The railings of the Meath Gardens changing rooms proved to be a useful little multi-gym this evening.

As the number of GoodGymers grew for tonight’s task, we rattled through this evening’s workout, including tricep dips and even a chest press or two on this handy surface.

At shortly before 6:45 we finished with a few stretches, before being joined by the first of the Friends of Meath Gardens team!

Why were we here?

Meath Gardens is one of our longstanding tasks: we’ve formed a close relationship with the brilliant Friends of Meath Gardens over the years.

From canalside tree-watering to exciting planting projects, we’ve been lucky enough to join the team for some fabulous garden activities.

The park is a much-loved local green space, and pockets of rubbish often make their way under well-used footbridges or become sandwiched between the park’s borders and fences.

So tonight’s task was a big old litter-pick, covering as much of the park as we could, tackling those trash hotspots.

Task owner Tunde kicked us off with a fantastic briefing: information about the current litter hotspots; our priorities this evening, and clear instructions on everything from the size of our groups to the health and safety basics was covered.

Divided into three teams, we proceeded to tackle three areas:

1. The borders between the shrubs and the fences.
2. The footbridge towards the back of the park.
3. The ‘big green bit’ in the middle of the park.

All three teams filled rubbish sacks very quickly (tonight’s stash included a suitcase, a bicycle wheel and a gazillion bottles and cans) - this certainly felt like a satisfying and sociable way to spend a Monday evening. From clambering down banks to carting bags to bins, this proved a good little workout too.

At just before 8 we piled the last bag outside the Changing Room block, ready to be taken to the bins.

After posing for a couple of fab group photos, our final upper body exercise of the night consisted of the last trip to the big bins.

Saying our cheerios, we dispersed into different directions: some straight home, some to the lock-up to collect valuables.

A fantastic night.

Shout-outs to the whole team, especially to Fiona who got some good action pics!

Next Monday, we’re heading back to Columbia Road for a variety of gardening tasks.

Until then.

Led by Tunde of Friends of Meath Gardens, 5 GoodGymers and a bucket load of the FoMG volunteers spent the evening watering some very thirsty young trees in a local community park.

One gang headed to the canal side to lug water up the hill, another group used the tap near the ball court and a few others gained access from a local to the nearby allotment tap, meaning there was no shortage of water points and made efficient work of distributing water all around the park.

And when the tap wasn’t being used to fill buckets it was used by some local kids as ammo for a water fight!

We all left the park soggier than we started, a fun and worthwhile task.

No fewer than 10 GoodGym members turned up tonight, promptly at our meeting point by the changing rooms in lovely Meath Gardens.

Why were we here?

Holding a Green Flag Award, this gorgeous park is well used by the Tower Hamlets community. There are some incredible plants, flower beds and bundles of donated, young trees in this park. Newly-planted trees, in particular, need to be watered regularly when they're young in order to survive, become established, and to thrive.

Friends of Meath Gardens are a brilliant group of committed, dedicated residents who work year-round to help maintain and boost this urban oasis, but due to the warm and sunny summer we're experiencing, with a lack of rain, the park needs many pairs of hands to help water.

What did we do?

With no active water points, it's a question of distributing water all over the park with many buckets, a few wheelbarrows, a couple of trolleys with partially inflated tyres, one tap and one canal.

This is a very sociable, fun and physical task. It works the lower body, and all of the upper body, particularly back and shoulder muscles.

After a solid hour of wheeling, lifting and pouring, we were ready to call it a night.

We gathered by our favourite fallen tree for a speed-stretch of every muscle going.

Well done everyone: three weeks of heavy watering is no mean feat. A brilliant contribution to Meath Gardens. And a big shout-out to Si​ for tonight's terrific pun.

Until next time.

What a turnout for tonight's run!

We started as a small sign-up of 6 earlier in the day, yet by 7:10pm there were 13 of us gathered by the shipping container in Meath Gardens awaiting our instructions from task owner Jane.

And tonight we had no fewer than 4 GoodGymers new to GG Tower Hamlets! Yes, we were joined by Grace, Rahul, Joel and Megan, who helped formed strong teams headed out all over this large green area.

We wasted no time in heading to every corner of the park, the centre of the park, and the multiple flower borders. Some waited by the tap to fill buckets and vessels; others headed to the canal to try their luck by the water's edge. This, folks, make no mistake, is a workout-and-a-half. Walking, wheeling, lifting, pouring...Aaand...repeat. Lots of times.

It was a very sociable, very useful task. The greenery in Meath Gardens is struggling. Despite the valiant efforts of residents, park-users and a phenomenal community group, young trees, fruit trees, flowers and even grass all look a little sad.

It was well after 8 before we locked up and gathered by the mystical tree (will explain another time) for a stretch. Focusing on a bit of upper body flexibility felt like a fitting end to a thoroughly great evening.

We headed our separate ways: some straight home; some via the Hotel to collect our belongings. Well done everyone. Great work.

Until next time.

A strong team of six gathered by the Meath Gardens changing rooms this evening to help Friends of Meath Gardens member, Jane, undertake a speed-drenching of some very thirsty plants.

Yes, right at the last minute, our little team of four rose to six, so we were delighted that we ended up with a decent-sized, dedicated and determined little crew.

We were at Meath Gardens to help water some life back into the absolutely parched trees, shrubs and flowers of this beautiful spot. (The council's Green Team do as much as they can, but keeping this amount of green space alive and well in these conditions is a big job).

And residents in-and-around Meath Gardens have done an amazing job watering the plants as and when they can (including our Joel and Sian who topped up their already-impressive GoodGym activity last weekend with a speed-session around the garden).

Taking it in turns to fill buckets from the tap, we wheeled barrows all over this large area, trying to minimise spillage.

We chatted to locals enjoying the park; explained when we'd next be returning, and were assisted by young residents who were keen to do their bit, filling buckets and heading off to nearby borders.

8pm came around too soon, and we were stacking buckets back by the shipping container.

Huge shout-outs to the whole team, especially Fiona for great pics, and Sian for tonight's pun :)

We're back to this task on Monday, for our Group Run, when we'll shuttle some more water around the park, hopefully helping to keep these gorgeous plants alive.

Dartboards, hula hoops, yoga mats…

It was quite the sporty stash Team Trash bagged tonight.

Yep, a whopping 13 runners braved a slushy, wet February night to head down to Meath Gardens to help clear a decent amount of litter...

What’s the background?

Well, post-Storms Eunice, Franklin etc, lots of rubbish and tree branches had made their way to the park’s litter hot spots (yes, canal and bridge, we’re looking at you), so Jane from the Friends of Meath Gardens team kindly headed up this task to keep us all busy and useful on this Monday night.

What we did

Divided into four teams, we spread out all over the park, from arch to canal; benches to bridge. Ivy was explored, undergrowth un-turned and we filled bin liner after bin liner. Filing cabinets, dartboards and some school text books were above the more surprising items found in the undergrowth.

The team didn’t stop, despite increasingly heavy rain, wet feet and chilly fingers. We met Jane back by the basketball court just before 8, and were rightly proud of our many well filled bin bags.

We then dispersed into final groups for the evening, depending on our onward journey, with the five Hotel runners gathering lights and heading back to our lovely warm base before heading home.

Shout-outs

Well done everyone – there was still plenty of trash treasure to be found, despite a decent clean-up in the days after the storm, and you got the lot.

A huge warm welcome to tonight’s first time Tower Hamlets runners: Mona, Ariana and Helen: you did good. Hope to see you again very soon!

Have a good week, everyone.

Until next time.