Throughout Sunday, Sevan and Kash pressed on North, jogging from one community mission to another. First, Walmer gardens, Walpole Park second. What was next? Walthamstow? Not quite. Two adventurers stopped at Pear Tree Park, answering task owner Richard’s call to action. The rockery near the park’s future bistro had been overtaken by thistles, grass, and dandelions again! Moreover, the tenant of the park’s cafe, Diana, had donated bulbs to improve the car park and cafe surroundings in the spring, and those needed to be planted sooner rather than later.

The last-minute Pear Tree Park activity surprisingly brought not only two GoodGymers, but also five Ealing Greenwayers (a.k.a. Friends of Richard), which surprised the task owner himself! Most of the group started digging out weeds with forks at the base of the rockery and advanced towards the top to meet other explorers in the middle, Stanley & Livingstone-style. One of the Greenwayers was assigned a very important job of opening bags containing a few hundred bulbs in total, without a knife or scissors.

The task wasn’t without skeptics, who didn’t believe we’d manage to do any planting on the day, stuck with the weeding job. Thanks to the fantastic teamwork, we’ve planted clusters of mixed flower bulbs in the soil between the rocks, and even avoided digging out each other’s bulbs, which could have happened surprisingly easily with a little bit less coordination.

After several sessions at the Pear Tree Park rockery throughout last year, we cannot wait till springtime to finally see the flurry of colours emerging from the inconspicuous mound of rocks and soil.