A fake bird of prey glided across the grey sky, restrained by a string tying it to the roof of Featherstone High School. If it had eyes, it would watch two GoodGymers hiding from the rain under the sheltered area. Steph and Kash ran nearly 8km from their previous task in Hanger Hill and tried to get their t-shirts a little bit drier before putting on the rain jackets.

In front of the closed gate to the school garden, where their task awaited, stood one bag of woodchip. Only one! Alex, the task owner, was desperate to refresh the look of the path that the GoodGymers had helped lay in the summer. Over a few months and many classes held in the garden, the path wore out a bit and the bald patches needed covering. The stakes were higher than usual as the following day the garden was supposed to host its first celebration! And not only a celebration of the Learnscape project, but a Diwali-themed event.

For the whole past week, the kids have been drawing and colouring pictures for the party! - Alex

When the cavalry arrived, Alex opened the garden gate and did speed-weeding to get rid of the biggest grass patches from the path. Gurpal fixed a spare shovel from a nearby community allotment, and Andrew started tidying the path edges. Steph and Kash dropped three wheelbarrows of chips in the middle of the path - supposedly, the furthest point where the honourable guests, including the Mayor of Ealing, would go. When the GoodGymers filled the fourth wheelbarrow, their shovels and rakes hit the bottom of the half-tonne bag. Uh oh! The bag was now easy to drag by one person, which meant there was hardly any woodchip left. With some tactical raking, the volunteers blended the new woodchip with the old one and concluded it was the best they could do with the amount of donated material.

The next priority was the tidy-up.

- Are we going to rake the leaves? - Andrew.
- No. It's supposed to be a winter garden. It's not for the opening of a new Asda. - Alex.

Eventually, the team raked some of the leaves near the entrance, but the main clearing task was to move the smaller stacks of sticks and weeds onto the big compost pile. The cleared space would be used to extend the area where the children had seeded the wildflowers. Before Steph and Kash removed all signs of the old green waste heaps, Alex salvaged a few bamboo sticks to help the sunflowers stand up straight in front of the Mayor the following day. Gurpal did the hard work digging at the back of the garden, and Andrew completed a round of litterpicking.

We are now hoping that, with our extra help, everyone will have a great time at the Monday celebration!

On a wet Sunday afternoon, two GoodGymers made it to Southall for the Autumn tidy up of the Featherstone High School garden. Steph sported his Ealing Half Marathon medal (yes, he had completed the Half Marathon in the morning!) and battle scars from being knocked down by an inconsiderate runner at the race. Neither the rain, nor the scratches, nor the race stopped Steph from showing up! Kash was already soaked from running to and from her previous mission and couldn't decide whether to put the rain jacket over her damp clothes. Alex, the task owner, Gurpal from Southall Transition, and volunteer Andrew made up for the deficit of GoodGymers, and together we formed a team of five.

In our absence, the garden had been utilised well, hosting Science, Geography, and English classes. The space was in pretty good shape; however, Alex was a bit concerned about the state of the woodchip path, which had started developing bald patches, although it wasn't that old yet! The path certainly needed a woodchip transplant in the near future, and Alex had been working hard to secure some chips. Once she succeeds, our team will be there for another round of joyful shovelling or tipping tonne bags.

As the woodchip delivery hasn’t been confirmed yet, this afternoon was all about tidying up. We weeded (some of us with pretty bendy mini forks!) and filled the raised beds, picked the litter, moved a heavy metal frame to make space for a new edibles growing project, and cut back tree branches to let more light into the garden. Now people as tall as Steph can walk through - teenagers these days can probably be his height!

Despite the gloomy weather, it was a fun afternoon with a light workout and a positive feeling of contributing to a lovely project that connects youngsters to nature. We are already planning the next weekend session at Featherstone, so keep your eyes peeled for a new listing!

Sevan and Kash were already in Southall, after a midday mission, and only a short 2km run away from Featherstone High School, where they reunited with Steph, who squeezed more running and a pit stop at home into the day.

The day was hot, and despite being only a group of three, the GoodGymers made up a half of today's volunteers, alongside Alex, Andrew and Gurpal. It was a sweaty workout in the scorching sun, and we couldn't blame anyone for staying at home in such heath. Alex kindly brought us water, and our job in return was to water the plants. But there was more.

