With the mercury rising to around 33C, anything more than mild gardening exertion would have sent us spinning to the ground. Fortunately, this afternoon, Goodgym Tower Hamlets joined a well-organised and sensibly-paced gardening club at St. Margaret's House, in the Bethnal Green area of the borough.

The overall focus of this community mission: pruning and tidying up plant life overflowing from flowerbeds and creeping over walls. Our achievement: restoring the central garden courtyard and interlinked walkways to an informally neat standard. Nature tamed, but wild enough to introduce a touch of adventure within the relaxing, green backdrop.

Emily, the Operations Manager at St Margaret's House, greeted @Dan and @Emma with welcoming energy, clear instructions, and thoughtful precautions.

Firstly, the latter: Emily offered us sun-cream, presented us each with a foldable stool and demonstrated the cold drinking water fountain within the 'Mulberry House' building. Thus shielded, supported, and hydrated, we could proceed, slowly, to the areas of the garden where the messier and more dominant plants needed our careful, yet timely, interventions.

New bamboo shoots were snipped out with secateurs to avoid them taking over a narrow flowerbed. @Dan teamed up with another garden volunteer on this and had him enquiring about joining GG by the end of the session! An abundant jasmine plant was trimmed to prevent it cascading down into the bin store area (without stopping the sweet fragrance of the remaining stream of flowers wafting over us...). Leaves and debris left scattered by last night's storm were swept up and added to the compost piles (praise be to @Emma for her enthusiasm and imagination with the broom!). A large branch was snapped down to size small enough to lay extra layers upon a stack of logs (a.k.a. the "bug hotel"). Many assorted weeds plus one packet of barbeque beef-flavoured hula hoop crisps s were picked out from amongst shrubs and under the terrace chairs and tables.

And all this activity under the shelter of an effortlessly serene, giant mulberry tree, right in the middle of the St Margaret's House site.

Result of the session: well-maintained outdoor spaces brought back into orderly balance, ensuring this hidden oasis and off-shooting walkways continue to serve the busy St Margaret's House community with well-tended pockets of nature to pass through, mingle with and relax in.

Not just one single house, many buildings come together to make St Margaret's House a whole community arts and wellbeing centre. It fronts onto Old Ford Road, just along from the York Hall Leisure centre. Through its archway lie the hidden depths of its garden grounds, set within an intermingling of halls, offices, a chapel and much more...

The centre offers workshops, hosts exhibitions, organises events and rents space (and runs a vegan café and a shop); all activities promoting the transformatve power of the arts and community connection to boost people's physical and mental health.

The gardening club runs monthly, which is when GG Tower Hamlets has been pitching up to help. A special additional community mission could be lined up before July's session: to help assemble a new bench and stain some existing outdoor furniture (keep your eye out for the details if that sounds like your bag).

That task, and the regular July gardening club, will prepare the site in particular for a memorial event thereafter. The memorial is in honour of a former St Margarets House Finance Director, who died a year ago, and who enjoyed the garden here. So, a chance to contribute to a spruced-up setting for their team to come together in remembrance.

Returning full circle now to the welcoming energy of leader Emily, matched by the other gardening club volunteers, the wider centre's staff, and its visitors, all making their way around the site. Passing along the neatened paths bordered with freshly trimmed and tidied greenery and the wildlife it sustains, the volunteer team received many a nod, a smile and a thank you for our efforts.

At the heart of the main garden is growing St Margaret's special source of cooling shade, cast by its great height and swaying mass of verdant foliage. The huge mulberry tree offers comfort and plenty of natural stimulation for the body and the mind. It is a gently towering, mature specimen producing the darker mulberry fruits, like a cross between a raspberry and a blackberry.

Emily explained how this tree and many mulberry trees were planted around east London in the late seventeenth century, by the Huguenot weavers arriving from France. Silkworms eat exclusively on the leaves of mulberry trees, hence their practical, natural support to their creative silk textile industry.

The fruits on the St Margaret's mulberry tree grow on the higher branches, proving difficult to harvest. But, for now, it still brings plenty of perspective through its stature, and the occasional drop of mulberry rain to keep the St Margaret's community nurtured and intrigued 😀 It felt like a useful boost of inspiration for a revived spirit to rouse this pair of GG volunteers.