A warm welcome to Honor this evening who joined us for the first time to run from the Tap in Richmond out to Petersham Common. There task owner and member, Ken, met us to explain the tasks needed to work on the last section of traditional hedgerow down Star & Garter hill that we started last winter. This included fence post carrying, fence post bashing and binding between posts, hawthorn planting and some surrounding litter picking. The team set straight to work including another first time GoodGymmer, Emily 😍

When it came to the time to run back, Ken plied us with fortifying chocolates as the group headed back up to Richmond High Street for a well-deserved rest and warm up!

Three GoodGymers turned up on a very cloudy and wet morning to help the Petersham Common Conservators plant trees but with a last minute sign up there were only 2 spades so we took turns and did litter picking as well. It was a productive wet morning but we soon had planted 50 trees to gap up the hedgerow along Star and Garter Hill and filled the bin bags with litter.

One GoodGymer planted 125 Midland hawthorn trees on Petersham Common. It was a beautiful sunny bright winter day and the target to get in 1,000 native tree this winter on Petersham Common is nearly complete. Not everyone was born this way to plant these thorns as they have such large roots so each thorn tree required extra digging. It is the final stretch with another 150 thorns left to plant on Friday 31 Jan.

One GoodGymer turned up to help 27 Sea Scouts cubs from Petersham learn how to plant trees. This involved a lot of digging to plant holly and hawthorn trees on Petersham Common followed by hot chocolate making. In the end 75 trees were planted and almost an equal quantity of hot chocolate was consumed.

It was a crisp frosty morning in Richmond. Some might have shied away from being out in -2 degrees, but not us. Led by our resident hardly Canadian, we set out to plant some trees! Midlands Hawthorne, and Black Thorne were the species we settled in to new surroundings. After the usual safety briefing – “Plant the tree too deep .. it will die! Plant the tree too shallow … it will die! If you get pricked by Black Thorne, and get sick.. tell you’re doctor!!” – we dug 50 muddy holes and planted out all the trees. Welcoming them to their new home, just near to Rosie’s duck pond, we headed off for coffee and to take in the amazing view from Richmond Hill. Welcome to Emma and Cameron doing their Second and First Goodgym tasks for Richmond! Nice to meet you guys!

And Emma added a message: Great to get outside and meet new people! Planted native trees in Petersham Common :)

Four Good Gymmers turned out on a nippy January Saturday morning to help continue work on a traditional hedgerow in Petersham.

Before starting, we welcomed Cat , who was taking part in her fourth Good Gym mission and her first in the Richmond area.

We were tasked by Ken to firstly trim back the brambles and with the help of cutting hedge tools we laid the trees and bashed in the posts to extend the hedgerow.

We will aim to be back soon to weave the branches in.

See link below for upcoming missions and tasks. https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions