Today saw our return to Bath Organic Group, after a very long hiatus. This used to be a popular mission and we were all looking forward to getting back into it.

We were casually greeted and given a quick fire guide of the tasks up for grabs. These included: hedge laying (not an easy task for the uninitiated, and I speak from experience), cutting back some pesky willow trees and our favourite, carting wheelbarrows of mulch and spreading it over a raspberry bed and a gooseberry orchard. As usual, we all got stuck in! Four of us: Kate, Cosmo, Meyrick and Emily turned their hands to carting mulch and gently setting it down in the beds. The ground was very frozen and it did feel like we were tucking the plants up tight and warm. Ruth and Bennath made friends with the willow trees and gave them a good haircut.

A massive congratulations to Ruth! Today's mission marked her 100th! Thank you for your hard work and support!

A visit to BOG isn’t complete without a tea break and they didn’t disappoint. About an hour in we were called in for tea and cake and we had the opportunity to chat to some of the lovely regulars. After a little pit stop we got right back to it, and as ever time flies and our time was up.

It was so good to be back, and everybody had a great time. Fingers crossed we can make this a regular event! Failing that, there is a Wassail on the 17th January and we might all go for a bit of a shout and a stomp around to help the apple trees. I was told that last year they had a bumper crop, so I expect there will be plenty of cider!

Thanks all!

Jer and Laura showed punctuality this morning at the Bath Organic Garden. They had a busy and engaging morning – their first task was to neaten and widen the path through the orchards in preparation for Bath in Bloom. Laura’s attendance was a break from end of year school report writing. She relished the chance to make progress with a hand sickle. Jer further developed his scything skills, whilst clearing the paths around the orchard and should be commended for his perseverance. During the brief tea break, all volunteers continued to build on their social skills. The volunteers returned promptly to work and were excited by the opportunity to take on other tasks. Tim tasked them with pruning the apple trees and vines to promote fruit development. The Goodgymers sets an example of excellence in behaviour and cooperation in this task with Jer pruning the tall branches and Laura working on the lower branches. It was wonderful to see their confidence grow over the morning in new and unfamiliar situations and approaches challenges with a can-do attitude! It was a true pleasure to watch them flourish this morning. There showed true eagerness even staying a few minutes extra until a very heavy downpour dampened their effort. I am very excited to see what the Bath in Bloom judges think of their achievements on the widening of the pathway!

it's been quite a destructive week for GoodGym at Bath. To follow up Tuesday's task of ripping up an incorrectly laid path, we arrived at the Organic Garden to be given the task of ripping up some hedges.

These rather pretty hedges have unfortunately been overrun by box blight, a destructive moth invasion for which Tim has decided the best cure is to get rid of the hedges altogether.

We got stuck in with loppers, and made fast, and thoroughly destructive progress.

A baby robin came to investigate at one point, or possibly offer to eat the caterpillars we were getting rid of.

Jer finished up the mission with some classic mattock action to try to get some roots out. Who doesn’t enjoy some GoodGym mattocking!?

How long is a piece of string…?

(You’ll have to read to the end to find out)

Five of us headed over to Bath Organic Garden on the beautiful summery morning, for another lucky dip of gardening tasks.

Part 1

First up, something a little different. Our host Tim gave us a pile of long sticks and the task to “build a structure that won’t fall down” …

We may have looked a bit worried as he did eventually elaborate slightly. We had to build a framework for running canes along in order for growing runner beans.

We got the main superstructure up eventually. It didn’t fall down, and at time of writing still seems to be up to the task…

Jer helped Tim attach some cross-beams, whilst the others headed off to the pond area for the next task. We’ll return to the final part of the bean structure later, where your outstanding string-length questions will be finally answered…

Part 2

Over at the pond, we had to do what has become an annual job for me since 2020, which was to tidy up and clear the growth around the path to make it a little more accessible.

We all got on with that, whilst Jane thoughtfully cleared a way through the minor jungle to the life ring..

Then we had a little tea break - for tea, cake, and the customary home made apple juice, ready for the final couple of tasks…

Part 3

We split into two groups here. Jane and Louisa went to work learning on the job and planting a bed of potatoes...

...Whilst Jane, Natalie and Jer finished off the bean structure by tying vertical canes to the skeleton from our earlier work, up which the actual beans will hopefully grow.

Tim demonstrated on the first cane, cutting a couple of bits of string for the tying - which turned out to be way too short for the job.

Jer followed up, taking Tim’s lesson on string-frugality on board, but cutting some ever-so-slightly longer pieces of string. Which turned out to still be slightly too short.

Finally we seemed to get the optimal string length sorted between the four of us, and to date the completed structure remains intact and upright.

A lovely day out was had by all :)

Warm welcome

Finally, a warm welcome to GoodGym first-timer Louisa. Lovely to have you along!

5 Goodgymmers headed down to BOG this morning: Jane, Cosmo, Kate, Mark filling in last minute for an injured Meyrick and newbie Steve popping his Goodgym cherry. As is customary, we were tasked with doing what Goodgymmers do best: shovelling compost! BOG have just received a grant from RHS which they will use to upgrade their compost bins, so a large pile of stinky rotten garden waste needed to be moved out of the way and piled up in a clear space. The veterans among us thought this looked suspiciously like the space we cleared of stinky rotten garden waste back in December, but this is all part of the circle of compost. Fun was had, tea was drunk, cake was eaten and we'll be back again soon to help with seed sowing.

Leaves are everywhere at this time of year. Littering the park, blocking drains, turning cycle paths slightly treacherous, and so on.

So as we entered Bath Organic Gardens it was possibly no surprise to see a huge, suspicious-looking pile of leaves, adjacent to the spot from where on a recent previous visit there we'd moved a huge, suspicious-looking pile of compost.

They love leaves down at BOG, of course. It seems nothing organic goes to waste there.

Tim arrived and immediately set us about moving leaves from that large pile on to a smaller pile deeper inside the garden. The mathematically-minded or attentive reader might notice that a large pile probably isn't going to fit where a small pile goes, and luckily you're right... we only had to move a few barrows of those leaves, rather than all of them.

Fortunately that left us time for a second leaf-related task. That of transporting some of the more rotted leafmould, which was adjacent to the pile of new leaves into some large containers inside one of the greenhouses.

This involved digging the leafmould into barrows, sifting, sorting, removing any bindweed and then barrowing it around to the greenhouse.

There was a lot of bindweed. Getting rid of bindweed seems to come up a lot in GoodGym tasks. It seems it's the one type of organic produce that isn't wanted. This of course set Meyrick and me thinking about what use could be made of bindweed. Surely such a prolific grower could be put to use in some way to solve one or other of the global energy crisis, global food crisis, a cure for cancer, or who shot JR? Something

Alas we couldn't come up with anything during our timeslot on this bright wintry Saturday morning. The world will have to stay unsaved for another week. Our time will come. Just you watch...