GoodGym Worthing: Rooting for Change at the School Garden

On a sun-drenched breezy evening in Worthing, a cheerful team of GoodGym volunteers gathered at a local school, sleeves rolled up and spades at the ready. The mission? To tackle a set of stubborn, root-bound flowerbeds and get the school garden ready for planting butterfly friendly plants.

Amongst the team, El brought a bit of ergonomic brilliance to the task—adopting a smart corkscrew technique with her fork that made clearing roots easier on the back and surprisingly effective. It didn’t take long for others to take notice!

John wasted no time in getting stuck in with practiced determination. He was soon joined by Roxy whose energy and laughter kept spirits high as she wrestled with a particularly knotted section of roots.For the 2nd week running she unearthed a relic, this time of the canine variety in the shape of a jaw bone and teeth most likely belonging to the fox skull we dug up during our last visit.

Nearby, Ryan focused on systematically breaking up compacted soil and roots with plenty of sweat and toil but always a smile on his face :)

MeganPaula and Ricky teamed up to dig over a corner bed where roots had nearly taken over completely and where Ricky was particularly determined dislodging a stubborn tree root.

Stéphane brought a calm and steady energy, methodically working through one of the trickier beds and tree roots . His determination to get the job done was evident when he and John tackled another extremely persistent large root. Stephane always has a few good natured jokes up his sleeve to keep us all smiling!

Meanwhile, Anne , Belinda, Sarah, and Gillybean were tackling two overgrown flowerbeds bordering the classrooms. Armed with forks, trowels, and serious focus, they cleared thick weeds and undergrowth to reveal planting space ready for action. In very little time, both beds were transformed — clean, clear, and ready for planting.

The heavy work was softened by camaraderie, determination, and the a final victorious cheer as the last stubborn root gave way.

By the end of the session, the flowerbeds stood 90% cleared and turned and almost ready for fresh planting. Head Teacher, Helen came along to admire the transformation - Don't worry we will be back again soon to finish them.

Time to celebrate - Sarah wears her wings

The group headed to the pub, where there was no shortage of reasons to raise a glass. Roxy was marking her 50th GoodGym task and her birthday last week. She was surprised with a framed collage of photo memories ,each image representing one of her good deeds, a heartfelt tribute from the team. Sarah celebrated her impressive 100th GoodGym task and received a beautiful hand-crafted needlework portrait of herself in 'action'— beautifully stitched by John, capturing her perfectly. She was also modelling her much sought after GG 100 angel wings tee shirt which she did perfectly in her natural stylish way :)

Ricky was also in the spotlight, toasting both his 150th GoodGym and 200th parkrun milestones. He came well prepared for the occasion—bringing along two delicious cakes to share with the crew.

There was a slight delay in the celebrations for El, Anne, Megan, and myself as we had stopped to assist Stephane who had unfortunately taken a tumble on his bike en route to the pub. Though bruised and a bit shaken, Stephane was in good spirits and, after being checked out at A&E, was thankfully given the all-clear. The group, as always, pulled together—proving once again that GoodGym is more than just a running group; it's a community that looks after its own. Special mention to El for her speedy bandaging skills and to Anne for wheeling the bike home.

It was the perfect end to a memorable evening—filled with digging, laughter, surprises, and the kind of camaraderie that makes GoodGym Worthing truly special.

Until next week ..........

Julia xx

Rake Progress

After another Bank Holiday Monday, we moved our session to Wednesday again. We headed back to English Martyrs School where we are meet the head teacher, Helen.

Thank you to my team tonight - It was great to see Ryan and Sarah after their Worthing 10k at the weekend. It was lovely to welcome back Megan after some very busy weeks of work for her. Thank you also to John and El who had both marshalled at the RUN Fest on Sunday.

Completing this evening's team was Ricky and Roxy along with puppy Mali in a cat carrier 😻😅.

Helen asked us to continue with the clearing of the large beds that we had started last week. The school are planning to plant a butterfly garden and we are more than happy to assist with this :)

Although the progress didn't look so dramatic this week we worked equally as hard. Thank goodness we had John's electric saw that he was able to cut through the stubborn tree roots. We hope we haven't broken it !

As well as the sawing there was a lot of brute digging activity going by Ryan,Ricky and Megan, together with some very fine raking by Sarah and El. Roxy was got right down to the task pulling out roots and weeding the area she was working on too. . I was in charge of getting the debris to the compost heap. With the help of John's gauntlet gloves this definitely pushed my step count up for the day!

Another very worthwhile and impactful task ! Thank you all and see you all next week.

Have a lovely weekend in the warm weather.

Julia xx

Getting to the (almost) root of the problem

On a stunning April evening we had headed across Sunny Worthing to one of more recent, but also favourite tasks, at English Martyrs school. We were met by Helen, the head teacher who had a comprehensive list of task requests. Many of us had arrived with loppers in readiness for hedge and bramble work so we got straight to work.

Special mention to Roxy who completed The London Marathon yesterday in a fantastic time. Massive congratulations also must go to Anne who completed the 50 mile South Downs Challenge a few weeks ago and returned to her GoodGym buddies tonight.

Most of the team including Belinda, Barbara,El,John,Ricky,Paul Gillybean, and Anne got stuck into lopping down large brambly hedges lining the bordering fence. They certainly worked with great gusto with lots to get done in a limited time. The progress was excellent with piles of debris soon appearing ready to be transferred to the compost heap.

