Great heavens, can you believe it, it's bulb planting time again already!

On Wednesday evening, we were back at our regular haunt, Cecil Sharp House, for our monthly maintenance session.

Our first task was to start getting some new bulbs in the ground, for a bit of extra colour come Spring time. We had a huge bag of daffodil bulbs to plant in all the beds around the front of the building.

As always, we also gave the place a very through sweep and bagged up many fallen leaves to keep the building looking smart for lots of exciting activity they have coming up this autumn!

Lydia did a wonderful job working with our host, Susannah, to replant two big tubs that had been looking very sorry for themselves since the drought. We left the place sparkling, and full of new life!

We were back to one of our regular haunts, Cecil Sharp House, on Wednesday. While their regular gardener is away on a well deserved break, we stepped in to keep everything tidy and well watered for the week.

We split into two groups; Team Watering Can very quickly got stuck in giving the thirsty plants a good drink after so many weeks without rain. This included the greenhouse, and many big planters with new plants around the entrance.

Team Broom were on duty to clear the paths, beds, and lawns of dry leaves. The many weeks of heatwave has bought on an early Autumn for the trees in the garden, which have already started dropping their leaves. While it may not have looked too bad at the start, we quickly gathered about ten very full bags and left the gardens looking a lot neater!

A huge welcome to Maya who joined us for her first GG session - it was wonderful to have you with us :)

Good luck to everyone taking part in the Big Half next weekend - you'll smash it!

This lovely group made their usual fabulous difference.

As this summer's annual London Permaculture Festival approaches, we made the venue feel spic and spam ahead of the big day :)

Thank you, everyone!!

12 GoodGymers caught sixty spring–sun–shining minutes in Camden!

Under bright blue skies — and as rush hour pushed into twilight — lovely people started arriving at the Cecil Sharp House garden yesterday evening.

Some were dressed in red and everyone looked locked and ready for some form of altruistic action!

First we said a big hello to our three new faces 👉 welcome to the group, Giulia, Maggie, and Sarah!!

Second we said hello to our regular faces 👉 great to see you Ariane, Helen, Jackie, John, Karen, Siobhan, Theo, and Thierry!

And third... we played Simon Says!

Which loosened our limbs and prepared us perfectly for the wonderful difference this group made:

💚 Every yard and metre (even every inch!) of pathway was swept free of litter and blossom

💚 Sackfuls of weeds from nooks and crannies were plucked ready for composting

💚 Bundles of leaves and debris disappeared leaving the greenhouse space spic and span

Thank you, everyone! See you soon!

P.S. Thank you to Ariane for the many photos!

P.P.S. Thank you for Theo for taking the group photo!

13 GoodGymers jumped into nature yesterday evening!

This was our first session at our regular haunt, Cecil Sharp House, that felt like spring. It was bright and light, and the forecast thunder swerved us completely 🙂

Which meant that this wonderful group had fine conditions to make a wonderful difference!

And alongside our special and experienced GoodGym faces (Ariane, Gary, Jackie, John, Karen, Sarah, Siobhan, and Thierry) we welcomed first timer Ikram (welcome!) and second-timers Ellen, Giulia, and Krista (great to see you again!) ❤️

And together we:

💚 Transformed a twig-and-weed-strewn lawn into a perfect patch of green!

💚 Pruned overgrown shrubs and bushes!

💚 Planted fresh seeds for flowers yet to blossom!

💚 Gave every inch of paving a weed-cutting and broom-sweeping manicure!

💚 Turned a mountainous pile of leaves and clutter into the tidiest spot!

Thank you, everyone! Here's to next time!

10 GoodGymers move an ENTIRE GREENHOUSE (!) in Camden!

I often think that many hands really can make light work...

...but sometimes...

I think the work really is too heavy!

Which is what my brain was thinking as I arrived at Cecil Sharp House yesterday evening, where I was met by the lovely and fabulous troupe of Al, Jackie, John, Karen, Lydia, Rose, Siobhan, Theo, and Thierry!

Our task was quite simple.

Pick up that big ol' greenhouse, walk it 60m, and put it down again (in addition to emptying and organising and refilling too!)

And before I could even murmur a hesitation this group were off and working, and just wonderful they were. Together they:

❤️ Made exceptionally light work of this mammoth task!

❤️ Left the greenhouse organised and tidy, and in a prime new position!

❤️ Did even more by repacking two storage crates with heavy bags of gravel and soil!

And while some of the team did this Jackie and Siobhan were busy making a wonderful difference in Cecil Sharp's garden 👉 they collected leaves, strewn twigs, and litter 👉 transforming the lawn and pathways into (surely!) the tidiest green space in Camden :)

Thank you, everyone!