Saturday started very wet, so it was even odds whether the task may go ahead. I soldiered over to Beckenham Green to make sure that GoodGym had representation, and thankfully the rain abated enough for some work to be done :)

Just Ian, leader of the Friends group, and one other came along today, but we still managed to plant some daffodil and allium bulbs and sweep and bag some leaves on the path, making for a short but effective task.

I'm looking forward to seeing those bulbs come up in a few months!

Back at Beckenham Green, and as we head into autumn fallen leaves were starting to stack up. With 4 GoodGymers ready to roll, we were assigned sweeping duty, and we hurtled through it 👊

First Leaonie and I collected the debris by the fence near the M&S corner, with Kelly starting work near the planters and joined by Ria. We then all moved up to the planters and brought the leaves down to our big pile, which was thrown behind the fence into the nature trail to start rotting down and provide good food for the plants there.

Having smashed that out in 50 minutes, we proceeded to remove some weeds from the planters and help install some wanted, propagated plants to fill in the gaps.

A lovely team and a fun task - thanks for making it a great start to the weekend 🎉

Kelly and I joined Ian at Beckenham Green to tackle vine weed, brambles and other weeds that were impacting some of the borders and even reaching onto the lawn.

Armed with hand forks and trowels, thankfully the drizzle didn't turn into anything heavier and we dug out the invaders, filling up several black bags. Hopefully the grass starts growing back soon :)

Beckenham Green had been mowed recently but the edging on the borders needed some finer work, so the Friends + GoodGymers took on the task of shearing the grass and removing weeds that had sprung up.

Between Ria, Leaonie and me we filled several black bags with weeds and grasses, giving the small hedges some breathing space and making the whole area look tidier 🧹

Great work, team - it makes a real difference 🚀

We'll be back hopefully sometime in June - look out for a listing soon.

Leaonie, Julia and I joined Ian and the Friends of Beckenham Green to help lay the foundation for a new nature trail 🍂 near the churchyard.

We cleared dense herbaceous planting (I learned something new today! These are plants without woody stems 🪵) from the paths that will form the trail, and will someday soon be covered with bark chippings. To help adult walkers, secateurs helped us cut back any trees whose branches hindered passage through the trail.

We found many old bits of branches that had fallen into the growth, too, and took those over to the compost bin to be worked down and made useful again 🙂

A real difference was made by all - thanks so much for joining! 🚀

We'll be back at the Green on Saturday 18th May - sign up here!

Spring is in the air 🌱 as we returned to Beckenham Green on a blue-sky ☀️ (if a bit crisp) March Saturday. This month we were helping the Friends of Beckenham Green clear the large brick planters of weeds, ready for the council to plant new shrubs and flowers 🌷 this week. A huge welcome 🎉 to first time 1️⃣ Goodgym-ers Emma and Tom! After receiving a GoodGym flyer a few weeks ago, they were keen to see what we were all about and got stuck into our Community Mission 😎

After we gloved up Ian, the Friends' lead, pointed out the shrubs that could be left in place, and handed out trowels so we could dig deep and get all the pesky roots out of the greenery that needed to go, otherwise it'll come back hard.

Kate admitted her weed-distinguishing skills need work 😅, and opted to hold the black bag against the wind 🌬️ as the rest of us began sifting through the soil. A grand total of 16 volunteers (!) were in play, meaning we got through the four planters in just under an hour 🚄

With our task done, we posed for a photo and parted ways, job well done ✅ Nice work, team!