the rest of the garden was getting a haircut, this little tree got treated to a luxury soil package.

Next was to deal with the plants that had sadly given up on life. There were quite a few of them, so we removed the dead plants and cleared the area. Giving enough space for the living to dance around.

Finally, the hairdressing appointment. ✂️🌳 The branches that were still alive were given a good trim, getting rid of the unwanted growth and giving everything a much neater look. No plants were asked for their opinion on the new hairstyle.

By the end of the session, we had removed the garden’s dead weight, given the surviving branches a makeover and hopefully given our young tree a better chance to grow big and strong.

Another successful GoodGym mission completed — gardening gloves on, soil everywhere, and somehow it still counts as exercise! 💪🌱

Today's crew took on Margaret Hill House for a spot of garden surgery because apparently the trees and bushes hadn't received the memo about keeping out of way!

Dave and Sarah started their journey with a running session while Imantha, Niamh, Mark, and Helen gathered at Margeret Hill House.

Our main mission was to tackle some branches that had become a bit of a nuisance for the residents. We got stuck in with the cutting and trimming, giving the trees a much needed haircut and removing the branches that were causing trouble.

We also cleared away plenty of dead branches from the bushes, which had been hanging around doing absolutely nothing useful so it was time for them to go!

By the end, the garden was looking noticeably tidier, the troublesome branches were no longer troubling anyone, and the deadwood had officially been retired.

Another GoodGym job done: we came, we saw, we cut things back… and thankfully nobody asked us to do any actual gardening afterwards! 💪🌳

On this balmy evening Sarah arrived early at Blue House Yard, and started unwinding some bind weed that had taken over the bed we cleared in a previous task - sadly the people who promised to look after it had not done so. Yann was next to arrive, and it was nice to see him return and congratulate him on his tenth good deed.

Still early, new member Imantha was third to arrive. After a quick warm-up and briefing we were ready to go.

A 2.4km run took us to Abyssinia Court, a sheltered housing scheme run by Hornsey Housing Trust. We were met by Debz, who explained that the courtyards needed a bit of sprucing up ahead of an upcoming BBQ. So armed with gloves and bin bags today's heroes set to sweeping up leaves, picking up litter and pulling weeds out of the cracks in the paving. It was lovely to meet and chat with some of the residents too, who were very welcoming and offered cold drinks for our thirsty team.

Soon it was 8pm and we had filled four black bags. Debz showed us where to put the rubbish, and we scattered into the night.