It was a drizzly start to the session last night, but it was distinctly cheered up by seeing lots of lovely regular faces, some new ones to the group and even a familiar one back after a little time away - everybody is welcome at GoodGym Wandsworth and always will be!

After a warm up which activated our major muscles we did a quick poll to find out our favourite plants and flowers as tonight we were off to Paradise Community Garden. This space was once derelict land but has been transformed into a stunning garden full of flowers, bees, a pond and a community area for local children and residents to use.

We had a long list of jobs to do, but as always our first task was trying to crack the lock to get in. Thanks to Annabel's expertise once again we made our entrance to find the first of our jobs right in front of us. The head gardener Vicky had sent across some detailed instructions about how to fix the wobbly, unsafe path. She had marked the slabs to be replaced with chalk crosses, which added an extra element of challenge as it had been raining all afternoon. Luckily the chalk had mainly survived so we got cracking shifting heavy slabs and replacing them with hardcore. Now I know the clue is in the name, but the sheer weight of the hardcore bags was shocking! Well done to Steph who somehow managed to transport them to their final destination using a pretty wobbly wheelbarrow. Now that's a workout and a half.

Meanwhile another team was sorting out an uneven path in some dim and dark conditions, while other jobs included moving a massive stove and some heavy tiles around the garden. I think it's safe to say this was quite a labour intensive session but it's these kinds of jobs that really make a difference to small teams of volunteers that run important spaces such as Paradise.

After 40 minutes of hard work we all locked our tools back up and gathered by the exit. Or did we? Turns out that while Eva and Athene were having a surprisingly relevant discussion about how they'd fare in escape rooms and were concentrating so hard on their job in hand that somehow I had missed them in the depths of the garden. Luckily my mistake was spotted before they had to spend the night there!

To finish off the evening we did a five minute leg blast which tested our muscles and built strength, as well as displaying the many ways you can do a variation on fast feet!

Next Monday we're off to Sacred Heart School to help with various gardening jobs with the head. Until then, have a great week GoodGym!

It was the first of our monthly trips to help out at Doddington community roof garden last night, and after a brief discussion about whether it was going to snow or not at the beginning of the night, little did we know what we really should have been ready for...the rain. Cold, wet rain....

Still, it didn't hold us back. We did our warm up and had a quick discussion on food we can't stand which included all the classics - mushrooms, beetroot, and anchovies. After a 2km run down to the garden we arrived and Malissa quickly went through all the jobs that needed to be done. The joy of coming back on a regular basis is that we can see the garden evolve and grow, we start to know the tasks that need to be done and when, and we can really see the difference we are making.

The main job was digging so we divided up into groups to tackle the removal of soil so that when the compost arrives this weekend it can go straight in. If you fancy a great upper body work out and massively helping out at the garden, then on Saturday morning at 11am we have a massive task carrying up no fewer than 800 bags of compost donated by the council. Hope to see as many as possible of you there!

Meanwhile, there were several other tasks being completed elsewhere, including giving a buddleia bush a good pruning, moving several plants in the St John's Wort family, and spreading woodchip. We also moved many, many trugs - more of a challenge than we had expected given they had no handles and the rain made them really slippery.

By this point we had achieved a lot but we were thoroughly wet and becoming uncomfortably chilly so we decided to call it a night. We were determined not to finish without any fitness at all though, so Sophie led the group in a token squat session before we headed off.

Some of us went on to do a fun pub quiz where very weirdly two separate GG teams ended up with the exact same score of 103 points, coming joint third. That's a little sprinkling of GG magic right there.

Next week the task is yet to be confirmed but we will be having a session as normal so watch this space. Have a great week GoodGym, and stay warm!