Ms J was - in her own humble opinion - no gardener. Yet, she cherished her backyard with a narrow flower bed on the side. One day, she planted a mix of seeds in there, and weeks later, lovely spinach grew on the fertile soil. Ms J was delighted with her new beautiful and tasty plant. But not for long. Neighbourhood cats that started using the spinach patch as a toilet, and slugs that thought the place was a restaurant, put Ms J off gardening. In the last year, she's also been unwell, which made the garden fall into a state of neglect.

"Come, see my garden from the kitchen window. You'll be terrified" - Ms J
"Oh, we've seen worse" - Kash

Ms J's garden was covered mostly with slabs, with plenty of weeds growing between them. And, of course, there was a flowerbed, in need of weeding too. Despite the temperature remaining below or around zero throughout the day, the soil has not frozen - it was surprisingly soft. Most of the weeds on the paving were easy enough to pull by hand - others, with more stubborn roots, were going to get a weedkiller treatment from Sevan and Ms J.

Despite the days getting longer after the winter solstice, the GoodGymers knew that dusk would fall upon them before the end of the mission, so they precautiously brought head torches. Sevan even remembered to charge his torch - or hasn't used it at group runs recently.

With fewer imperfections visible in the dark, the result of the 90-minute mission looked quite impressive. After the GoodGymers swept the remaining weeds and the leaves, Ms J could not thank them enough.

"You've been so quick" - Ms J
"There were two of us, so double the speed" - Sevan
"And you helped us too!" - Kash
"Oh, I'm just showing off now. I'll feel it later tonight!" - Ms J

Difficulties with bending and the feeling of being overwhelmed by the state of the garden had been stopping Ms J from weeding, but today she has been helping the GoodGymers remove the waste bags and sweep the paving. She was still positive about coming back to gardening, after getting a raised bed in the future which would eliminate the need to bend her back. Hopefully, when the sun rises tomorrow, Ms J will be still delighted about her tidied-up back yard.