Friends of Canbury Gardens

Look after the gardens

9 GoodGymers have supported Friends of Canbury Gardens with 7 tasks.


Top supporters
TaskForce
Claire Dunne
Claire Dunne
TaskForce
Julie
Julie
Kingston upon Thames runner
Mark Wilson
Mark Wilson (he/him)

Previous sessions
Kingston upon ThamesCommunity mission
Sabir Babaiy Majdar
Claire Dunne
Levita Figueiredo

Spring has Sprung

Saturday 14th March

Written by Claire Dunne

On a beautiful Spring morning Levita, Sabir and Claire met in Canbury Gardens where the GoodGym flowerbed had sprung into Spring. It was full of daffodils, hyacinths and tulips. However some were a little hidden under the mountains of leaves and shrubs. Sabir got to work pruning all the salvias whilst Levita and Claire pick up piles of leaves. For a smallish flowered we cleared a lot of green waste.

Just over an hour later the flowers shone brightly in the Sun and after a quick photo shoot we headed our separate ways to enjoy the weekend.

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Kingston upon ThamesCommunity mission
Sahil Tharwani
Mark Wilson
Julie
Sabir Babaiy Majdar
Claire Dunne

🍂Just Leaf it to GoodGym 🍂

Saturday 25th October 2025

Written by Claire Dunne

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.

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Kingston upon ThamesCommunity mission
Claire Dunne

Waterworks 💦

Saturday 30th August 2025

Written by Claire Dunne

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.

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Kingston upon ThamesCommunity mission
Claire Dunne
Sabir Babaiy Majdar

Medieval Gardening

Saturday 26th July 2025

Written by Claire Dunne

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.

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Kingston upon ThamesCommunity mission
Julie
Claire Dunne

Feeling Hot, Hot, Hot 🥵

Saturday 21st June 2025

Written by Claire Dunne

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 ☔️

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Kingston upon ThamesCommunity mission
Julie
Claire Dunne

Spring Pruning 🪻🌷

Saturday 15th March 2025

Written by Claire Dunne

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.

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