GoodGymers joined HANGOT for one of their regular summer work evenings today and soon had a sense of déjà vu. It was like they'd been at St Margaret's orchard, cutting hedges at a June work evening before 🤔.

Kash and Sevan began by refilling the water bowser at HANGOT's base. Neither had scooped water out of the canal before with buckets, but they had seen Steph do it before and remembered his technique. A few attempts later, they'd gotten the hang of it, the bowser was full and it was onto the main task of the evening.

The bushy hedges were the give away at St Margaret's orchard that brought the memories back. A wheelbarrow full of shears was waiting and Dagmar was very happy with the GoodGymers' arrival:

"Ah, we need tall people to cut the top of these hedges" - Dagmar
"I can do that" - Sevan
"...and what do the short people do?" - Kash

Well, the short people would either need to lift their arms higher or cut the sides of the hedge, so, over the course of an hour, everyone's shoulders started to ache as the hedge was returned to a manageable size.

Even the deepest, darkest corner of the orchard got some TLC. There was an area so overgrown that no one could remember reaching the opposite side of the hedge or knew what it looked like. That sounded like a great challenge for the last 10 minutes and huge branches were removed from the top level. The spiky plants held strong at chest height, repelling the chopping attacks and attempts to go deeper into the hedge. Still, the orchard was transformed in 60 minutes and was looking much neater after its summer trim.

If this sounds like fun to you, you can join us for HANGOT's next work day in July by signing up for our session on the 12th.

On a hot, sunny Saturday, the June edition of the HANGOT workday took us to Elthorne Terraces Orchard (or the one "by the Bambi") to deal with unfair competition against fruit trees. Hemlock, brambles, nettles, burdock - we didn't want to see any of that around the orchard tree trunks. Another problem was caused by the fruit trees themselves - tree suckers and self-seeded saplings were stealing nutrients from the originally planted trees and had to be removed.

Six regulars from the HANGOT crew: Mirjam, Clive, Hilary, Magda, Chris and Brian were joined by four GoodGymers, making the team size a decent, round number! The towpath was a lovely route to get to the task. Penny walked to the session while Christos, Steph Ducat and Kash ran different distances to reach the orchard. Steph arrived early, as usual, and Mirjam put him on his favourite watering duty to keep him busy before others showed up.

Walking down the canal path towards Brentford, the GoodGymers saw a pair of swans with five cygnets. Clive said the bird couple had been trying to have babies for a long time, facing challenges like a flooded nest and soggy eggs, and, finally, was lucky to glide upstream with a line of their little ones between them. What a sight it was!

At Elthorne Terraces we saw more examples of nature thriving, such as a quince tree producing plenty of fruit! They weren't ripe yet, of course, but we learned where the quince spot was - a handy knowledge when the foraging season comes! Life does not always prevail - at Elthorne Terraces, we found out that one of the fruit trees had died, and we have been chosen to help it with its last journey. Christos sawed the tree, and Kash chucked its trunk into the bushes like a javelin. Farewell tree! May the circle of life make good use of your remains!

The summer is looking fantastic, and we want to take advantage of long days in June to help HANGOT more than once a month! Join us on Monday in a week's time for a work evening at the canalside orchards - sign up here!

5 awesome GoodGymers turned out for HANGOT's regular pre-Hootie task, to give Elthorne Triangle's orchard a short back, sides and everything else ready for the summer. The fruit trees there had seen weeds and wildflowers shoot up over the past weeks meaning that they were having to fight for water and light, so HANGOT wanted to give the trees the best chance of producing fruit for the community.

Sun cream was broken out ahead of Steph, Kash, Ramona, Eman and Sevan helping the HANGOT volunteers to chop, rake and wheelbarrow the overgrowth away. Frank and Lydia from HANGOT also had scythes to clear larger areas, so everyone else made sure to keep their ankles away from the sweeping blades. Today was Ramona's first GoodGym task and she did an amazing job, getting stuck into lots of different tasks. Welcome Ramona 👋🎉! We look forward to seeing you again soon.

Together, the team freed the majority of fruit trees in the orchard, giving the pear, apple and cherry fruits the opportunity to grow juicy and strong this summer. The mature trees will have fruit ready for the public to forage in a few months 🍎🍐🍒.

Sevan and Kash ran through the streets adorned by cherry blossoms to meet Steph who walked by the Grand Union Canal to Hanwell. Steph arrived early and had already filled a tank with water from the canal and started watering the thirsty fruit trees by Bernd's Shed, including Bruno's Tree that had been planted at the previous session with HANGOT.

