Kash and Sevan's mission to Mr R had them tackling the same problem as their last visit, the brambles and weeds in Mr R's large back garden. They had a new plan to clear the space and get the better of nature, but nature had other ideas and ways to thwart them.

Last time, Mr R's strimmer had been no match for the brambles and trying to clear a network of brambles that criss-crossed the ground with only shears hadn't been effective either. This time, ivy tactics were deployed with one raking the brambles to find what was still stuck in the ground and the other wielding the blades to cut them free.

After clearing the worst of the brambles near Mr R's back door, nature deployed its secret weapon. Darkness. Yes, this was Kash and Sevan's first 4pm gardening mission since the clocks had changed for winter and it got dark quickly. With one head torch between them, they kept the blades chopping and rolled up the longer vines to create a festive brambleman for Mr R's back garden.

Kash and Sevan's ankles were still being tickled by thorns at the end of the task, so there is more to be done. Mr R was very happy with the progress in the garden and more concerned about the state of his phone. The screen had gone funny and he'd been asking CharGPT for a solution since the start of the mission without any luck. GoodGymers do tech support too and Kash and Sevan diagnosed and fixed the problem in 30 seconds. Take that AI apocalypse 😛!

Joseph's secret forces had been hard at work since GoodGym Ealing's last visit to Feeding Ealing. A month ago the team had added manure to the raised beds to prepare them for next year's growing season. Since then, Joseph's worm army had been digesting the soil and manure to prepare for one part of today's task, turning the soil to prepare for new planting.

Kash and Sevan volunteered for what Joseph called the "graft" task, to take last year's potato growing beds and get them ready to have broad beans planted next season. Thanks to the worms and the little bit of rain that'd fallen, it took the full 90 minutes with Joseph's help to turn the soil in all of the beds. It was lighter work than last month and between them, they found plenty of potatoes that had escaped their harvest earlier in the year, with some of them were still being good to eat.

"I was going to ask if there were different varieties of potatoes here."
"But this is just a stone." - Kash
"There area early whites and desiree potatoes planted in the beds."
"That one is a stone potato." - Joseph

Inside the polytunnel was the second, fun and aromatic task with less graft. Cherian and Therese were uprooting this year's tomato plants and harvesting any remaining fruit. Green tomatoes were put into one bucket for Joseph to make his tasty chutney with, while yellow and orange fruits were separated out. Knobbly, spiky karela was picked too.

At the end of the session, the team were offered potatoes, the yellow/orange tomatoes and mild peppers to take home and cook with as a thank you for their efforts. At least the peppers were supposed to be mild as they weren't mature according to Joseph, so Kash must have been unlucky when she bit into one that was hot, hot, hot! 🌶️

Do you remember August 2025, when GoodGym cleared a brambly meadow for grazing animals at Horsenden Farm? You may not, as the group's composition has changed a bit since then.

Do you know what happened afterwards? The brambles grew back. But so did our group.

The newest addition was Lara, who had joined GoodGym only the night before. Like many other GoodGymers, she swapped screen time for getting active outdoors, meeting new people and making a positive change. She finally had a chance to rediscover her long-forgotten skills and did a brilliant job, quickly identifying and tackling the most important tasks.

The Saturday morning session started with saying hello to ponies Trixie and Charlie, who were happily grazing in their new paddock. Yes, that's the same paddock GoodGym had cleared in recent months! It's always encouraging to see the results of our work come to fruition.

Next, we made our way to the familiar (at least to a couple of us) meadow, which needed another bramble bash before adding new fencing inside the existing enclosure. The current boundary along the public paths wasn't deep enough to stop enthusiastic visitors from feeding the ponies, so Trixie and Charlie wouldn't be allowed into the new meadow until a new barrier was in place to prevent them from getting used to treats from strangers.

We got into chopping work with loppers and shears, distracted only once by friendly goats Alfie and Yogi, who came over to greet us. We didn't meet the cows on the day, but from looking what's been laying on the ground, we knew they had been to the meadow recently - so we had to watch our steps!

The stubborn bramble patch that had sprung back since last year was much easier to deal with this time, giving us more time to focus on clearing a corridor through the virgin bramble jungle further up the slope. Who knows when that ancient blackberry land was last touched?

"I don't know what we would do without you!" said Elsa, a Friend of Horsenden Farm, when we returned from our chopping quest.

Lastly, it was time for pizza, which sparked conversations about the top-notch ingredients needed for the world's best pizza and 90s martial arts films (hint: one of the Horsenden Loaf pizzas is called Jean Claude).

It was the perfect way to start a cool, misty morning: a good dose of exercise, followed by a well-deserved lunch and a little sunshine in the afternoon!