Tonight's task for GoodGym Greenwich brought us back to St Richard's Church in Charlton, where we're working on a ongoing project to make the outside area, formerly a weeded wilderness, a more user-friendly, comfortable area for the community.

For anyone following this project, we've battled rebellious plant life, embraced our inner cave people by fashioning our own tools for staple administration, and turned mountains (of woodchip) into molehills.

So on a lovely rainy breezy sunny evening in June, 7 goodgym-ers got to work continuing with this process. First the cardboard had to come up, which has helped restrict weed growth, then it was back to our routine we've got going now of digging, membraning and spreading the pine-scented woodchip, and with lots of chatter, the task time flew by. Time for a quick group photo and update on plans for the area, before our ways parted until next time! Thanks all & have a good week 😊

On a chipper Saturday morning in May, 3 goodgym-ers made their way to St Richard's Church in Charlton. Good Gym Greenwich have been working on a project here, and today's task involved the next step, which proved both slightly daunting at the start (that was a big pile of woodchip!) and rewarding to see the progress we had made.

St Richard's is a local community church, with a very weeded outside area, which the team are keen to turn into a more usable community space. During past tasks, we've cleared weeds & laid down a membrane base. Today we were greeted by a freshly delivered hill, made up of pine tree wood and leaf chippings (which smelled amazingly like Christmas trees...!) and it was our mission today to spread this over the membrane layer. Spades, rakes, and buckets at the ready, we dug straight in to move that mulch mountain from A to B, C and D. Our time flew by with much chatter, some helpful supervision from honorary Good-gym member, local cat Freya, and the path really looks like it's taking shape now. Thanks to all involved & have a great weekend! 😊

It’s just a continuation of last week’s clearing the garden. Today, we did mostly pruning of Lime trees. They now look better without the overgrown parts sprouting from the trunk and roots. Thank you Annie for taking the photos.

I cycled to the task and met Owen there. Though it was only two of us, we did what we could. Owen gave instructions on what we can do realistically for approximately 2 hours task.

This is how the task went. We started emptying and spreading a big bag full of woodchip, removed some old cardboad, pulling out weeds by hand including some roots too which was satisfying. After loosening the soil, later on, we seemed to have attracted 2 robins, as they found some food there like worms and insects. I love to be of help even in my small way.

Please note that this is an ongoing project and they continue to need volunteers every Tuesday from 1-3pm. Owen thanked me for my time, I love gardening so I will definitely come back.

After the task, I have been invited to have some cup of tea and biscuits which I accepted the offer, and said, why not? ☺️

A gorgeous spring evening saw seven goodgym-ers make their way along cherry blossom-lined streets, to St Richard's Church in Charlton.

Our task here was to continue our project working on the outside area, clearing away weeds and making the area into a usable outdoor space. First up was moving back the cardboard placed down during the last task, then tackling those pesky return weeds with all the tools we could find.

It was time to level up the playing field a bit to make a flatter surface for the membrane layer. A game of rock paper scissors then ensued to get the membrane down, and we embraced our inner cave people discovering which makeshift tools worked best for hammering in the pegs without a hammer.

The surface is now ready and waiting for a delivery of wood chip mulch so watch this space for its progress!

Have a lovely Easter weekend/Spring break everyone & catch up soon! 🙂

Next week we're back at Prince Philip Maritime Collections centre- hope to see you there.

And this was one of our last dark tasks because guess what folks, by mid April we will be finishing our task when the sun is up 😎☀️ Happy days!

But what a job we did tonight with our headtorches. After a run from the Naval College, the running group joined forces with the group meeting at St Richard's and after catching up on the ice breaker (what's our favourite thing about Easter -- unanimously chocolate), we got to work.

Some of those pesky weeds had come back so our task was to continue digging them out by the roots and laying down plenty of fresh cardboard and pinning it down with slabs to prevent the weeds growing back.

The time flew by as usual and half an hour later most of the alley was a sea of cardboard. Job done! Some of the team ran back to the naval college to top off the evening. Well done everyone and special welcome to Claire on your first session with us - hope to have you back very soon!

Next week we're meeting on Tuesday to help at James Wolfe Primary School .

Until next time!

*credit to Khai, pun-king