It's been a tough summer for the weeds at St Mary's Churchyard Garden in South Ealing. First, the unforgiving drought, then the mighty gardener Cliff, and now this - a horde of GoodGymers!

Even the train disruptions during the heatwave couldn't hinder the unstoppable active transport enthusiasts: group runners led by Sevan - Steph Ducat and Kash, a solo runner Richard, cyclists Amy, Scott and Maria, and walkers James and Diana.

Thirsty and depleted weeds growing by the northern wall of the churchyard could not stand a chance against the assault of spades, forks, mattocks and shears carried by the gang in red t-shirts. Chopped, pulled or dug out, the weeds became green waste to be rapidly raked away and loaded into a wheelbarrow. From there, there was only one way - onto the giant compost heap.

The transformation of the area was remarkable: from a green (yes, it somehow managed to stay green, unlike the dried grass) carpet of weeds into a levelled layer of woodchip. Cliff was very pleased by the sheer power of teamwork, brought by GoodGym. When Ealing eventually gets some rain, the chief gardener hopes to seed some grass in the churchyard and bring the garden back to life with some pleasant greenery.

We will be back at St Mary's churchyard first thing in September. With Steph in charge, the team will attack the infamous northeastern corner of the garden to free it from the remaining weeds. Sign up now!

Next week's Tuesday session: Help women in Acton discover free, inclusive health and fitness opportunities.

More GoodGym this week?

Thursday: Help keep the orchard alive! 🌳 Watering fruit trees at Elthorne Triangle in Hanwell 💦.

Saturday: 🥦 Fun, exercise, food growing 🥔 August Community day at Western Road Urban Garden.

Mission control were very clear with Ms L that her, Kash and Sevan's priority for today's mission was to clean her garden table and chairs ahead of a garden party that Ms L was planning. As soon as Kash and Sevan arrived, Ms L started pointing out areas of the garden that needed work. Kash and Sevan tried to keep things on track with the table and chairs, but they weren't front of mind for Ms L.

After being reminded that the GoodGymers were only there for 90 minutes, Ms L exclaimed:

"I told Big Jim that I needed help between 3 and 5"

Kash and Sevan never learned who this mysterious Big Jim was. If it was an actual person or Dave Guest's Mission Control alter ego. Ms L said that she always contacts Big Jim to get more help and to schedule follow up sessions.

Back to the task at hand, with only 1 bucket, 1 brush and 2 cloths, Sevan started scrubbing the table top then a chair with soapy water. Kash started chopping brambles as there was nothing else to do with the garden furniture yet.

After a while, the GoodGymers switched roles. The white plastic furniture had collected a thick layer of grime over one or more years that was taking a lot of effort to scrub off. Bit by bit, it was getting lighter and whiter.

There were other tasks around the garden too.

"There's 2 fox poos on the ground. Can you pick them up please? I can't reach them."
"There's another one there." - Ms L
"Where?" - Kash and Sevan
"By the bush"
"I don't know how you can't see it. I can." - Ms L
"That's a black sock" - Kash

...then ten minutes later...

"There's another poo, by the bush."
"Look! Right there." - Ms L
"That's the sock again" - Sevan

By the end of the task, the table and chairs looked usable by Ms L's guests and were placed on the patio to dry. The path into the back garden was clearer and some of the brambles had been cut back too, leaving Ms L a lot happier about the state of her garden.

As Kash and Sevan left, Ms L told them that she'd be on the phone to Big Jim tomorrow to book some more help 🥸. Sevan picked up 2 rogue socks too and put them in the bin, so that they don't give the local foxes a bad reputation.

Sevan and Kash started their Sunday morning in Catford - a location that had set high expectations of encountering legions of cats! So far, the only feline spotted was a cat-shaped teapot at the beneficiary's kitchen during the first mission.

The second stop in South London was Brockley, with a gardening mission for Mrs D. Sevan's and Kash's job was deadheading large numbers of overblown flowers and generally cutting off whatever was dead in the pots and flower beds. And there were a lot of plants looking quite beyond help. The majority of the potted flowers and shrubs had twigs and leaves that were dry as a bone.

Kash followed Mrs D through the house to pick up tools from the shed in the back garden and spotted a black cat dozing on an armchair.

"Beautiful cat!" - Kash.
"I have seven of them! Here's another one. - Mrs D.

A white cat, squeezed between the top cupboard and ceiling in the kitchen, was fast asleep too.

Outside, in the front garden, Sevan and Kash encountered another two tomcats from the seven-feline army: a ginger boy and a large, fluffy orange-and-white cat. Both were looking for some shade under the bushes Kash very enthusiastically trimmed back. The lawn was spiked with smelly landmines the cats had left behind, securing their territory. The traps weren't that effective, as they hadn't stopped Sevan from removing weeds growing in the grass.

The three unseen cats decided not to reveal themselves at any point of the mission. Sevan and Kash were sure, though, that they had been watched by the undercover felines all along. The GoodGymers had nothing to hide: they had left the garden looking considerably less overgrown than they found it.

Miss M of Catford needed to replace a blind in her kitchen as the old one no longer worked properly. For that job, she was getting two GoodGymers all the way from West London, Sevan and Kash. Kash was very excited about the trip southeast as she'd never been in Catford before.

Miss M had all the tools needed (a Philips screwdriver), a ladder and steps. It was certainly easier to have two people for the task, so two sets of steps were perfect.

Sevan and Kash quickly removed the old, red blind (quite on brand for a GoodGym mission!) and replaced it with a more tame grayish-green model. It was a surprisingly sweaty workout for an indoor, technical task. The screws had to go into new holes in the wood - non-existent holes the duo had to make without a drill or an electric screwdriver, but by driving the screws into the wood at an angle where it was a bit tricky to apply power.

"It works so smooth now! Thank you very much!", Miss M said, delighted to try out the new blind.

The lady wished the two a good rest of the Sunday and success in the other missions they had planned to do while in South London.

Due to other events, Mr G wasn't ready to test out his online shopping skills, as planned. Instead, he asked Kash and Sevan to put his kitchen back in some sort of order after a builder had visited to make some improvements. With everything in it's right place or at least out of the way, including a clock that Sevan re-hung high on the wall, it looked like mission complete for the day...

...until Mr G asked for help to understand a document he'd been sent by a solicitor he'd engaged recently. Neither Kash nor Sevan were legal experts, so as Mr G was fretting about the contents and meaning of the letter, they tried to find another way to help Mr G. The best solution the GoodGymers could think of was uploading the 35 page document to an AI platform and asking it to either summarise the whole thing or ask it specific questions for the AI to answer. After jumping over some technical hurdles, they understood that the document didn't seem to line up with some information given to Mr G, so he would call the solicitor to ask for more details.