This week, GoodGymers Catherine, Daiana and Alan headed to Fox Den Allotment for an evening of gardening, wildlife spotting and plenty of hard work! 💪🏼

This was my first visit to Fox Den, and the 10th good deed with GoodGym! I was pleased to see the nice work done there and I could also learn a lot about gardening, plants, medical effects of the plants and how rich and diverse the environment can be! 🌳

Our first task was creating a hedgehog highway. 🦔 We cleared an area before carefully layering some logs, smaller branches, twigs and finally leafy cuttings on top to create the perfect habitat for our prickly visitors. Alan’s strength and speedy log-moving certainly made light work of the heaviest part of the job! 🪏

Following this first move, we turned our attention to preparing a bed that will become part of the site’s growing forest garden. We learned how these gardens become increasingly self-sustaining over time, with established fruit trees and bushes already thriving. After turning the soil into a rich, nutritious bed ready for planting, it will soon be home to raspberries, artichokes, strawberries and plenty of other perennial plants. 🌱

As if that wasn’t enough, we also shifted some hefty rubber sheets into place to cover borders that had been overtaken by weeds. The sheets will help suppress the weeds over the coming months, leaving the beds ready for even more planting later in the year.

There was plenty of wildlife to enjoy too! We spotted a tiny cricket, rescued a thirsty bee with a well-timed drink of water, and a ladybird seemed particularly fond of Alan’s T-shirt – a very fitting companion for the evening. 🦗🐞

A brilliant evening of teamwork, learning and getting stuck in. We can’t wait to see how Fox Den continues to grow over the coming seasons! ✨