It was a filthy day as Good Gym returned to Hervey road. Two runners having been blown all over the place at parkrun were undeterred in their desire to help at this lovely little green space. We were soon met by Annie, our lovely task leader for the day, and put to work. And the day’s task was planting grass seeded with wildflowers, taking the plugs of grass and planting them within the existing grassy areas. 40 plugs needed to be planted and 40 plugs were planted before the wind blew us all back to Charlton.

Hervey Road gardens in Blackheath is proving a popular destination for Good Gym and for the second time in two days three of us turned up to help out at this lovely little park. And it was a special occasion as it was the first task for the wonderful Deanna (welcome Deanna, hope you enjoyed it and looking forward to seeing you on many more tasks). The task for the day was a mixture of brute force and artistic skill, with the group taking turns to clear the path, drill holes in the earth, hammer in stakes and, finally, intricately weave branches between the stakes to create a lovely fence, to better segregate the path from planting areas. And we were so efficient, after an hour of so we’d managed a good 10 metres of fencing and we could leave happy in the knowledge of a task well done.

On a slightly grey, but thankfully dry, November morning, three keen GoodGym-ers arrived at the lovely community garden at Hervey Road Sports Field. This is one of our regular task locations, and over the last few years we have seen the garden develop and flourish.

Our first task for this morning was to cover the central bed with cardboard sheets, then lay an even layer of mulch over the top. This will break down over time and provide loads of nutrients to the soil below.

We made light work of that, so swiftly moved onto the far more challenging task of continuing the construction of a 'dead hedge' fence - a brilliant way to mark out the flower beds with an organic, maintenance-free, bug-friendly border.

Dividing the work between us, we found the edge of the grown over path, measured out the correct spaces, drilled holes for the stakes, hammered them in to keep them secure, then finally wove thin branches back and forth through them to create the fence.

After an hour we had made great progress, and had a good workout - well done team!

It was back the Hervey Road today for lots of lovely Good Gymers, where a garden and wildflower area is slowly being created alongside the sports fields. The sun was threatening to come out but earlier rains had softened the ground from concrete-like (our last mission there) to quite soft, and there were new jobs to be done.

Today the team broadly split into two, with one group diligently removing the thistles and other weeds, and the other uncovering the old path, which had become quite overgrown, and laying down new chippings. Many thistles were found including some extremely large specimens and multiple bags were soon full of these pesky weeds. The pathfinding was slower, with care needed to ensure that we didn’t go beyond what could be covered with new bark but, despite this, around 10 metres was refreshed and the new path almost followed the route of the old one.

All that remained after that was some very fine weeding to separate the last few unwanted plants from a dense area of more valuable ones before a chat with Annie and Richard, the wonderful organisers, after which we left the garden with it looking mush refreshed

On a balmy summer's evening we gathered to hear tales of our inspiring and interesting books that we've read recently. After some quick warm ups we headed over to the Hervey Road Sports Field for some more gardening with Annie. We teamed up- team one were the watering crew and we got busy watering all the trees which were struggling in the heat and all of the new shoots and borage which we planted last time we were there. It's lovely to see the progress of the garden and watch the plants grow. The other team did an excellent job weeding around the lavender.

Grateful for an evening of gardening with friends and feeling like we've done some good. Next week we're litter picking in Woolwich and the 28th is our joint task and social with Camden- don't miss it!

Until next time 😊

Football? What football?! On Wednesday evening the sun finally shone again as four GoodGymers met at Charlton House. After a nice lap of the park, we headed off to Hervey Road sports ground to help Richie with some tasks in the community garden. We were delighted to see the wildflower seeds recently planted were begin to grow, so one group was given the task of weeding the grass from this area. Richie told us the plan to germinate Yellow Rattle here (he’d traveled all the way to Scotland for the seeds!) which will help the wildflower meadow thrive. The second group was given the task of turning the compost, creating ‘lasagna layers’ of compost and dried grass. After a final fight with some determined brambles, we headed off (after solving the issue of having been locked in the grounds for the night!).

Well done team!