Our two volunteers from Goodgym Lewisham, Phil and Sander, passed their first challenge - to carry their bikes across the full flow of Mile 8-marathoners 💪

Once at the garden we figured it out as we went along. We’d recently been donated wooden planters and bags of topsoil from construction company Wates. Sander wheelbarrowed 40+ bags of topsoil down to the raised beds. Then Phil filled beds so that we could plant out the saplings and some bright flowers to provide cheer to the passers by.

Regular volunteers planted out seedlings and labelled the produce. Once it’s bearing fruit, we’ll welcome back Goodgym and Wates to share the harvest. Opening every first and third Sunday of the month, there will always be weeding, watering and planting to do.

It was genuinely so helpful to have two pairs of extra hands this weekend as we lifted heavy things that would take hours solo! Thank you 🙏

We dug up some invasive plants from the flower beds, took these to the compost pile, then trimmed a hedge that overhung a fence and was bending it down. The fence straightened up again. The weeding involved bending and straightening oneself as usual, but the body was not the only thing doing that. The digging tended to bend the tines of the pitchfork, but these could be bent back by putting the pitchfork on the asphalt and stepping on it. It was a nice day for gardening. My first time in Luxmore Gardens, which are quite beautiful and peaceful.

On International Day of Pink & National Siblings Day, 16 GoodGymers came out in full force to help out Alan and Jaki at Cossall Estate and Kirkwood Nature Reserve with litter picking and weeding.

Sam arrived in time to open Old Spike to Maria as Lindy, Rosalind, Daryl, Gemma, James, Andrada, Adrian and Nathan trickled in. We caught up on weekend trips away and activities that we did. As soon as it hit 18:45, Sam got on with his usual speech, but posted a photo on the WhatsApp group....siblings or dating: snap poll. As everyone introduced themselves and answer the ice-breaker of first thing that they think of that's pink, they also had to say if the photo shown was a photo of siblings or two people dating.

In the snap-poll, most thought they were dating, but in fact they were siblings. Top of the list for "pink" word association was "Pink" the artist then came Barbie and then piggies...oink!

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A getaway bag, a hoover and mixed pairs of high heels

Since the evenings are getting lighter, Sam opted to do the warm-up on the Green. Afterwards with Paulin backmarking, off the group went down towards Peckham Rye Park as we needed to do a loop around to ensure we covered at least 2.5k. We ran into Nunhead and down Gordon Road to reach Cossall Estate to meet Alan, Jaki, Anna, Sander and eventually, Folarin and Jessie. Here Jaki explained that she needed 3-4 people to stay in the courtyard to tidy it up, but the rest could head to Kirkwood Nature Reserve as we split half the group to weed the nettles and half the group to litter pick:

• Emma, Jessie, Nathan and Paulin stayed behind to tidy up the courtyard.
• Anna, James, Rosalind and Sam stayed around the gates of the Nature Reserve to weed the nettles and unwanted plants to beautify the entrance.
• The rest paired up with one holding a bing liner and the other using the litter picker to pick up litter: Maria and Adrian paired up, Gemma and Folarin, Andrada and Lindy and finally, Daryl and Sander as they combed the Nature Reserve finding hidden treasures.

As the night started to draw in and as we reach 19:55, those in the Nature Reserve gathered outside the gates to take a photo of their haul - 8 bags - including 5 bags of litter (including a hoover, shoes and baby/kids lunch boxes...) and 3 bags full of nettles and weeds. We threw them away and met up with the other group back in the courtyard for a final group photo and to say our goodbyes to Alan and Jaki.

It was only a 1k run back to Old Spike Peckham. After a quick stretch on the green, a few of us opted in for an impromptu social at The White Horse.

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Thank You to all the GG-ers

A personal thanks from me to all those who came out last night! Alan and Jaki (plus Oscar) were very pleased with what we got done in 45 minutes and can't wait to have us back in June. Thank you to Paulin for backmarking both ways.

Our first group run after the clocks have changed and it was wonderful to still have daylight at the end of the group run!! We were a smaller group as numbers had lowered throughout the day, maybe too many Easter eggs.

We had the pleasure of being joined by Suki the dog, and when she wasn't off adventuring, she was keeping an eye on our bucket filling with mulch technique. On the topic of bucket filling...we were full of techniques that made us as efficient as possible.

We managed to cover the extension to the Tiny Forest in a layer of mulch avoiding all the young saplings that did a very good job of blending in.

Thanks to the Tree Keepers for joining us on their bank holiday Monday and bringing all the spades and buckets!