Roxy and puppy Mala decided to continue painting the fence that we had started last year. With only 1 paint brush it was a 1 person job but we do hope that we will push through and finish the whole thing this summer before it will all need doing again next year! Luckily for Roxy, when Mala got a little too hot and restless Helen's daughter stepped in and was only too pleased to take her inside to play with her.

Stéphane arrived just in time to help me empty compost into the new raised beds before concentrating on helping with all the debris clearing. John had usefully brought along a brand new electric strimmer which was sliced through the brambles beautifully. Gill very usefully found a trolley to help with transportation to the compost heap ( great photo)

Superstar of the day

Talking of the strimmer ..... John unfortunately misplaced a wing nut on it so we were all trying to keep a look out for it which was a little like looking for a needle in a haystack ! However thanks to our eagle eyed ( and determined) El this was the first of two problems that we didn't need to worry about! Within the space of 10 minutes she had not only found the missing part for the strimmer but also Paul's glasses which had dropped off his head into the abysis of foliage ! El is definitely one we are keeping !

What a lovely evening this was :) We will be back again next week to continue with more jobs. As its a bank holiday Monday we will be meeting next Wednesday 7th May at 6pm instead.

Have a great BH long weekend and see you next week.

Julia x

Better than a BOGOF - Today was a triple! It was a great turn out this evening and we had a very prompt start.

Head teacher Helen asked to do 3 things

*Dig over the flower beds at the front of the school and line it with wood chips.

*Continue painting the fence surrounding the play area.

*Dig out a massive plant in the play area.

Daisy andPaul elected to get started on the digging and were joined byJohn and Duncan. Gillybean did her usual great job on pruning and tidying the bushes on the flowerbed which made a huge difference to the visual finish ( Daisy helped with this too )

Ryan, Sarah and Roxy headed out to continue where we left off last time with the painting of the fence in a forest green colour. They were joined by Sue and Belinda Everyone tried to avoid Sarah's paint flicking skills but some of us didn't manage to swerve this ' talent ' 🤣

The flowerbed team soon achieved fantastic results and came and joined the team at the back of the school. Daisy pitched in with the fence whilst John and Paul decided to attack the huge plant/ bush that needed removing in the play area.

Given the time we had left , this was an optimistic and challenging and involved a fair amount of brute force and determination plus some cardiovascular strength too ! They were joined by Duncan who brought some muscle and also Gill who offered some useful technique tips 🤣

Despite all odds the task was completed meaning we had achieved 2 / 3 of our goals tonight - Bravo team 👏

Next week we will return to continue painting the ( eternal ) fence!

The final question is, why is this report entitled ' What lies beneath ' ? There are 2 answers to this - both fairly confidential. One relates to what is underneath the wood chips and the other is what Belinda is concealing underneath her hoodie! Ssssshhhh - nobody knows 😁😁😁

Summer is finally here

With the warmest day of the year so far we all eagerly arrived in our painting gear as we had been asked to paint some fencing separating the play area from the field.

After a bit of a delayed start we were welcomed by head teacher, Helen, who showed s what needed doing. With a great 9 strong GG turnout, it was a shame that we only had 4 paint brushes provided. However we made the best of it split the task into some gardening too. Many thanks to Sarah who inspired the strap line for the report -she nicely splattered both my legs with green paint! HoweverRyan and Sarah did some quality work and the fence looked very professionally painted. At the other end of the fence Roxy and Barbara were in the shade of the trees working their magic with their painting skills whilst having a good old catch up chat!

Daisy Belinda John and Sue headed over armed with spades to finish digging over and weeding two of the raised flowerbeds that we had worked hard on during the last few visits. They achieved great results in a short and unexpected amount of time.

What a lovely evening it was ! Good luck to Barbara on her 25 km walk this Sunday :)

A storm in a tea cup

Wow the weather nearly wiped us out tonight! With torrential rain, wind and a tornado like wind just before we were due to meet , we all hunkered down in our cars or homes a little bit longer than planned.

Luckily it blew over very quickly and the sun came out so we all met a little later but the task was back on.

We were met by the Head teacher Helen who pointed us in the right direction of the pond and raised beds where we were carrying out the task of clearing the 2 remaining raised beds ( we did one of them last time ) together with some further pond maintenance carried out by our resident pond team consisting of BelindaPaulJohn and Barbara

Paul literally waded into the pond with his wellies on to remove a lot of weed whilst John assisted with his long pond tool. Paul also assisted when the end of John's tool fell off and Paul rescued it. What a hero! Barbara and Belinda was also assisting where necessary as well as pruning around the decking in preparation for the little people to investigate their natural surroundings.

Meanwhile - at the raised beds the team were tusselling with some very overgrown and neglected shrubs whose roots had grown well down into the earth below the timber construction. Ryan and Sarah braved the weather ( surprisingly brave - Sarah !! ) together with Paula Daisy and Gillybean who all worked tirelessly to try and shift the shrubs, weeds and grass all deeply embedded into the earth.

in the last 10 minutes committed members of the pond team joined to give some much needed help on a final push to clear the beds. We then returned to the pond to admire the hard work and spot the living world underneath the water.

Many apologies for the late report- blame Teddy!

Next week there will be 2 tasks - 1 in Ferring and one meeting at Splashpoint. I will share the details on what's app today.

Have a great ( rest of the week)

Julia xx