It’s been two weeks in the making, but the finish line of our painting job at Wandsworth’s bereavement services was just in sight! There were just a few very high up corners left to do. Luckily Ros stepped in to help and over the course of an hour we rolled, brushed and dabbed. Wandsworth Bereavement Service supports bereaved residents of Wandsworth with counselling sessions. The charity offers support in a safe and therapeutic environment and helps people reach a more peaceful place and gradually move forward. So it is really important that the environment is welcoming. With chats about rowing, parkrun and future collabs the time rushed by and before we knew it the job was done. This task is dedicated to somebody special we talked about as we worked, with GG love 🧡

On a glorious evening in Wandsworth, a fantastic bunch of sun-seeking goodgymmers celebrated the start of summer. The lighter evenings allowing for more activities was the main highlight for the group in a summery discussion so Goodgym was definitely the right place to be!

We were off back down to one of our favourite spots - Doddington gardens. We were greeted by Malissa who heralded the arrival of ‘groundforce’! Rosie was already hard at work and dragged some of the braver amongst us to lug some rocks up to the garden. Alice signed up to be Chief Sweep and the rest of us were mainly hunting various pots around the garden which needed planting. It was a real hive of activity as everyone threw themselves into different jobs. A highlight was watching Frances and her bindweed battling - it didn’t stand a chance!

After all that hard work, we did 5 quick exercises of 6 reps (or 12 when Sophie felt mean) inspired by the date of 05.06. Thanks for the suggestion Eva! The success didn’t end there though as one Goodgym team won a well-deserved second place at the local pub quiz!

Well done for starting the week on such a high Goodgym Wandsworth!

On a sunny bank holiday five GGers met at Doddington roof garden to help move an enormous number of plants that had been donated by Chelsea Flower Show up to the community space.

It was off the back of a huge success for Doddington and its volunteers at the show, who won gold for their exhibition - a sanctuary garden. And very well deserved it was too!

The sheer number of plants to move was incredible, and along with the new pizza oven, swing and other fabulous elements are going to transform the community garden even more.

After a good stint up and down the stairs the next job was the tackle putting up the huge new sign to welcome people to the garden. It took a lot of preparation, discussion and planning - and the rising wind added an extra challenge - but we soon managed to get the sign in place. This was thanks to a lot of muscle, Edress' rope, Malissa's vision and Steve directing from the ground. Plus a few very sturdy knots!

Some of us were even treated with ice cream as a reward while the rest trotted back to the BAC. Great work everybody! Next week we're be back at Doddington for our usual monthly session at the garden. Have a great week everybody!

Since May is practically loaded with bank holidays we had a first in Wandsworth last night. Instead of a group run on Monday we switched it to Tuesday and thankfully six GoodGymers came along to get a whole lot of good done!

Jo, Matthew, Ros and I met at our usual spot at the BAC and ran together down to our monthly session at Doddington community garden, where we met Jamal and Divya.

Our first job was moving some unwieldy pallets from the bottom of the steps right to the top of the garden. It's so lovely having a space on what was once a disused rooftop, but those stairs do make it a bit tricky for the regular volunteer group - which is where GoodGym comes in!

We were greeted by the many cats who live there, and keeping our eyes open for the family of fox cubs that share the garden, we got stuck into our first job.

The strawberry plants needed to be dug up and transported, so we carefully prised up the berries and moved them into pots, while also transplanted the teasel to make way for sweetcorn and other plants. Every visit we learn new horticultural related words and skills!

While Ros and Matthew got busy creating a waterfall of strawberry plants using an old pallet, the rest of the team laid down cardboard in the raised beds ready for filling with compost. It's a great tip for keeping the earth rich and weed free. We were careful to preserve the bags which will be used for growing eight different types of potatoes. Great to see that nothing is wasted.

Next week it's the Big Help Out, which we will be getting involved with in collaboration with Beautify Balham. Sign up here for a lunchtime session helping clear litter before a GG social! Hope to see you there.

It was great to get Goodgym Wandsworth back together once more and see more friendly faces after too long an absence. It was the first time many of us had visited Christchurch Gardens outside of winter and we certainly couldn't miss the big pile of wood waiting for us with what appeared to be last year's pine Christmas tree thrown into the mix! There were a variety of tactics at play with some magnificent sawing technique attacking the bigger logs and brute force appearing to win over tools for many on the smaller bits. With some satisfying cracks of branches, we certainly ticked off the Gym element! There was a healthy amount of competition trying to beat the number of bags achieved in previous missions and we walked away very satisfied leaving behind a much smaller pile. To be continued I'm sure...

A very warm Wandsworth welcome to Chris on his first mission too!