When I turned up at the agreed start time for dismantling the plant sale, much of the work had been done already. The plant sale had been auch a great success, that Stoke Newington Users Group (SNUG) had sold all their plants and cakes ahead of schedule.

There were still a couple of gazebos to come down and pack away, not to mention stacks of empty crates and chairs and table clothes and other essential paraphernalia to pack into cars and unload at their destination.

Another very successful event over for another year.

It was a glorious day for the Stoke Newington Common Users Group (SNUG) plant sale and three GoodGymmers were on hand to help set up for the day. It was great to meet Kanice and Caroline, both trying out GoodGym for the first time.

Task One was to set up the gazebos, which, as one of the SNUG group pointed out, 'Once you've done one gazebo, you'll discover all the others work slightly differently.' Undeterred, and with our usual problem solving minds switched in, there were soon 5 gazebos of varying height, weight and structure assembled and pegged down.

Task Two was to set up the trestle tables. This required a walk to the local community hall to collect 3x of tables and carry them back to the common. A proper work out indeed!

With the tables in place, Task Three was to make further trips to the homes of various SNUG members to collect their plant donations for sale. A lot of ground was covered, a number of cars were filled and numerous plants were collected and delivered to the common.

The final task was setting out the plants according to category and price. Special attention was required during this work, to remove and unwanted slugs.

The set up plan went smoothly and once everything was ready, the Common was awash with colour and looking fabulous.

All funds made from the event will go towards more trees, hedging and maintenance of Stoke Newington Common.

Goodgym were back at Stoke Newington Common, helping protect and nurture the young trees and hedges planted previously. 5 volunteers were on hand to distrubute a fresh pile of mulch around the common. The team was so effective, that they ran out of mulch but there is more to do so another session will be arranged soon.

A big 'mulcho gracias' from the task leader, who is delighted with the work done. Everyone who helped out made a big difference and made the task much easier for the Stoke Newington Users Group (SNUG)

Goodgym Hackney were out in force to get a new month of good deeds off to a flying start. Particular shout out to Evie, Indi, Lucy, Dimitrios and Andy who were joining us for the first time. Great to meet so many enthusiastic, friendly volunteers.

We were back at Stoke Newington Common to help our friends at SNUG (Stoke Newington Common Users Group) plant new hedging. There was a wonderful selection of trees and roses to plant, including dogrose, elder, spindle, hawthorn and blackthorn, although without their leaves, it proved hard to differentiate between some of them.

With so many volunteers (SNUG were out in force too!), we were able to split into two groups, working at two locations on the Common - one by the bus stand to create a hedge between the common and the pavement, the other along the fence by the railway line to help mask the metal railings. The climbing roses were particularly well suited for this job.

Holes were soon being dug, plants selected, supported and protected with canes and tubing, and pressed firmly into place to help them bed in.

After a good hour and a half, we had run out of space and canes. So we gathered up tools and unplanted hedge plants, and made our way back to base camp where SNUG very kindly shared hot drinks and home made cake, which was very much appreciated by all.

SNUG have already been in touch to say a huge thank you to everyone who took part. They were thrilled to see so many GoodGymmers and are most grateful for all GoodGym's help.

Two GoodGymmers joined the SNUG (Stoke Newington Common Users Groups) at lunchtime to bag up mulch in Springfield Park ready to feed the young trees of Stoke Newington Common.

Sooz got stuck into the muddy mulch on arrival and the team had already filled 25 sacks of quality compost within the first half an hour. On a visit from Camden, soon John joined the party and made light work of the task, shovelling and bagging the best of the mulch.

The GoodGym and SNUG team together filled a whopping 60 refuse sacks full of mulchy compost ready to feed the trees on the Common.

A lovely cold sunny day and the perfect autumn task.

Stay tuned for the next SNUG task when we'll be helping unload all that compost at Stoke Newington Common!

This week, the trolley was back in action with it's full compliment of wheels. This went some way to making up for the depleted number of volunteers.

With the task now down to a fine art, task owner and goodgymmer made good progress, helped briefly and periodically by a couple of other local tree volunteers unable to stay for the full hour but wanting to help out as much as they could.

Within an hour (and after another hot day), all baby trees had been given a drink for another week.