It doesn't seem long ago that we were busy watering the trees at Laugherne Brook Nature Reserve in the middle of a scorching drought. But yesterday the trees were getting all the water they needed thanks to the rain! Luckily it had stopped by the time Liam and I ran over to the nature reserve from the Hive. We were met by Margaret who led us to the huge pile of bark chippings that had been kindly donated by the council. Our task for the evening was to shovel it into buckets and barrows and spread it around the base of each tree. Lots of carrying, lots of steps, lots of good exercise! "We'll just do as many as we can" suggested Margaret but with me and Liam on the case that meant doing all of them! The mulch will help provide nutrients to the trees, keep the weeds at bay and help retain moisture so the trees can get through to the other side of winter ready for whatever 2027 has to throw at them. We squelched our way back to the hive with soggy feet but big smiles after another fun GoodGym session.

When Stu from the Friends of Laugherne Brook Nature Reserve contacted me about this task a few weeks ago he was hopeful that we wouldn't be needed. An odd reply when asking for help but we all expected a bit of rain to have done the job of watering all the trees by now but it's stayed dry ever since. So with two new recruits on their very first GoodGym mission in the form of Ruth and Bertie we set off from The Hive to run to the most mispronounced area of Worcester (It's Lawn not Larf-urn). Stu met us with his 4 legged friend Otis and we made our way to the brook with a barrowful of buckets and quickly formed a human chain to began hauling out water. The nature reserve has been planted with a variety of different trees grouped together in wilding areas and most of them were wilting in the heat. A small Waymarker tree looked particularily sad so was given extra attention. After 3 rounds to the brook we were ready for rehydration ourselves and luckily Stu's house was nearby and he revealed that he had ice lollies waiting for us. How to make sure your GoodGym volunteers keep coming back! It's a beautiful corner of the city and we look forward to returning for some other tasks but hope that Mother Nature will do the watering for us soon.