Over the past few weeks, GoodGym Ealing have been clearing up after the growing season in a few different community allotments and gardens around the borough. Today was no different as at Feeding Ealing, Kash, Beck and Sevan worked away in the polytunnel to clear out this year's produce and prepare for next year's planting. That was lucky as they stayed pretty dry while rain showers came and went outside.

The team were asked to say "toma-go" to the tomato plants and "bean-ough already" to the beans. Everything removed was to go onto the compost heap to provide nutrients for next year's crop. After discussing the best tools to use and choosing their favourites, they discovered that everything could actually be pulled out by hand, no tools required, making the task a bit easier.

Every cloud has a silver lining, as they say, and there was a cloud too to the simplicity of pulling the old plants. They were tied to bamboo stakes and other supports using nylon string and that needed to be removed. Who may have done such a dastardly thing as using non-biodegradable string? Well, that might have been Sevan... only because there was nothing else available back in July when he and Gus were asked to tie the crops up. Much effort went into destringing the plants to not pollute next year's compost.

Towards the end of the session, Joseph decided that any remaining crops could also be pulled as it was too late in the season for them to ripen, with the weather overnight being too cold for the chillies. So, the group said "chillio" to the chilli plants as they were also pulled out of the soil. A few green chillis were recovered that Joseph said would be added to his chilli chutney. In fact, there'd been a bumper batch of chutney this year. The earlier green chillis had also gone in the pot as well as 60kgs of green tomatoes, producing 16kg of tomato chutney. Nothing's gone to waste from the urban allotment's growing this year.

As everyone wrapped up for the day, Joseph said that the next cycle of fruit and vegetable growing will start in December. There are plans to create deeper beds and to start enriching the soil with manure and other nutrients, so we'll be back next month to make 2026's harvest an even bigger success than 2025.

After a great lunch at Horseden Farm with fellow Goodgymers, 3 Goodgymers set off through the woods to their next community mission. A small walk of 2km and we met Jatinder from CIC and Joseph joined shortly after. We did not know what to expect today but we were in for a good typical workout reserved for Goodgym. It was their first time for Maxime and Ashley at this urban garden and were impressed by the vineyards, bee hives and the polytunnel and outside area. Today we had the task to clear a section so that new beds can be installed in the near future and enable more planting. As windy day, it was hard to know what layers to keep on, but Steph Ducat as usual was in T-Shirt and then Ashley soon took his layers off due to the workout. Maxime also started to layer off. The clearing was not as easy as you think as we had to get all the roots out : a lot of bramble roots which seemed to be all connected together and never ending underground. "B"root force was the moto for today and we were able to take loads out. We did find different colored roots from wood brown to black and a weird red. Some also had looks of parts of a human : human heart shaped. After a 90 minute session the 3 Goodgymers beat the roots. We all then left to follow our own "roots" back to different occupations.

Powered by the Horsenden pizza (or lighter homemade lunch options), Steph Ducat, Sevan, and Kash took a nice woodland walk from the farm up Horsenden Hill to the Feeding Ealing urban garden site for their second session of the day.

Superna was in charge today, and, having already harvested vegetables from the polytunnel, she tasked GoodGymers with a clearance job. The goal was to tidy up the space next to the polytunnel to make space for next season's potato patch.

Joseph made only a guest appearance this time, otherwise busy with a local show, where he showcased his produce. Wearing an unusually snazzy attire and a flamboyant, flowery hat, he took time to come and say hi to us, entertain us with his usual wit, and shared insights into his ideas about the next season's crops at the urban garden.

With the help of other volunteers, the GoodGymers made massive progress in clearing the overgrown area of weeds. They also tackled the fence panels, previously buried under tangled brambles, taking them out of the way.

If you like the idea of a community space that produces crops for foodbanks, thanks to the efforts of volunteers, GoodGym will be back at the Feeding Ealing garden in October - sign up now!

Six eager GoodGymers were the reason why Joseph, the owner of Grape & Honey Farm, abandoned his 60 kg of freshly made damson jam and 80 litres of damson wine (”fermenting as we speak”), to meet our team in Greeford and let us into the urban garden. Joseph is a good neighbour of the community site, now managed by Heston Lions, where vegetables are grown and donated to places like the foodbank in Acton. He showed us around and explained what needs to be done in August.

- Who has small fingers? - Joseph
- Me. - Kash
- Have you ever pollinated a dudhi? - Joseph

Joseph explained the difference between male and female flowers and how to pollinate them, then took us into the polytunnel to surprise us with an abundance of produce. He told us about how many vegetables an urban garden could produce in the summer, and that it was impossible to keep up with that amount if not attending to the harvesting task every day.

- This garden could feed a family of 80. Do you have a family of 80? If I lived here, I wouldn’t need to go to the shop to buy fresh food. I’d just put a chicken coop in here.
- Do you have chickens?
- I had a few hens and four cocks. But the cocks kept crowing in the morning, and I couldn’t sleep, so I curried three of them.
- Do you mean: carried them? Away?
- No. I've put them in a curry. Cooked.

