On a bright Autumn morning we met at the Goodgym flowerbed to prepare it for winter. The first job was to find the flowerbed underneath all the leaves. Sabir got to work with the rake followed by Mark and created a massive pile of leaves whilst Emily, Sahil and Julie picked the leaves out of all the tricky places in between the plants. Once Claire arrived back from her trip up the gardens for rubbish bags we will filled them with the leaves and Julie was queen of the leaf castle as we tried to squash them into the bags.

It was then time to plant the rest of the bulbs that Claire had donated from her garden. It was tricky to find a spot without any bulbs already so it should look pretty in the Spring.

We left the flowerbed full of Autuumn colour with the Aster and Salvias still in full bloom and will return next year in the Spring. Welcome to Sahil on your first mission and we hope to see you again soon.

Two wheelbarrow loads of water and some feed topped up the plants after the recent rain. Hopefully it will keep them going for a few days.

We found ourselves on the edge of a Saxon Encampment Aethel's town at the GoodGym flowerbed as the Saxons had moved in to Canbury Gardens for the weekend.

The flowerbed was pretty weed free so Emily and Susannah tackled the brambles and weeds around the edges whilst Sabir went to the river for water and fed and watered all the plants. Claire meanwhile planted a rudbeckia and an aster which will hopefully bring some colour to the bed. We were finished in time to see the Saxons heading off on their parade.

As the heat wave ☀️continued 3 hardy GoodGymers armed with water bottles and lots of energy got to work.

Weeding 🌱and leaf 🍁 clearing were first on the agenda before Julie and Emily headed off to the mulch 🍂pile for two wheel barrow loads. It was hot work shovelling the pile of decaying woodchip and leaves.

We decided to plant a few new plants 🌾 and after much deliberation on their position and digging some very dry soil we got them in.

This was followed by giving everything a very good water 💦. Our water collection from the river entertained a few park users and gave us very soggy trainers 👟 which soon dried in the sun☀️ .

With everything watered 💦we spread the mulch with Claire and Emily gathering another two barrow loads and then it was time to pack up until next time.

Fingers crossed for some rain ☔️

On a lovely Spring morning Claire and Julie undertook a very delicate task to prune the Salvias and hydrangeas being careful not to step on the springs bulbs that had sprouted in the GoodGym flowerbed.

The pruning should help us get bushier plants with lots of colour in the Summer. We also removed a large amount of leaves giving the bulbs some more room to breathe.

There will be lots of opportunities to volunteer at the flowerbed across the Spring and Summer so keep an eye out for these.

On a lovely Autumn morning Claire, Julie and Sabir welcomed Stephanie to her first GoodGym mission at the GoodGym flowerbed to prepare it for winter.

Sabir got straight on with clearing the leaves whilst Claire, Julie and Stephanie tackled the weeds.

Bed tidied it was time for the fun part of planting all the spring bulbs. We planted lots of daffodils, tulips and alliums as well as a random selection of bulbs left over from Claire’s garden last year.

The last job was the hardcore gym part of our session. It involved 3 people walking along way through the gardens to the woodchip pile where we filled massive buckets up with wood chip and then walked them back. Having completed 3 runs we decided we’d gathered enough and hope to have a wheel barrow for next time.

The bed is looking lovely and should provide lots of Spring colour. 🌷🪻🌷