Sunday's task with the Friends of Kelsey Park was to tend to a woven fence of branches by the tennis courts. The plants whose stems are woven into the fence had grown tall and were ready to be harvested and top up the fence.

While we were there, we worked on some highly established brambles to stop them smothering the plants used for fence.

I was joined at this task by Georgina - welcome to GoodGym!

This week we were back at the silverdale planters, I joined Viv, Lumin, and a team of local volunteers for a an autumn tidy and some bulb planting! 🍂

With the season changing, we set to work deadheading the last of the summer blooms and tidying up any plants that had finished for the year. Along the way, we also collected seeds to store.

This week’s top tip from Lumin: Take photos of your bulbs in bloom over spring to see where they flowered best—then you’ll know exactly where to replant them next autumn!

The beds are now neat and refreshed. 🌷✨

A bit of mental maths practice was on the timetable this morning as Linda helped to set up tables and chairs for Bromley’s Disability Pride show... a quick multiplication sum told the volunteer team exactly how many rows were needed to seat the expected audience of at least 80 people, taking care to leave space for wheelchairs to move around the hall floor. Sara came along to help too and soon everything was ready for this free community event, which celebrates disabled talent and is hosted by local charity Experts by Experience (XbyX), run by and for deaf and disabled people.

My first good deed in a long while was a relaxing Sunday morning with the Friends of Kelsey Park. The group planned to weed near the top of the park by Beckenham High Street, and armed with a fork and secateurs, I got to work removing brambles that had grown huge since we tackled them last year.

My quarry included a huge 5m length and a bulb lodged deep inside another plant that was the base of many bramble branches - result!

Next meet is on Sunday 9th November :)

Mia and I joined the regular volunteers and some new faces at Dacres Wood Nature Reserve on Saturday to help John with one of our messiest tasks of the year - pulling the overgrown reeds from the pond! Suited up in waders and industrial looking gloves, we got stuck in (quite literally - the soil was very clay-like!) tugging the reeds from the roots, getting covered in algae in the process. Mia even found a newt along the way, which she rehomed on the other side of the reserve. Before and after photos in the pictures - not bad for an hour’s work!

It was satisfying to spend time restoring Mr J’s front garden to a tidy state and even better to see the smile on his face once the bindweed and litter had been cleared. Mr J explained that previously he had felt his spirits sink each time he went outside because, due to a painful disability, he had been unable himself to tackle the work needed. Now he says he feels motivated to get a bit of welcome exercise and fresh air doing occasional light gardening to keep everything looking neat. And with his fence no longer choked by weeds, he can arrange for it to be repaired.