“I love it…working with a spreadsheet all day, this is a life saver”

Japanese garden water-feature, bamboo fencing, walled-growing garden, pavilion, outdoor kitchen, auto-irrigation greenhouse… these are just some of the plans Nikhil and Laurelle are incredibly excited about.

As co-ordinators of Barking Food Forest, they have a hugely ambitious programme of improvements planned for the whole community to benefit from. First on the list was a special mission for GoodGym B&D - to control the tall grass in the kitchen-garden that appears every summer and plays havoc with the vegetable boxes.

Excited to find out more about this magical place, as soon as we arrived, families were just leaving after bringing their own plants to pot-out in the kitchen-garden. In fact, any local resident can come and plant their food here – just one of the massive benefits Barking Food Forest brings to the area.

"The Good Gym have really helped us out with their amazing effort. It was great to meet everyone, lots of good vibes, laughs & much needed muscle power! Looking forward to their next visit already" (Nikhil, Barking Food Forest co-ordinator)

Laurelle started the session by taking us on a whistle stop tour of the Food Forest; a huge amount of work is planned to make this oasis even more paradise like.

Nikhil showed Peter how to cut the gauze used to suppress the grass growth, whilst Steven and Emdad shovelled wood chip into barrows and transported it to the kitchen-garden to lay a 2-inch deep barrier to prevent grass coming up.

This important work will not only make the kitchen-garden more accessible, but save hours in the future by preventing weeds, grass and other unwanted seedlings taking root.

Playing a part in this unique project gave all the GoodGymmers a huge boost, and we can’t wait to be back again next Tuesday 6.15 (15th July). Join us by signing up here

See you soon

Steven (B&D Area Activator)

NB – if you are a local not-for-profit organisation that would benefit from GoodGymmers to complete practical tasks in outdoor greenspaces, please get in touch steven.champion@goodgym.org

*“You’re keen?“

“Well, I’ve never dug before!”*

Having run Gale Street Organic Community Garden in Becontree for over 20 years, Bridget has had less time to look after this beautiful greenspace recently. Fruit trees, vegetable beds and the shed have all been calling out for some TLC….

… a call that was answered by 8 GoodGymmers last night who were celebrating GoodGym Barking & Dagenham’s very first ever session!

Huge kudos to all GoodGymmers in attendance:

🏃 De, and Claire and Steven get a special well done for coming to their first ever GoodGym session 🏃 Louise came in from Islington especially to help, 🏃 Cecilia's regular weekly running club was cancelled so we were lucky enough to them her come in from Greenwich, 🏃 Peter loved their first time digging 🏃 Emdad cycled in from Barking (watch out for his article about this session in the Barking & Dagenham Post coming soon), 🏃 Jack was on content creator duty (excited to see their first attempt at a TikTok video).

So much was achieved in just 45 minutes – check this out: 3 vegetable beds were measured and marked out and 2 trenches dug, from which 20 feet cubed of soil was removed. Very dry, hard and dusty soil. This is a huge achievement!

“I thought you were all going to chicken out and not come as it is so hot, but you didn’t! You came; you worked with good humour; I’m so impressed” (Garden owner Bridget)

“You’re a powerhouse… fun, and great energy having you guys here” (Task owner Nassaba)

Everybody really enjoyed themselves, experiencing first hand the benefits of spending time doing physical activity in nature. Soooooo much more fun than the gym. And we learnt lots about soil science from Bridget who has degrees (yes, plural) in the subject (urine does actually improve compost - this article was nearly titled "don't take the pi**")

And we’re in demand – Nassaba is working with me to plan many more sessions soon, so keep an eye out on the B&D area page of the website!

See you soon

Steven (B&D Area Activator)

NB – if you are a local not-for-profit organisation that would benefit from GoodGym volunteers to complete practical tasks in outdoor greenspaces, please contact me on steven.champion@goodgym.org