Today's task was digging out hemlock at the Blackberry Corner meadow on the other side of the canal. The task owner Mirjam explained that we can distinguish hemlock from similarly looking plants by the purple blotches on its stem. She also warned us that it is a highly toxic plant.

It's poisonous when eaten, so just don't munch on it and you will be fine. - Mirjam
Socrates died because he drank hemlock. - Frank

Frank didn't mean a crazy Greek volunteer at the orchards but the famous philosopher, who was sentenced to death, after being found guilty of corrupting young Athenians. Socrates chose death by hemlock poisoning. We chose to avenge Socrates and clear the meadow of the invasive, toxic plants while they were still not fully grown.

We did splendidly with the digging. At the end of the session, Steph was summoned to remove a few dead fruit trees and the stakes supporting them. Sadly, the Blackberry Corner trees are far away from the canal and watering them is a challenge. Apart from the four trees that have not made it to adulthood, the rest were doing very well and blooming, making the meadow look magnificent!

We will be back at the HANGOT orchards on 10th May - if you want to get down and dirty pre-Hootie, join us! Sign up here.

What makes you motivated? What gets you out of the house on Saturday morning? Let me tell you about Lena, who hadn't felt energetic earlier in the day at all, but found her inner Superwoman by thinking about others.

"I saw that you will be on your own at this session, Kash, and I thought it could not be like that!" - Lena.

Lena hopped on her bike and, together with her partner, cycled from Southall to Hanwell to the rescue! She found Bernd's Orchard, where a group of HANGOT members gathered to plant a very special tree. The tree was to celebrate the contributions of a regular volunteer Bruno, who was going to leave the country by the end of the month.

After the bittersweet goodbye, the team headed to the Piggeries Orchard to mulch the fruit trees and cut back the brambles, especially the ones spreading from the corner, behind the pond.

Lena not only had a go at every job: shovelling, wheelbarrowing and snipping the brambles. Her contagious enthusiasm kept everyone smiling. Where did she get her positive energy from?

"Look at those blossoms, the sun, the canal! This is heaven! Thanks for bringing me here" - Lena.

Lena was delighted about her decision to come to the HANGOT session and enjoy the glorious weather. Participating in Bruno's tree planting made her as excited as the children. Before heading off for a coffee with Kash, Lena gave the kids a round of high-fives and praised them for their great work at the orchard. Way to go!

The drizzly Saturday morning in February brought GoodGymers their first session of the year with HANGOT - a wonderful organisation whose members plant fruit trees in public green spaces to encourage biodiversity and foraging for food. The volunteers walked through a bit muddy towpath to one of the farther orchards - the Blackberry Corner hidden on the other side of Grand Union Canal. Hint: you can reach it if you cross the canal using Hanwell Lock No 92. On the way there, a cyclist squinted at us, trying to decipher (from a sign we carried) what we were protesting against. Disappointingly, the sign that Clive later stuck to the ground, was only announcing that the orchard trail volunteers were working in the area - no demonstrations planned.

Well, a different type of demonstration happened at the Blackberry Corner. The task owner, Mirjam, and another volunteer, Lydia, both gave the GoodGymers a great explanation of how to do today's task: pruning the trees. Gaby, Simon, Maria, Liuba, Harvey and Kash learned the following rules:

• Cut out the shoots growing inwards
• Cut out the watershoots that are growing straight up
• Cut out the shoots that will rub onto other branches when they grow
• Always spray the tools with Dettol solution between pruning different trees to avoid infections (it's just like between operating different patients)
• Cut the shoots at an angle so that the rainwater does not collect in a horizontal tree wound
• For larger tree wounds (when you need to cut out a thicker branch), rub some soil onto them - you don't need any expensive products to protect the wounded area
• Don't prune the trees in the summer when the trees will produce lots of sap and will bleed too much

According to Mirjam, there were no restrictions on trimming the trees in the winter.

If someone tells you you cannot prune when it's freezing cold - you can. Well, maybe not when it's minus fifteen degrees because you'll freeze off your fingers. That's what Monty Don says, and I trust him.

Lydia and Mirjam, while agreeing on the theory had slightly different approaches to pruning: the former was more careful in choosing which shoots to trim, the latter more bold. The GoodGymers from the school of Lydia appeared more cautious about their choices.

While all the GoodGymers chose the pruning task, Clive's team was installing extra protection around the trees to defend them from rabbits. By the end of the winter, there is no food around and the furry residents of the meadow are desperate enough to go for the bark. HANGOT needed to make sure that rabbits would have to choose the other trees than the orchard ones.

Later in the year, with longer days and more growth in the spring, we will hold more sessions with HANGOT - both on Saturdays and evenings on weekdays - so watch this space for more listings!