Luckily, we didn’t have to deal with chasing and converting noisy cockerels into meals. The main task was to pick up excess courgettes, marrows, cucumbers, and tomatoes. Gus, feeling like a combine harvester today, after scouring for blackberries through thorny brambles at the earlier session, committed to that job. Sevan and Steph also stayed in the polytunnel - to weed the veg beds and tie the okra and tomato vines to stakes or even to a system of strings hanging from the metal arches - a network carefully designed by Sevan, who had learned that method at Western Road. Steph and Gus later joined the rest of the team outside.

The outdoor team, busied with weeding, consisted of Jules, Max, and Kash. It was yet another surprise comeback from Jules, who this time donned her red t-shirt. For Max, the urban garden afternoon session was his first GoodGym task. He had joined us for the team lunch at Horsenden earlier, and for a chatty walk through the woods to the afternoon task - the best way to get to know us!

One of the Heston Lions joined us that Saturday: Superna, who brought us water and snacks, then got busy harvesting and watering the plants. It was nice to see her again. We are hoping to see more Lions - and even more GoodGymers - at our next visit to the Greenford garden!

GoodGym Ealing's monthly visit to the Feeding Ealing site in Perivale found that even more trees and crops had been planted in the last month. Everything was growing fast and that led to one of the tasks for the GoodGymers today.

Joseph was leading the session for Feeding Ealing and took the volunteers into the polytunnel.

"This is paradise!" - Joseph

All of the raised beds were full of green leaves and produce, with okra, chillies and tomatoes seen to be growing. There was still opportunity in those beds though and the first task was to make onion rings. That is, plant onions all around the edges of each raised bed. Roberta, Gus and Olivia started working on this in the polytunnel with other Feeding Ealing volunteers, pushing the bulbs into the ground.

Outside, Kash, Steph and Sevan would be adding supports from some climbing plants to grow big and strong. To do this, they needed to find some cut branches that were not too short, not too long, not to thin and not too thick. Luckily, they found some that were just right in a pile of previously cut branches. Those branches needed to be pushed into the soil of the raised bed, then tied to 2 trellis wires running the length of the bed, giving the branches support. The trio were joined by Gus and spent the rest of the task stringing the branches up.

"We're pole dancing?" - Kash
"String fellows? 🤭" - Sevan

Roberta and Olivia moved on to the beds outside, continuing to spread their onions all over the site 🧅. Olivia did an amazing job on her first GoodGym session. Welcome Olivia! 👋🎉

Joseph was so happy with the progress that he offered some of the early harvest to the team. They each had a few damsons straight off the tree and were given a crop of stripey courgettes to take home and enjoy 😋.

Today was a day of many butternuts. At Horsenden Farm, butternut squash pizzas were the most popular on the menu and it was butternut squash planting day at Feeding Ealing's site in North Greenford. It had been 2 months since GoodGym Ealing's last visit and there had been a huge change at the site. Inside and outside the polytunnel, there were lots of plants that had appeared. Onions, beetroots, carrots and courgette could all be seen reaching up to the leaden sky. Compare that to when we first arrived 12 months ago to a site that was full of weeds and rubble.

There were plenty of volunteers around today, all working on different tasks. Joseph came to explain how the GoodGymers could help and it involved planting 🌱. Woo! As is often the case, there was a catch. Before planting, some deep, wide holes would need to be dug.

"This soil hasn't been dug for a generation."
"It's virgin soil." - Joseph
"We'll be breaking new ground then." - Sevan

After a "generation" the soil was super compacted, so Joseph handed the trio a mattock, a fork and a tree planting spade, with instructions to use them in that order. There was an example hole already there that Sevan modelled for everyone to show the width and depth needed. Luckily no one filled the hole in with soil to leave him planted in the ground.

In just over an hour, 7 holes were started and 4 completed. Kash started with the mattock to turn over the top layer, followed by Sevan with the fork to loosen the soil and finally Steph with the spade to make the hole deep and wide enough to take the butternut squash plants. Ground breaking stuff!

The time left was used to do the promised planting. When the first hole was complete, Kash fetched one of the plants only to find that it was tiny. Why on earth were the holes so large?! Well, the holes were first given 2 spades of manure, then topped up with soil before the seedlings went in. Given how tough the old earth was, the large, nutritious column created by the GoodGymers would give the roots space to spread out and good ground to feed off.

Steph, Kash and Sevan were each able to plant their own seedling, with another large hole becoming home to a pear tree. Before leaving, Joseph suggested having a dinner later in the summer made with the produce from the allotment, including the - now baby - butternuts. That sounded tasty 😋.

If you want to join us next month to help Feeding Ealing with planting, weeding or general maintenance, sign up for our session here.