The rain had gone by the time we all arrived at Camden Square, but we were hoping the earlier downpour had softened the ground a little, because our task today was to prepare the ground for bulb planting, by removing leaf cover, clearing the weeds and churning up the ground a bit

Emilie turned up looking fit from recent Big Half training, while newbie Susannah (sponsored by Google DeepMind) arrived from Texas, USA, via a nearby road where she now resides. Rhonda also attended her first ever task, and similarly had minimal distance to travel to this task. Hope to see you again at distant tasks a whole mile or two away...

By diligent clearance of unwanted foliage and plantage, we were in a position to hose the ground so it was nice and soft, helping us to disrupt the earth and various small creatures living therein with a variety of implements

We were kept busy for an hour, until the ground was in perfect condition for bulbs to be planted. Bags of debris were taken away at such a speed, my picture was all blurry!

There's no truth in the rumour, however, that the snail sitting on Alison's running shoe was a comment on her pace...

*“You’re keen?“

“Well, I’ve never dug before!”*

Having run Gale Street Organic Community Garden in Becontree for over 20 years, Bridget has had less time to look after this beautiful greenspace recently. Fruit trees, vegetable beds and the shed have all been calling out for some TLC….

… a call that was answered by 8 GoodGymmers last night who were celebrating GoodGym Barking & Dagenham’s very first ever session!

Huge kudos to all GoodGymmers in attendance:

🏃 De, and Claire and Steven get a special well done for coming to their first ever GoodGym session 🏃 Louise came in from Islington especially to help, 🏃 Cecilia's regular weekly running club was cancelled so we were lucky enough to them her come in from Greenwich, 🏃 Peter loved their first time digging 🏃 Emdad cycled in from Barking (watch out for his article about this session in the Barking & Dagenham Post coming soon), 🏃 Jack was on content creator duty (excited to see their first attempt at a TikTok video).

So much was achieved in just 45 minutes – check this out: 3 vegetable beds were measured and marked out and 2 trenches dug, from which 20 feet cubed of soil was removed. Very dry, hard and dusty soil. This is a huge achievement!

“I thought you were all going to chicken out and not come as it is so hot, but you didn’t! You came; you worked with good humour; I’m so impressed” (Garden owner Bridget)

“You’re a powerhouse… fun, and great energy having you guys here” (Task owner Nassaba)

Everybody really enjoyed themselves, experiencing first hand the benefits of spending time doing physical activity in nature. Soooooo much more fun than the gym. And we learnt lots about soil science from Bridget who has degrees (yes, plural) in the subject (urine does actually improve compost - this article was nearly titled "don't take the pi**")

And we’re in demand – Nassaba is working with me to plan many more sessions soon, so keep an eye out on the B&D area page of the website!

See you soon

Steven (B&D Area Activator)

NB – if you are a local not-for-profit organisation that would benefit from GoodGym volunteers to complete practical tasks in outdoor greenspaces, please contact me on steven.champion@goodgym.org