As a group effort, the team of 12 GoodGym'ers made short work of 60 meters of felled laurel hedge.... All trimmed and stacked, for the guys to chip in a neat caterpillar by the path.

Kim joined us for her first Tower Hamlets session, Laura was the expert photographer, and Emma turned up with a broken rib to interview us all.

Whilst the group mused on "Hedge Fun Management" and then happily ear-wormed themselves with "Bush it, bush it real good" thanks to Emma, points this week go to Kevin for a cracking pun and report.

Ken and Terry of Friends of Tower Hamlets Cemetery said we did well and a great time was had by all.

So until next week ! .... Epic !

How lovely to meet in the warm Benk&Bo cafe this evening for tonight's task. Lulled into a false sense of security, we shed waterproofs and marvelled at what a great meeting spot this was.

Fast-forward fifteen minutes and we were up on the gorgeous rooftop garden as the heavens opened. "I'm glad this wasn't forecast," I kept saying, to an indifferent audience.

And so to the task...

There was a lot going on. Freya, our task owner at Benk&Bo/Middlesex St Community Garden, had arranged a brilliantly-planned session, but there were still little task bottle-necks with only one industrious task owner.

The team who'd taken on the heavy-lifting for the night, The Compost Crew, were very patient, sheltering under the stairs until their time came for expert instruction.

And so we headed down to the car park, where a huge sack of compost awaited. The task? To shovel into wheelbarrows; wheel into the lift, and back up to the podium level, to be distributed all over the garden.

Meanwhile, in the bamboo garden

A large team was assembled raking leaves to prepare for the newly-fetched compost. No mean feat in wind and rain, nonetheless the ground was cleared, making way for fresh new soil.

Another team headed to the sunken garden (yes, that's its name) to help empty a barrow full of compost into a planter (raising a full wheelbarrow into the air, turning and loading into a planter is a good Monday night lats workout, btw), before planting a new cherry tree.

While yet another team were turning compost in the large bays to the rear of the garden, adding coffee, and turning again. Another great workout.

The time flew, or so it seemed, and before long, we were committing to one last compost-run, and digging out forks and trowels from the dark, muddy undergrowth, before posing for one final picture.

The shout-outs

A huge success all-round: thanks to Freya our brilliant task-owner, who arranged all this, and ran a brilliant task, and a big shout-out to the whole team tonight, including Rob for our fun pun, and to our first time GoodGymers, Paul, Monty, Neil and Daryl. Thanks for a brilliant night and we hope to see you again soon.

Keep an eye out for new Sunday sessions at this gorgeous location coming SOON!

Meanwhile, next Monday sees us returning to the Royal London for a fun-filled evening with the Barts Volunteers.

Until then.

One by one we gathered at The Soanes Centre in Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park this evening, to collect decent gloves and make a start on a new area of weeding in the park.

Why were we doing this?

The Friends of Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park is an independent charity that oversees Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park, a vital nature reserve and heritage site in Tower Hamlets. The park is 'a people’s park, a sanctuary for wildlife, a place for remembrance and a site for community events.'

With just two full time staff, volunteers are always welcome at the park!

With bundles of woodland paths and other areas to clear of weeds, GoodGymers embarked on our second visit of our Summer series clearing some of the more densely populated paths of cow parsley and goosegrass.

These particular plants are invasive, and block light; they end up being the dominant plants, to the detriment of a more diverse ground flora, and so 13 pairs of productive hands on a Monday night was much appreciated.

Mind the nettles

Well-briefed by Park Manager Ken Greenway, we jogged from The Soanes Centre to the middle of the park, where we worked in a big group, wandering right into the meadow, getting stung despite our best clothing efforts, coupled with Ken's nettle-trampling tutorial, hauling our stash down to the green waste heap, where those pesky plants eventually get shredded, turned to compost and donated to projects all over the city.

We were wading through weeds for an hour, but the time flew. Chatting, sneezing, plucking and hurling, we passed a most companionable, productive hour together.

Before we knew it, it was gone-8:15 and we were posing by the green waste heap for one last pic.

Shout-outs

• A big congratulations to Task Force member and Social-Squad-Pro Stephen, who tonight hit his 50th good deed.

• And a huge hello and welcome to Louise, who joined us for her first task tonight, making amazing progress, and expertly navigating, by bicycle, the runners back to base!

Next week, we've been asked to head to the Hollybush Estate, to help out with more shed tasks, mulch-moving aaand...gardening.

Until then.