After a last minute change of location, 4 GoodGymers enjoyed a pleasant evening walk over to the Colchester in Bloom allotment, including a brief encounter with Frazer en route.

It was lovely to meet Rebecca who was visiting from York GoodGym who got stuck straight in (with Louise) watering everything to keep it going after some dry weather. Alexander got to work with the strimmer, an important job to keep the allotment looking smart (as required to keep hold of the allotment), while Ray delighted Pam with his work to rescue some fruit trees.

We promised we would be back again soon to sort out some barrier boxes which need cleaning out so they can be put to good use.

A lovely evening for getting some extra steps in to tend Pam's allotment. Louise, Ray and Alex headed north via a meet up at the Mercury, whereas Stu and Helen took a short cut. We divided up the tasks, grabbed some tools and got stuck in. Louise made the plot look super tidy by strimming, Ray bravely tackled the prickly brambles which had popped up everywhere, Alex made a dozen trips to the water tank, and gave everything a really good drink, Stu weeded the vegetable beds, and unearthed a surprised beetroot, and a very tall chard, and Helen weeded the potatoes and corn. The allotment looked much better and Pam was really grateful for our efforts. Well done everyone 👏 👍

Four GoodGymers spent a lovely warm and sunny evening at the Colchester in Bloom allotment. We watered, weeded, dug, strimmed and debagged some fresh soil to help rejuvenate a bed ready for something new.

Eight hands make light work, well done all especially Hridyaand Rayfor your first allotment task! And Louisewho showed serious strimmer skills!

3 GoogdGymers helped Pam prepare planters for new flowers, to be put in by Colchester in Bloom on Thursday morning (meeting at 10 am in town if anyone would be interested in helping them).

Once we had established where the "Bus Park" was (more commonly referred to as the Bus Station), we set to work removing significant amounts of old soil from the planters, and then losening the remaining soil so that new plants could be easily placed with new nutritious soil around them. It was more challenging than it initially appeared as some of the soil was so dry and compressed that those of us who stood down wind of the planters regularly received a face full of soil every time a new chunk was removed.

We lamented the lack of broom a few times when we surveyed the mess we were making, but we were pretty confident the weather would do the necessary clean up job before anyone could return with one in the morning.

Many apologies for the lack of quality pun!

Another pleasant evening in our early summer saw five Goodgymmers greeted by a blast of crooner classics outside the Mercury theatre. After a casual stroll to the high st we met Pam and got to work clearing the flower beds, with a few different challenges to meet.

There was preserving some flowers, removing others and then removing the weedy soil altogether, limited by bags and their weight. Some chat about archeology as we discovered how deep those flower beds go, sadly nothing but glass shards uncovered by our team.

Following the task we loaded up Pam's car (after she demonstrated her impressed strength!) then unloaded them at her home too, a thorough job that will need a follow up soon.

Join us next week for some post-task drinks in town!

A lovely sunny evening for seven GoodGymers to support Colchester in Bloom by helping out at the allotment. This session focused on clearing out the greenhouses and tackling the overgrown beds through digging and weeding.

We were delighted to welcome a new member, Madeleine, to the group. Maddie got stuck straight in to the digging and weeding!

With a strong team effort, we made great progress, much to the delight of Pam from Colchester in Bloom, who was thoroughly impressed with how much we managed to achieve in one evening.

We’re already looking forward to returning to the allotment soon to continue the good work!