On Monday evening GoodGym Liverpool returned to our regular haunt on Park Lane for our urban street clean up.

Congrats to Jess for taking part in her fifth task!!

Most of us got to work removing the throng of thistles, learning top tips such as:

Double gloving is useful when you accidentally bring your rubbish ones You must cut off the thistle flowers and bag them up before their seeds spread Using shears as a method to transport thistles is very effective

Whilst we were tackling the thistles Bekah was doing a boss job litter picking. She also saved a cornucopia of slugs (I did not know this was the collective word for these docile slimy creatures so I've learnt something new).

She rescued them from certain death after finding one half in, half out of a can of lager, she liberated it and then found another 15 inside the can!! So she's relocated them somewhere more suitable so they can enjoy their best life.

We got an incredible amount of work done, as seen in the photo, and here's hoping that we managed to get those wretched seeds into the bags ready to be taken far, far away.

We will be back again next week and I'm so confident we will remove every last one of the thistles ready for Elaine to manage the area to make it beautiful for the people of Liverpool (and for her dog Riley to play in without getting prickled by the offending vegetation).

Well done gang!!

On Monday evening, 9 goodgymers made their way back to the Urban Green Up site with Elaine. Heetu and Leo ran in super quick time to meet many of us at the task.

After a clear demonstration from Elaine and Heetu on what was Himalayan Balsam and Rosebay Willowherb, we split into two groups and set about to clear the two sides of the site. However, alas, even more nettles and thistles had grown back since our last visit and so many of us tackled these prickly weeds too.

When Bekah sounded the 7 minute call to the end of the task, we all rushed to sort the clean up with some bin bags in hand. Looking back across at the site, we could all see an impressive amount of these invasive and rapidly growing weeds had been cleared, but we knew that a return again would be much needed to sort the middle section.

As we most often work on the other side of the site, it was a surprise (well perhaps just for me) to realise the lovely view of the Liverpool skyline including the cathedral in the background.

There were puns-a-plenty for this week's report from Chris (who provides this week's report title), Bekah, Sallyann, and Lucien but you'll have to wait for the next report on our return for them to be revealed.

Well a lovely big group of us turned up to Urban green-up, some cycling, some running and others walking in sunny weather.

Elaine from Urban green-up explained our previous favourite nettle pulling tasks had now made enough space to plant some robusty plants to hopefully take over the space instead of the stingy aggressive growers!

So we proceeded to layout 140 plants in a natural pattern explained to us 3 same plants together evenly spaced out and one off on its own as the black-sheep making its own new territory. Elaine then expertly checked our layouts and we started to plant away. Some of us still loved the satisfaction of getting hopefully the last of those nettles from their roots! Others also expertly litter picked the garden space to ensure the plants were the centre of attention.

With one of the first tasks where no lights were needed and several thank youse from passers-by, we pow-wowed through the session to: -pick a big pile of nettles to their roots -exterior designer layout 140 plants -proceed to plant said 140 plants -collect 2 bags of litter tightly packed

A perfectly powered up team!

On Monday Goodgym returned to the familiar greenery at Park Lane, where a regular Goodgym collaborator Elaine manages a little patch of wild plants, carefully curated to boost biodiversity and air quality. After our midwinter efforts to de-nettle the site, we were this time set to spreading fresh mulch all over the site, to prepare the soil for Spring, and keep the weeds at bay. From the outset this was likely to be a two-parter task, but we launched into it as best we could, to cut the mountain of mulch down to size, so it could later be spread more evenly over the site. As per the Goodgym way, we collected a little litter as we worked away, including even the titular marsupial mascot for this task (see pictures). We didn't quite finish the mulch moving this week, but Goodgym will return next week to finish the job, and I'm sure we'll be back working with Elaine more too as the days grow longer and her plants begin to flourish again.

This Monday we were back are Park Lane with Elaine from Urban Green Up, helping to lay mulch on the site to avoid the weeds taking over. Elaine was expecting some contractors the very next day so we had to work swiftly to ensure the site was ready for them to start work.

Upon arrival Elaine couldn't wait to show us her new toy - a foldable trolley! This really came in handy with transporting the mulch from the huge pile on the street (the pictures really don't do it justice!) to the other end of the site where it was needed.

We split into teams with one team shoveling and moving bags of mulch and the other raking the mulch out to cover the necessary areas.

We didn't quite manage to move all of the mulch but the sight was looking much neater by the time we left. Well done everyone - we can't wait to see what the summer brings for his amazing space!

The return to Urban Green Up

Following on from last week we returned and once more double gloved we carried on where we left off last week - the nettles were very much depleted after last weeks task and we took on other tall unwanted plants uncovering more and more smaller plants and some flowers. Elaine, as always, was on hand for plant identification when we were unsure. Bags of litter were picked up and in amongst the plants lay a broken toy guitar an echo of last week's pun perhaps.

By the end of the task the site looked transformed by our two sessions - many hands make light work

And talking of light - Being near to November the 5th there were a lot of fireworks to be seen and heard but the bright sparks working at Urban Green Up were the best show of all. Some people stopped to find out about us gardening at night with torches. Its all in a Goodgymmer's Monday night of course.

Thank you Elaine for having us.