A fantastic team of 14 met in Devons Road this evening, with Ken and Terry from the Friends of Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park.

Why were we here?

Ken explained that this planting project undertaken by the Friends of Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park is helping to create a green corridor through this area of East London.

What does that mean?

Well, by populating the Lea Valley Green Route (the area from Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park, out to Bow Docks and on to the Lea Valley), with bulbs, plants and trees, we’re essentially making more nature available to more residents.

It will allow more wildlife to move between the Lee Valley, and the Lee Valley Park, into the Borough.

Creating ‘stepping stones’ in this way, between green space and urban street spaces, benefits everyone: green spaces that are inhabited by wildlife, trees and plants, not only mean more areas for all residents to enjoy, they can also help to reduce the effects of pollution, often an issue in large cities.

What we were planting

Terry talked us through the mix of trees we were settling into the ground, which included:

Purging Buckthorn (Google that one)

Grey Willow

Wayfaring

Spindle

Oak

Beech

Hornbeam

Dogwood

Wild Privet

Various factors were involved in the choice of the trees, including:

• Comfort (avoiding too many thorns, so litter-picking isn’t too much of a mission).

• Butterfly appeal (the Brimstone butterfly seeks out buckthorn on which to lay its eggs).

• Green-ness (beech and hornbeam tend to hang onto their leaves).

• …And a general ambition that plenty of berries and flowers will come out at different times with this mix, and attract insects.

Speedy work

Our large team set about this big planting mission, all around the park, following careful, precise instructions from Ken.

Tree after tree was produced for the GoodGymers to expertly settle into their new home.

No sooner had the obligatory pictures been taken, and the final few poorly-lit areas been populated with trees, than Ken called it a wrap.

200 trees in less than an hour! Way. To. Go.

We collected tools, loaded the wheelbarrows, posed for one last group shot, before saying our cheerios for the night.

Shout-outs

The big cheers this week go to:

• Clare, whose first GoodGym event it was! Well done Clare, hope to see you again very soon.

• Johnny, for saving the location day, and speedily dropping the all-important pin.

• Kevin, our brilliant head torch technician…

And most of all, to Ken and Terry for three, fabulous Monday nights out in Tower Hamlets.

Next week

...we’re back to Devons Road, for another big gardening task with St Leonard’s Priory Park!

Until then.

A good-sized group of us met in the park this evening to run through a short workout.

Thanks to the addition of planters and park benches, we were able to complete a total body workout. The team were amazing, whizzing through side planks, tricep dips and incline push-ups, along with a full repertoire of lower body exercises including the Bulgarian split squat and The Perfect Lunge.

At 7pm, we made our way over to the tool shed to meet Larry, our task owner for the night, who's heading up the Priory Park Project. Larry talked us through tonight's task, a large bramble-clearing, in the far side of the park.

Wheeling tools and carrying gardening bags and lights, we headed over to the end of the park, and divided into small teams, tackling small areas, densely populated with brambles, weeds and leaves.

An hour passed quickly, and even after 20 minutes, the ground was looking clearer. As the brambles and other greenery were cleared away, the magnificent churchyard tombs became visible. Larry gave us a little background on the position of these tombs and their history, in this picturesque churchyard park.

It was quite the Monday night workout, with both upper and lower body being used to tackle stubborn bramble roots; step counts boosted as we navigated our way around the area, and carried heavy bags back to the exit.

At shortly before 8, Fiona took our 'after' pics (having brilliantly thought of taking our 'before' ones), and we gathered with one last bag of brambles for tonight's final pic.

Big shout-outs tonight:

• To Áine, for being a brilliant lighting technician and for tonight's fab pun.

• To Fiona, for fab before and after pics.

• To Tom and Jessica, whose first GoodGym session it was!

• To Gualtiero, whose first Tower Hamlets task this was!

• And to our Joel, who's heading South of the river for a while, but who we hope to see very, very soon.

Well done to the whole team in general, for a brilliant, fun, very productive night up in Bromley-By-Bow. (We'll be back with Larry next month).

Until next time.