Mid-August Tuesday night group run to Acton’s Wildflower Trail was a sequel to a similar session in July. Another heatwave prompted Romina from horticultural charity Cultivate London to deploy the GoodGymers for another treasure hunt involving finding hand tools and watering cans - with a twist! This time, the task was extended to sowing wildflower seeds. What would the seed mix look like? How would the GoodGymers sow them?

Kash cheated the system by walking straight to South Acton early and unintentionally catching Romina before she left the Cultivate HQ. Kash received instructions directly from Romina and even remembered some of the plants from the seed mix: hollyhock, calendula, poppy, and sweet pea.

Steph and Sevan ran from Ealing Broadway to meet Kash and Gaby at the cutest little shed ever: the Acton BID's self-service station at the Wildflower Trail. Kash had already filled two watering cans at the tank and was working on the last one - rightly so, as everyone found out that filling the can takes time.

Gaby, Steph, and Sevan set off to water twelve trees - some more obvious than others - in six wildflower beds. Waiting for the water to fill the cans offered an opportunity for lively water cooler conversations, but also for a call to action: the GoodGymers don’t like standing still with nothing to do, so they decided to take turns at spot litter picking while waiting. Kash, in the meantime, started weeding the bed with wild hedging.

The team used up all the water (and most of the task time) to come to the rescue of the thirsty trees. Before leaving the last five minutes for a weeding blitz, each GoodGymer had a go at sowing the seeds of love (according to Steph and Tears for Fears) or at the Wildflower Trail Mix (according to Sevan), with a crunchy insect insert. With sowing completed, the GoodGymers finished filling three Greener Ealing bags with weeds and carried them to the Cultivate HQ. Another rescue mission at Wildflower Trail completed!

Next week we are supporting the William Hobbayne charity with the maintenance of their outdoor space - sign up now!. In two weeks, we are back in Acton to work with Cultivate London collect leaves from the local school grounds.

It's been less than 4 weeks since Kash's solo visit to Mr M for back garden maintenance. This time she was expecting to tackle the side passage and the front garden, together with Sevan. Imagine her disappointment when she saw an explosion of lush bindweed and alkanet on the lawn she had weeded a few weeks ago! It looked worse than before her July mission for Mr M and felt like her attempts to pull or dig out the roots had been ineffective long-term.

Mr M's typical tactic when it comes to the lawn, was to simply mow it, and that's what Kash decided to do this time. She also pulled out some bindweed, especially the vines creeping on the paving, which could have been a trip hazard for Mr M, who had become increasingly unstable on his legs.

Sevan, never scared of painstakingly detailed work, disappeared behind the corner to pull out weeds alongside the path between front and back gardens. Kash joined him part-way, and together they reached the gate leading to the other side.

The front garden was easy and satisfying to tidy up, but offered quite a different experience. The backyard was filled with birdsong (quite unexpected in the centre of Shepherd's Bush), neighbour's dramatic music with intense flute parts, and the sounds of the tube trains announcing that the next station was Wood Lane. In the front garden, in contrast to that magical place behind the house, you could hear conversations of passers-by, tick-tocking of abused Lime bikes, and infernal screeches of a hoe against the paving slabs. The sounds alone could inspire a modern Hieronymus Bosch to come up with another interpretation of the Garden of Eden and the Last Judgement!

While Sevan returned to the purgatory of meticulous weeding - the side path between the heavenly and hellish gardens - Kash, who stayed in the Last Judgement garden, has been indeed judged. "Good Work!", Mr M's neighbour said. Mr M himself was also delighted with the result. Two GoodGymers were absolved from their sins against bindweed (cutting it instead of pulling) and free to go home to enjoy the rest of their Sunday.