Snow and ice had stopped us in our tracks over the last few weeks. so it was with great delight we donned our summer clothes at a balmy 6 degrees and headed out for our 1st session of the year.

Grant Gardens former site of Liverpool Necropolis is a large green space in the midst of a built up area. it sits nestles into the corner of a busy road junction and only when you walk in the gates you realise that this is a big plot of land. Last time we were here we were head high in swathes of wild flowers. This time we had two tasks bulb planting and litter picking and we set to the tasks with great joy and goodgym vigour.

Some people used a special tool to carve out plug shaped holes to drop the bulbs in (a clod cutter perhaps?) others planted the many many bulbs whilst others picked up the litter to return the space to its natural beauty. as always the time passed quickly as we worked amidst the remnants of snowmen under a clear sky and the rising wolf moon.

This was our Pauline's 975 task.... we look forward to celebrating the big one with her this year.and we can't wait for spring to see all the bulbs flowering a reminder of a warm winters night.... OK so maybe the temperature wasn't that warm but a Monday night with a crowd of Goodgymers makes us all feel a little warm inside.

This evening was a first of a two part task.

We were faced with a forest of nettles that needed to be liberated to the weed pile in order that other plants could breathe and see the light. Even the path was obscured by them in some parts.

On the outskirts of the plot on the pavement was a significant amount of leaves which if left would have ended up a slippery mess in the next rainfall.

So we set to it with brushes loppers spades and all double gloved (thank you Elaine for the loan of marigolds to put under our gardening gloves).

The nights have drawn in and we worked under torch light - it feels a very warm feeling to see glows of lights and hear the chat of Goodgymmers we can brighten any dark night I reckon.

Jake was on form tonight coming up with tonights pun and managed to get another one in as he was sweeping the leaves up - saying 'Leaf me to it'. (And a huge well done for 40 tasks completed Jake)

We managed to clear the path and a significant about of nettles uncovering many smaller bushes and plants that will have the space and light to grow now and a ladybird!

We will be back for part 2 next week

This week, we were back at St James Garden with Friends of St James' Garden to finish what we started last week.

4 runners met on hope street where we were thrilled to welcome two newbies: Mel and Mel. Hope to have you join us again soon!

As St James garden is so close to our meeting point we treated ourselves to a few hill reps before heading on over. Very impressed with all the runners for persevering!

Once there we met 7 more goodgymmers and were tasked with weeding all the pavements around the Husskinson Memoral. I think you can tell from the before an after pictures what a huge impact we had!

Thankfully the weeds and grass came up surprisingly easily - the turf almost came up like a carpet and we were able to clear a huge area. Well done to everyone!