Happy 9th birthday GoodGym Richmond!

Celebrating nine years of keeping fit by doing good in Richmond at the riverside plot we take care of on behalf of Richmond Council. A sunny jog along the river, followed by lots of watering, weeding, clearing up and happy chatting as we went. And a biscuit to finish!

Thank you to all 591 people who have done a task in Richmond over the last nine years!

The annual GG Richmond battle with the highly invasive Himalayan balsam scourging local riverbanks has commenced and on a fiery Saturday morning, four fearless warriors stepped into the leafy arena.

While a few plucky nettles defending the tall foes hit their mark, they were no match for our gang who snipped and trampled them out of the way to reach the balsam, which they whipped from the ground to the sound of the familiar and satisfying ‘pop’ that only comes from defeating them roots and all.

Although there was some dappled shade to be had in the sheltered riverside oasis, it was certainly a warm one and when the deed was done our champions each departed to their chosen location for a horizontal afternoon.

Watering in Buccleuch Gardens and around St Mary Magdalene in Richmond to help young plants get through the heat wave. And adding some Florescent topped canes to enable others to mark the places for others to water over the next couple of weeks.

A mission to water new planting at St Mary’s Church in Richmond wasn’t quite as successful as hoped but lessons learned.

GoodGym Richmond’s environmental hero Ken MacKenzie has been working with GG Richmond and all sorts of other local groups, volunteers and Duke of Edinburgh Scheme participants to improve the green spaces across the Borough including the historic Church of St Mary Magdelinr in the heart of the town.

Today’s session was a bit like a Space-X rocket that exploded on take off. My Mission was to water new planting around the War Memorial and the newly fenced wildflower beds. On the first attempt I didn’t have quite the right tools. Returning 15mins later (with a useful Philips screwdriver) I was able to do some watering but I had to abandon the mission prematurely when I discovered I had left my phone at home on charge (Doh!). Back at St Mary’s shortly afterwards there was only enough time to put everything away.

Friday 11th July afternoon planting mission in GoodGym Richmond’s sponsored plots in Buccleuch Gardens to plant out over one hundred plants grown from seed.

32 degree temperatures really not ideal so lots of watering integral to this task and lots of watering missions likely to be listed over the next couple of weeks to ensure that people and wildlife can look forward to swathes of honesty, angelica, salvia, dianthus, zinnia, cornflower, lobelia and more .

Seven GoodGymers came out on Monday to work on the River Crane. We donned our chest waders and ventured into the mirth not knowing how deep it would be. The rain earlier in the day had raised the River levels considerably but Ken (standing on the bank) assured us that it would only be up to our waists! In we went like moths to a flame…. We were here to manage Himalayan balsam for FORCE (Friends of River Crane) a global invasive species that chokes out natives. We saw them across the river in the reeds and got to work pulling out the annual before it set seed. Ken told us we are part of a experiment to use a biological control in time using a specific rust that infects the balsam but first we needed to dig out some to get the numbers down. And to that we had a great time yanking out the weeds in our waders!