We had a perfect sunny afternoon for our second session at this community garden. It was great to see Jo and Steve again and we soon got stuck into some much-needed weeding around the beds and along the borders. The church is hosting its summer fair next weekend and so our efforts helped to make everything look shipshape. Oh, and we managed not to get too distracted by Toffee, the adorable pup.

I helped clean and pack away after the Open Table community lunch. It was extremely well attended and every morsel of food was eaten! Success!

The team at The Open table were down in volunteers so cheered when I arrived to set up. After changing it up a bit and assembling the space slightly differently I was on my way for another day.

This was our first session helping Martin Way Methodist Church with their garden project and we had a lovely afternoon for it. Our host Abby showed me some pictures of how far it's come, from a neglected wilderness to an attractive community garden area, but there's still plenty to do in terms of digging, planting, pruning and erecting a greenhouse. We rolled up our sleeves to give one of the benches a fresh coat of oil and to cut back the overgrown laurel tree. A warm welcome to new Merton GoodGym member Steve who joined for his initial task – hopefully the first of many.

It had been a couple of weeks since attending to help but I was warmly welcomed to complete the usual routine with some minor changes to the layout and the addition of cheerful daffodils to adorn the tables

Lent a hand at The Open Table to set up then got chopping and.preparing mountains of onions (sliced rainbows was the brief) for a delicious soup.