We had a triptych of tasks last night at the Marston Community Allotment:

• With warm, dry weather forecast for the next few days eveything needed a good soaking.
  
• One of the raised beds needed clearing of an assortment of weeds, including the dreaded bindweed.
  
• Woodchip and compost needed shovelling and barrowing over from the site entrance.
  

The weeders unearthed parnsips amongst the weeds, the waterers to-d and fro-d around raised beds and polytunnel making sure everything was well hydrated, the woodchip was used to level out the pathway, and compost to earth up potatoes (after they'd been freed from their bindweed and bramble companions). With parakeets in the trees and some warm late-summer sunshine it was almost Costa del Oxford.

Honourable mention for Mark's cameo towards the end of the task - just in time time for plenty of selfies and eating all the fresh veg he could lay his hands on ;-)

Some days everything falls into place seamlessly and life appears frictionless...Yesterday was not one of those days.

With missing running shoes, forgotten gardening gloves, and rush hour traffic all conspiring against us (and that was just me), we were not off to the most auspicious start. However, things took a turn for the better once we actually made it to the task: We found orchard triangle had been mown since our last visit so was less of a jungle, and we could get to the plants along the railings to weed and mulch. Also less long grass = fewer bitey bugs; a definite bonus!

We weeded, chatted, spread wood chip, tried to rescue a sad-looking rhubarb plant, rehomed snails, and generally improved the growing conditions for the numerous loganberry, raspberry and blackcurrant plants. We're looking forward to tasting our first loganberries come harvest time.

Wednesday marked a return to Orchard Triangle to help the Marston Community Gardeners. The warm wer weather has been heaven for cow parsley, and all of the young fruit trees were surrounded by head-high weed growth. Our task? De-cow parsley the fruit trees, weed a good circle around the base of each tree and mulch with a barrowful of woodchip.

Setting to work, we unearthed most of the central patch of trees - featuring figs, apples and pears. Our battle against the bitey evening midges continues, but I think we're starting to win with the new additions to our arsenal (Avon Skin so soft spray, citronella bracelets, long trousers).

Welcome to GoodGym Andy!

It was a chilly night for our last bulb-planting session of 2023. This time we took a section of the Marston Road which we planted up last year but had not flowered too well, in the hope that a few extra bulbs would help fill in the display. Despite being a select team of only the most hardcore GoodGymers we got 5 buckets of bulbs in the ground.

A sprint back up the hill to Oxford Brookes helped us warm up after an hour out in the cold.

Great work team - looking forward to the Marston daffodil display in the spring!

This evening a bunch of gardening Goodgymers indulged in a spot of speedy planting.

Teaming up with Alistair from Marston Community Garden we continued our bulb plabting project around Marston. The idea is to cover green spaces on the drive into Oxford with bulbs to create a colourful welcome to the city come the spring.

With limited light and time we cracked on quickly and managed to work our way through several buckets of bulbs.

Congratulations to Alistair on Marston Community Gardens recent award!

More congrats to Oliver for reaching 10 good deeds and to Fred for reachinf 50!! Thank you to Fred for the delicious cookies. Almost made up for my lck of posh pesto.....

A warm welcome to Marta visiting us from Greenwich. Please come and see us again next time you're in Oxford!

One more planting session in 2023 folks!

GoodGymers in Autumn are basically bulb-planting machines. We have been sprinkling daffodil bulbs like fairy dust all over Marston for a few years now, and it's always a pleasure to see them sprout in the spring (phew! we didn't do it wrong!).

This week's race against the rain and darkness was along Oxford Road. Team work makes the dream work, and despite being accused of digging up/stealing the ground (a new complaint for us), we planted buckets and buckets of bulbs between Cherwell Drive and Gordon Close.

Nice to meet you Gaby!