Welcome to Ashik for your first GoodGym outing! Great to meet you and look forward to seeing you again.

The last Saturday of the month is a regular slot for Ardwick Climate Action, so we joined Gordon, Dan, Zoe, and others for today's activities.

Today, our main task was to continue construction of a dead hedge at one of the green spaces maintained by Ardwick Climate Action. After a 10 minute stroll to the site near Mancunian Way, we split off with Tanoshi and Fanette clearing any litter, with 4 bags collected including some clothing and laughing gas canisters 🚮

Ashik and Ben went wood collecting, with lots of longer tree branches and chopped wood 🪵 As the wood piled high, others were using the stake basher to put long wooden stakes in the ground to help hold the dead hedge in place.

Bit by bit, we began filling in the wall of wood and sticks, with a nearby big broken branch providing lots of strong pieces to go into the hedge. Fanette took a battery chainsaw to some blackthorn (or hawthorn) to provide some extra filler too.

By midday, we'd reached as far as we could, and Ardwick Climate Action seemed very happy with the progress and quality of the build. After clearing up, we parted ways and look forward to returning for another task in future.

Welcome to Tanoshi for your first GoodGym outing!

Kudos to everyone today for getting out in the pouring rain 🌧 to help with pathway clearance at Albermarle allotments.

Hazel arrived bright and early so helped with moving some good-smelling woodchip before our main task could begin. One corner of the site, beyond a route known as bramble pathway, needed to be cleared to allow compost to be stored here and for access for allotment users 🌿

We had a range of tools including secateurs, loppers, saws, hoes, spades, plus power tools of a hedge trimmer, strimmers, and a chainsaw. The power tools proved very useful to remove and break up the larger clumps of brambles, while hand tools enabled the hedges to be trimmed back towards the fence. The trimmed brambles went in the green bins, other green clippings were composted 🌱

In just under 2 hours, we filled up countless green wheely bins, found the edge of the path, and endured many bramble pricks. With the pathway cleared and the rain getting much heavier, we headed for cover for a cup of tea and a biscuit, aiming to get out for another area, but with the rain becoming relentless, we called it a day.

Hope you all managed to get home to dry off and get warm! We'll likely have a monthly clearing task starting in the new year with the allotment group, so keep an eye out for that. Thank you Fanette and Hazel for the pics 📸!