Jacqueline and I after getting our legs moving at the local parkrun, (our first task) we headed straight to join this month’s community gardening day at St Mary the Virgin Parish Church. We met the lovely Sue who gave us our green-thumbed marching orders. Plenty of friendly regulars from the church were already digging in—literally—with one shared mission: help out and have fun doing it. Our tasks? A delightful mix of bulb planting, and the very satisfying mission of removing great hulking chunks of unwanted alkanet. Post-dig, we were treated to some divine homemade cakes and refreshments. Say no to that? Perish the thought. As a bonus, it was also one of St Mary’s Heritage Open Days (courtesy of the National Trust), so the church was open to all. We popped in for a well-earned wander and discovered the church’s fascinating history—because even gardeners like a bit of culture after cake. 😁

It was a rainy start to the task! After a team effort loading wheelbarrows full of wood chip and using it to lay a path, we moved onto planting snowdrops. After removing any allium (which is an invasive plant) we planted lots of snowdrops and bluebells which should all bloom soon, creating a lovely spring garden. We celebrated with some well- earned refreshments 😊.

It was a short run to St Mary's this eve and after a warm up of heads, shoulders, knees and ball which warmed up everyone's with all the laughter and smiles than actually bodies, it was time to head to the task!

Sue and Marion and the team are always very organised when we visit and last night was no different. We had a number of tasks to tackle which included: - raking the wildflower meadow - cutting back some overgrown areas - digging 2 big holes for the trees - wheelbarrowing compost - trying to work out why one of the graves has iron railings (that one was just me) - planting the 2 trees

It was such an honor to have this dignitary help plant one of the trees at St Mary's i.e. sprinkle a spade of compost on top! Thanks Vic - all in a days work and allowing us to use our pun we'd already thought of!!

After all our hard work, we were treated to cups of tea and sandwiches and biscuits in the church. If you're reading this St Mary's team, we are very grateful!!

Next week, we are heading to RUSS Community Housing and the task is going to involve straw. And we also have a social after - location tbc.

This Good Gymer is easily confused. Having turned up to the therapeutic garden at St Mary the Virgin in Lewisham to help dismantle the gazebos after the summer fayre they found the garden to be completely empty. Where was everyone? And was this the work of bad gym, sowing their customary misinformation?

No, fortunately, it was not: the wise heads at the church had take one look at the weather conditions and set up the fayre in the church itself. But much remained to be done to get the church back in order for the regular Sunday services: plants had to be packed away, tables had to be cleared, folded and moved to their cupboard, pews had to be rearranged, chairs needed to be packed up and banners needed to be taken down. The lovely team at the church is super-efficient though and it wasn't long before everything was back to normal and ready for normal service to be resumed.

After a sunny weekend, bank holiday Monday gave us rain, rain and more rain! By the time it came to 18:45 and meeting outside Glass Mill we had some sunshine and a wonderful group of GG-ers ready to do some good at St Mary's Church.

It was a shorter run this week and I'm sure I could hear the sighs of relief after the mammoth run last week. 1km later we arrived at the task.

There was a variety of tasks:

• dig a trench and fill with gravel to stop the damp getting into the church.
• dig around 2 tombs where the soil has washed down.
• clean the metal around the tombs with wire brushes so that it can be painted.
• sweep the paths.
• dig up alkinet and grass that was encroaching on a woodchip path.

Before we knew it, the tea wheelbarrow was arriving and we had just enough time for a cup of tea and homemade sausage roll and/or biscuits. Thanks Marion!

Next week we are heading to The Albany to free the garden of litter and tackle some of the weeds.

One Goodgymmer sneaked over from Bromley to Lewisham to do some incognito gardening. A large pile of wood chip needed moving and raking to replenish the paths and the muddy route to the compost heap in the therapeutic garden. After a lovely welcome from the volunteers and an audacious bee, our undercover Goodgymmer got to work. Chips were shovelled, barrows were wheeled and selfies inexplicably avoided. There was even time for a cup of tea afterwards, where our Goodgymer's true identity was revealed! It all ended happily with an extensive debrief of a crisp packet.