It was all happening today at Thorlands!

Firstly, we had all the new GoodGymers turn up early! Welcome to Lucy and Claire who showed up after a community mission that they were looking forward to got cancelled only 24 hours prior. Yet, they were keen to get involved with GoodGym and try an alternative way of getting active on the weekends. They made the right choice and decided to join in on the fun at Thorlands! Laura was back for more after her first Good Deed was last week....yet, she does live down the road and this is technically her local community garden/food club. 😜 Tilly and Benjamin are also considered new as this was their first time at Thorlands, however, they already had a good deed under their belts. So, they knew what we're all about; we "get fit whilst doing good". Our GoodGymers regulars, Jessie, Nathan and Rebecca arrived with their bikes just as Simon was giving his welcome speech.

Where's the hoe? The hoe hoe...

After Simon explained to the newbies about the history of Thorlands and the overarching vision of an urban biodiversity circular economy (now, I'm just throwing words all over the place), we gathered the tools we needed and headed into the "Kitchen" and "Forest" Gardens. We split the team into two.

Buddleia bashing and bind weed banishing!

"A" Team: Continued in the Forest Garden. Nathan with his team of Lucy and Laura took on clearing the Forest garden, which Nathan is commited to with his trusty hoe (I'm talking about the tool...). The team were bashing at the roots and clearing all the greenery into three massive piles by the end of the session.

"B" Team: Various tasks in the Kitchen Garden. Sam delegated various tasks at different points in time. To start with Claire gave the old secateurs and loppers a good clean with some vanishing oil. Tilly started off with the gentle task of raking the autumn leaves that surrounded the Kitchen garden to the leaf pile where slowly it is making the leaves into a mulch. Benjamin, Jessie and Rebecca started clearing the backend of the Kitchen garden in preparation of straw and woodchip to get placed on top in order to grow more vegetables. As the hour and a half went by, Jessie and Claire started to harvest the Jerusalem Artichokes and Tilly switched to help clear and chop down the buddleia.

Noticing we had less than 5 minutes left on the clock, there was a frantic end where we were putting all the cleared greens into a compost pile, but it had to be layered with leaves in a technique to help produce more fertile compost. After gathering the tools, we had the pleasure from Simon to take some Jerusalem Artichokes home in a doggy bag. The benefits of volunteering in a garden food club.....you occasionally get to take the produce home! We were given some warning about eating too many Jerusalem Artichokes...you might have guessed it. 😉

Next weekend, we'll be finishing off what we started in the Kitchen garden and putting down the straw, cardboard and woodchip. The Forest garden clearance will also carry on. If you are available and keen for more, sign up here

Ten of us braved the rain to spend an hour at Brixton Windmill on Saturday helping with a variety of jobs.

Shout out to Dottie and Benjamin who were at their first Goodgym missions 🙌

We split into three groups for 3 different tasks: 1. planting vegetable seedlings including cabbage and spring onions in the vegetable patch 2. planting hyacinth and daffodil bulbs alongside the windmill which will look lovely in the spring 3. cutting back brambles at the front of the park and a spot of litter picking

After nearly an hour we were done and headed off home. Hope to see everyone again soon!