24 Hackney GoodGymers ran 6k to Abney Park Cemetery to shovel 2 tonnes of mulch to complete the final mulch path of the Winter!

Great job by a great team this evening!! Great to see the experienced GoodGymers going strong and guiding the new runners at the beginning of what will Be an awesome GG journey!!

3k our to Stokey to meet Park ranger Quentin at the magical Abney Park Cemetery! Grabbing the narrows, lights, rakes and shovels we headed off to the far corner of the park to find the last remaining unmulched path.

Trying to create the most lite pathway to allow for easy barrowing we kind of succeeded but it was still a bit of an adventure!

A rotating team of Shovellers kept the barrows rolling at a great pace and mulch pile going down fast!

Zipping around the loop tipping out the mulch and dancing the moguls back to the Shovellers on repeat! A great pace was set and we managed to pretty much complete the 2 tonne pile of mulch in 40 minutes of action!!

Our mulching efforts are a massive help to the park as it helps to enable all the park to remain accessible to more people throughout the year! This helps look after the historic grave site as well as curb antisocial behaviour!

As we completed the path and dropped off the tools with an excellent job complete Quinten announced that Abney has just found out that their application for a multimillion pound refurbishment of the historic building in Abney has been successful!! This is a massive boost to not only the park but the local community! Was amazing to hear the our work going to Abney each month was a major contributor to the application helping to show high volumes and consistent volunteering as well as community engagement!!

Not only that but Jatin will be running the London Marathon in aid of Abney this year!! Let’s all help him along in his training and fundraising!!

See you next week for our visit to Hackney Parks!!

Enjoy

Joel

p.s Thanks Liz for the pictures!!

10 Hackney GoodGymers braved the big chill to remove all the invasive blue hen plant (not real name) from the over run growing beds!

A proper cold night in London Town meant we spent all the pre run debating how many layers to put on for the run!

A combination of coats and vests and everything in between took to the streets as we ran the round about way to a new task near Havkney Downs!

Meeting Rose from the Ferncliff community gardeners we got gloved up and armed with tools then went to work!!

Like in London fields the flower beds had been overrun with an invasive plant which were taking over and sucking the life out of the other flowers so we had to deep very deep and pull pretty hard to dislodge some of the most extensive root network in Hackney.

Making piles and piles of the naughty not Blue Hen plant we only had one case of mistaken plant identity from our perennial culprit!!

A quick drop off into a mini compost heap in another area of the community garden and we were away!

Thanks for coming out to play and look forward to seeing you next week for our last Hackney Parks visit of the year!!

Reminder of our next Social on the 3rd of December for Toyin’s 💯.

Enjoy

Joel