GoodGym's first visit to Blackberry Corner since October showed a huge transformation. Through spring, things had sprung. Mostly weeds around the fruit trees. HANGOT's Orchard Love day for May looked to clear space around the trees so that they could feed off all of the precious sunlight and water that hit the orchard.

HANGOTers scythed the paths first, with everyone staying out of the way of the swishing blades. Once they'd passed, GoodGymers got rolling with their shears, quickly chopping 2 metre wide circles around the tree trunks. Nettles, grass, cleavers and hemlock were wiped out with each snip. The animal lovers in the group found lots of ladybirds, spiders and snails, which they moved to safety before removing the weeds that they'd been sitting on. Rakers followed the choppers, moving the cuttings into large piles to dry out.

After the trees were given some breathing room, the team moved onto cutting back a large overgrown area at the far side of the orchard and also digging out burdock and hemlock, which needed regular and sustained removal to eventually kill them.

The tasks were completed quickly thanks to a lot of volunteers and a desire to get off to today's Hanwell Hootie music festival. A couple of the ladybirds had the same idea. Rather than searching for a new home in the orchard, they decided to hitchhike on a bag to go on a journey of musical discovery via a coffee stop.

Thursday evening guided runs with Achilles UK and 4 Goodgymers paired up with runners at the race track. Laps at Paddington Rec Track: what a lap-tastic session

What a week for GoodGym Hounslow — so many celebrations, achievements and adventures to catch up on!

Fresh off the back of the London Marathon, the good things just kept coming. Florian was busy acting as a guide runner at the Hamburg Half Marathon, while Steph completed a double-header, topping things off with a marathon in Milton Keynes. Add in Will racing in Copenhagen this weekend, plus some adventurous international parkrunning tourism, and it’s safe to say there’s absolutely no stopping you all! We love to see it.

Last night our group run headed out to Dukes Meadow via what we'll call the scenic route. On arrival, we found a few GGers had already beaten us to the task and got stuck in early.

We were joining forces with Abundance London to tackle a huge mound of mulch that had been fly-tipped across several parking spaces. Task organiser Jen greeted us with a cautious, “Just do what you can — I don’t expect you to finish it all…”

But this was her first encounter with GG Hounslow...

Armed with rakes, shovels and wheelbarrows, we got to work. Barrow-load by barrow-load, the mountain steadily disappeared until the hidden parking spaces were finally revealed once more. Great to see some brilliant teamwork in action.

Meanwhile, Emily and Lucy headed over to the beautiful riverside garden, where they took care of some much-needed weeding and tidying, helping the space look its very best for passers-by.

With the sun out, the river alongside us and plenty of heavy lifting involved, it turned into a stunning evening and an unexpectedly thorough fitness session too.

Don’t forget — there’s a mission happening this Saturday at Watermans Park. Can you make it?

Great work everybody!

Do you remember the story from the most recent session at Popesfield Allotments, where I noted that GoodGym Ealing hadn't visited Cultivate London's plant nursery for two years? Well, such a gap didn't happen this time! Our team was back within three weeks since the April 2026 session, as we had left a job unfinished, and we don't like that.

So, what do we like? The sound of weeds' roots being seamlessly pulled through a membrane, oh yes! This Tuesday evening task was filled with satisfying ambient noises and a sense of achievement.

Conor, Sevan, Steph Ducat and Kash ran from Ealing Broadway to meet another runner - Harvey, cyclist James and walker Anna.

Anna arrived for her first GoodGym session after being recruited by our mutual friend from LAGER Can - what a brilliant turn of events! Anna likes a good litter pick, but nothing beats a green task closer to nature. She arrived ready with small weeding tools and even offered others her spare gloves, which astonished the regulars - usually it's the other way around with the newbies! Neither gloves nor tools were really necessary as the weeds were extremely easy to pull by hand, and that was an utterly satisfying sensation.

With a team of seven and an hour of pulling, sweeping, bagging and pallet-lifting, we finished clearing the entire membrane area, filling two tonne bags with garden waste. Minus a few holes (made by weeds, not us!), the membrane looked like new.

"You could eat dinner from that!" - Harvey.
"Is it dinner time?"

Next Tuesday, we'll have more gardening to do as we'll be helping gardener Cliff maintain the peaceful space for church-goers and residents of South Ealing at St Mary's churchyard. Sign up now!