We started ambitiously, helping Gurpal from Southall Transition dig the "bad soil", contaminated with plastic, out of the area where Gurpal had planted berries for children. The planting had been done in a rush and Gurpal was not entirely happy with the soil quality, so the blueberries, strawberries and others had to be re-planted. While Kash came across a couple of bin bags buried in the soil, Steph encountered a drain cover under the layer of dirt, so that area was out of the planting plans.

While Steph and Kash helped Gurpal wheelbarrow the "good soil" to the berry bed, relocate the plants and scatter the compost around, Sevan was on the watering duty, carrying heavy canisters from the school to the thirsty plants. He was later joined by Steph, who loved the opportunity to splash a little bit in the cold, running water. Kash in the meantime removed some big weeds from a tiny raised bed.

The highlight of the community mission was the sight of a majestic dragonfly hanging over the pond. Steph managed to capture the view with his phone camera just before finishing the session.

We are looking to organise the next session at Featherstone late in July, so watch this space!

The second appearance GoodGym Ealing made at Featherstone High School Learnscape was all about woodchipping a path running through the length of the garden, connecting its two gates. Volunteers Alex, Gurpal, Andrew and Ki were very eager to get the task going as five heavy bags of woodchip were awaiting to be spread. The only missing part was more hands!

Luckily, GoodGym came with a strong team again:

• Jags, who regularly engages in Southall's community work, within or outside GoodGym
• Sevan, Steph and Kash returning to Featherstone School after the fierce log moving last month
• Rainu and Roberta coming back for more GoodGymming after joining the team recently

We had three wheelbarrows for ten people to complete the woodchipping task. How many did we use? None! Dragging and tipping bags proved to be more effective, both as a full-body workout and as a way of distributing woodchip. But that's not all! Between moving bags and spreading the chips, we had to lay a membrane on the entire length of the path and pin it to hard, dry soil. We had one mallet for the pins, so we had to get creative!

Having 90 minutes for the task, we knew we had to get focussed. Did we? Driven by our desire for a challenge, we allowed ourselves to get distracted by a side mini landscaping project. We fulfilled Alex's and Jags' vision of an outdoor classroom, having a mound of soil, spare woodchip, heavy logs and donated rubber mats as materials. See the outcome in the photos!

Although we have not started woodchipping until about 20 minutes before the end of the task - believe it or not - we've made it: the new path was laid!

"Thank you so much for all your time, advice and work - I can't believe how much we achieved in the time!" - Alex, the task owner.

With another satisfying session under the belt that Sunday, we split: running, walking or cycling, back home or for yet another task in the day.

About a year ago, the kids from Featherstone High School approached Alex, today's task owner, asking about an overgrown space hidden behind the school's football pitches. Was that a garden? Could it become a garden? That's how the idea of the Garden Learnscape started. The students' initiative needed some support from the grown-ups. Gurpal from Southall Transition, who was involved in the project, introduced Alex to GoodGym. Fast forward a few weeks - and here they were!

Steph, Sevan and Kash ran to the school in Southall from their previous task in Pear Tree Park, with a break for lunch on the way. How surprised they were to see Jules, who had joined them at the previous session, turning up at the destination! Jules ran-walked all the way to the Featherstone School to make another spontaneous appearance. Her hands would definitely make the work lighter! Michelle, who walked to the task, completed the GoodGym crew. There were three more volunteers, including Alex and Gurpal and Hishaam from Southall Transition. Teamwork was the greatest strength needed at the first GoodGym session at Featherstone.

Probably the most spectacular achievement of the afternoon was moving the logs from a local park through a secret gate to the garden to create a sitting area. The timber pieces were enormous and we were not sure how to even approach them! The answer was: problem-solving and cooperation. Without those ingredients, the strongest of us wouldn't have dreamt of transporting that garden furniture!

Although everyone was up for the log challenge, there were plenty of other jobs we undertook when not getting physical with the timber: Jules reassumed her pruning trade, which she had proven to be an ace in, Michelle, Alex and Hishaam were weeding and turning the soil in beds, Sevan busied himself with plenty of various odd jobs, including carrying water, and Steph, Kash and Gurpal were working on flattening a giant mound of soil.

The team made fantastic progress on the development of the Garden Learnscape. We are looking forward to the next session in May to spread woodchip on the path and do more weeding. Sign up to join us!