Happy 9th birthday GoodGym Richmond!

Celebrating nine years of keeping fit by doing good in Richmond at the riverside plot we take care of on behalf of Richmond Council. A sunny jog along the river, followed by lots of watering, weeding, clearing up and happy chatting as we went. And a biscuit to finish!

Thank you to all 591 people who have done a task in Richmond over the last nine years!

Seven GoodGymers came out on Monday to work on the River Crane. We donned our chest waders and ventured into the mirth not knowing how deep it would be. The rain earlier in the day had raised the River levels considerably but Ken (standing on the bank) assured us that it would only be up to our waists! In we went like moths to a flame…. We were here to manage Himalayan balsam for FORCE (Friends of River Crane) a global invasive species that chokes out natives. We saw them across the river in the reeds and got to work pulling out the annual before it set seed. Ken told us we are part of a experiment to use a biological control in time using a specific rust that infects the balsam but first we needed to dig out some to get the numbers down. And to that we had a great time yanking out the weeds in our waders!

A big welcome to Rebecca for the first time at GoodGym, as well as seeing Luis for the first time in a while. The venue this evening was INS in Twickenham and manager Sarah put us all straight to work moving large furniture around in the summer house to prepare for better weather, including a very unwieldy set of lockers that needed to be brought down from upstairs. Team work really does make the dream work and in no time at all everything was in its new home!