The last group run of August 2025 took GoodGym runners Sevan, Harvey, Freya and Steph Ducat to South Acton in a pursuit of perfection in the art of leaf mulch making. At Berrymede School, they met Kash and Chris, and, of course, Romina from Cultivate London, who would guide them in preparing the finest 2024 leaf compost, continuing their work started in July.

Last year's leaves were well-marinated: dark, moist and rich - easy to tell apart from golden, crispy 2025 leaves that already started falling onto the schoolyard. We had to do our best to finish the 2024 batch before it got contaminated by this season's additions. Chris, Freya, Sevan and Kash positioned themselves at the leaves deposit to dig out the damp organic gold. The lowest layers already had some growth in them. The GoodGymers found peculiar white sprouts and even apples: one edible (presumably, as no one actually tried it), and another - an Apple device! Cultivate London charity could grow rich by growing more iPhones rather than selling leaf mulch to raise funds!

Harvey, in breaks from shovelling leaves, was driving the trolley with half-full tonne bags to Bay 2024, where Steph was performing leaf stomping: an ancient tradition of treading the mulch by feet to release the juices and initiate fermentation. As the time went on, the half-full bags in the bay, topped up with Harvey's deliveries and compressed by Steph, grew fatter and denser. Romina was delighted to see what outstanding results a small team could achieve and gave the GoodGymers a round of high-fives.

Next week, our Tuesday session will take place near Ealing Broadway. We will be pruning and watering at the much-loved Lammas Orchard. Sign up now to join us!

A wall of boxes still lines Mr D's living room, as they had the first time that Kash and Sevan had visited. Apparently someone else had been in the meanwhile and there was evidence of some movement of the boxes. Mr D himself had been in and out of hospital again. He wasn't feeling his best today and hadn't been able to move forward with organising his belongings.

With Mr D out of action, Kash and Sevan continued with what they'd done last time, to get books, folders and other items out of the cardboard boxes and into sight. The main goal was still to find Mr D's TV remote and aerial cable, but who knew if the removal company had even packed it? 🤷 The boxes had all been packed haphazardly, so the books and files were jumbled together. The plan was to make as much as possible visible to Mr D to identify and organise in his own time.

The pair spent the mission filling a new, empty bookcase with all sorts of books and maps. An almost endless amount of books and maps, actually. Every box contained some kind of paperwork. World War 2 was Mr D's speciality, so book topics covered war intelligence, maps and the SAS. In fact, there were a lot of books on the SAS, emblazoned with "Who dares wins".

Despite all of the intelligence (books) available, between them, there wasn't enough intelligence to find the TV remote. They did manage to empty a number of moving boxes and found a way to dispose of them in Mr D's sheltered housing block, which was a big GoodGym decluttering win.

On a Sunday morning, Sevan ran, and Kash walked to Hanwell to start the sunny day with a gardening mission. They met in Drayton Green and made their way together to Mrs A's house, where the beneficiary's daughter guided them right to the back garden.

There was a large stack of old cuttings looming in the corner, a jolly curtain of ivy hanging from the fence, and bunches of small weeds growing here and there on the gravel - yet no tools!

Mrs A's daughter scrambled to purchase more garden waste bags, as Kash estimated the sacks available wouldn't take the existing green waste pile in.

Sevan, who specialised in detailed work, got into weeding the gravel, then removing ivy with his hands, a small kitchen knife, and a small pair of scissors. Even without secateurs, he's been deadly! Kash was rummaging through the dried waste stack, snapping sticks, getting scratched by long bramble vines, and finding bunches of grass someone had vigorously pulled out with soil.

Thirteen bags later, the GoodGymers ran out of time. Such an unlucky number to finish a mission with! Hopefully, the GoodGym daredevils who will visit Mrs A next can bring enough luck to finish off tidying the heap of dry cuttings.