On a cold but sunny Saturday, Frances, Graham and Niamh met at London Grown to help them get the beds ready for winter.

London Grown is a not-for-profit workers co-op, growing food and running public volunteer programmes and education sessions with schools and young people.

Our first task was simple: shovel the compost into wheelbarrows and move it over to the beds. We did that fairly quickly, and moved onto some weeding – separating out the brambles from the less stubborn weeds. The brambles certainly provided us with a challenge – the combination of long roots and spikey plants meant that it wasn’t a quick or simple job to get rid of them.

However, we preserved and rewarded with a squash each to take home. Soup anyone?

17 runners ran 7k to move compost for London Grown

On a wintery Wednesday night at Tottenham Green Pools, GoodGym Haringey can be found getting ready to go for a run and do some good. After our briefing chat, a head count and some deep breathing we went into the crisp chilly night to warm up.

Eyes closed, one hand on chest, one hand on belly - concentrate on pushing your belly out as you breathe in, and pulling it in when you breathe out .

After a good warm up, we set off on a slightly longer run than usual to London Grown. London Grown is a workers' cooperative creating a community market garden, community space and education hub over two sites in North London. Arriving at London Grown, one group set about shoveling compost whilst another wheelbarrowed the compost to a fresh bed raked out by the third group. In the pitch darkness it was pretty magical to see groups of headlights hovering together, working hard. In only 15 minutes we measured out, transported and raked the compost for one and a half beds. Well done team!

We gathered for a group photo, there was brief confusion when some people misheard 'say broad beans' for 'say bread bins'. A sign it was time for dinner maybe! On our way home we stopped at a particularly nice looking overpass over the A10 for a race all the way across and back. Next time we're that way, we'll have to time trial it! Some excellent sprinting done by all, we sped off home, full of the joys of a raised heartbeat and a good sweat!

Finally making it back to Tottenham Pools (not before I made the front runners do some fairly painful wall-sitting), Coach Egg introduced her press up challenge. The challenge is to do as many pressups as the date of the month for every day in November right up to the 31st. You can vary it by doing a pressup at an incline with your hands on a chair/work surface/wall - anything that challenges you but is doable! Our eight pressups done we stretched, cheered our smashing collective effort and said our goodbyes.

Thank you for having me, Haringey. It was an absolute pleasure. Hope to see you again soon!

Don't forget it's Haringey social week next week at Big Bowl Noodle.

On a swelteringly hot Saturday morning, Frances and Kat headed to the Weir Hall Allotments to help out Grow The World In London / Go Grow.

Our first job was to water some of the larger planters – a nice and refreshing job and they certainly looked like they needed it!

Once we’d done that, we helped clear a small piece of overgrown land to plant some vegetables. We hoe-ed away the grass (a great upper body work out!) and then dug up and turned the soil. We then select a shady patch to bury some manure and re-covered it in soil (as apparently it’s bad for the plant root to have direct contact with the manure – we learnt all sorts on this mission!)

Finally, we selected an pumpkin and some aubergines to plant, being careful to make sure they were only in the soil and not the manure. Hopefully they’ll grow nice and large over the next few months.

With that done, the only thing left was to eat the feast provided to us – Turkish bread, vegetables, hummus and a tart. Excellent stuff!

5 red tshirts, and a few friends and family, came along to muck in with spreading some muck about for Grow The World In London & Go Grow.

There were a few scaffolding board beds that needed some setup before the seedlings could come out of the greenhouse.

Our first task was removing a layer of very depleted, very solid. soil. The runners on that task were both in training for the Edinburgh Marathon, so swinging the hoe about to break that soil, and shovel it out, was a good bit of cross training. After clearing a huge pile, only 2 worms were found, which shows that soil was not in great condition. A big deposit of manure should get that soil full of life again in no time.

There was also some serious strimming action going on. Pausing occasionally, as being strapped into the safety harness, our volunteer could reach the front to clear the bindweed that would bind itself to the head!

The rest of us were refilling top-soil over some previously spread manure. Which was as much a mental challenge as a physical one, as we needed to keep sifting the soil to spot and remove roots and shoots. As an aside, volunteers are needed to look for all sorts of things in citizen science projects.

With all that done, we stopped for an amazing homemade lunch, before heading on our way.

16 Goodgymers came to help out at the Wier Road Allotments for a task with Grow The World In London & Go Grow

The weather though

What a beautiful day we were blessed with. We were also blessed with many keen hands to get lots done on site. It was great to have so many people come along from different boroughs to make this happen.

Jobs that were done included shifting and erecting a blue shed that was donated to the project, digging out two pretty huge holes (and a mini one) which were then filled with manure then refilled with the soil that had come out. These will serve as new grow beds. A fence was also erected along with four grow boxes being prepared for future use. Smashing!

There was a scrumptious lunch supplied by the task owners Paulette & Sandy too. We do love a healthy portion of couscous.

Here are a few words from the lovely Emily.

We worked away, accompanied by music from Patrick and separated from the busy road by some trees in stunning blossom.

Many runners worked on the beds digging out the soil, picking out weeds as we went. Good practice for any aspiring grave-diggers! After this, other volunteers brought a layer of manure to fill the beds, and the soil could be shovelled back on top. We made sure the edges of the beds were clearly marked so that our work could be continued.

It was unusually hot for April, with temperatures reaching around 20ºC, so we were very grateful for the water, homemade salad and snacks provided by Sandy. We even got food to take home with us, when Floyde (guardian of Noel Park) gave us some chard from his allotment nearby. We'll definitely be back and look forward to seeing some veggies emerge from those beds in due course...

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Until next time folks - do good, stay fit & look out for the light