It was the first Saturday of the month, which meant another gardening session with our friends at the Stoke Newington Common User Group (SNUG)!

This month, we focused on planting bulbs in the garden area along Rectory Road. Armed with spades and shovels, we got stuck in, digging holes and planting bulbs ready to bring some extra colour to the area.

It was a productive morning and great to lend a hand with the ongoing work to maintain and improve the green spaces around Stoke Newington Common. We’re looking forward to seeing the results when the bulbs come into bloom!

Once again Team Tree were back at Stoke Newington Common to distribute water among the young trees. Until we get real rain of any note, they just can't get enough of our help.

We were delighted to welcome Anta Saffia to her first GoodGym session. Great to have you along!

Days have been noticeably cooler and damper of late and Stoke Newington Common is looking less parched than it did over the summer. However, the watering team were out again to give the young trees an extra hydro-boost.

Nick made his debut appearance on the Common, combining the task with a training run ahead of the inaugural Shoreditch Half this weekend. Good luck to Nick and everyone else running on Sunday! Stay hydrated!

This week we attracted the attention of at least 10 children (and accompanying adults), who were playing in the nearby children's play area as we filled up our watering cans. After escorting us on our first lap of the Common and helping water the trees, the intrigued and delighted children all returned to the tap and helped us fill up for the next round.

The youngsters were utterly enthralled by proceedings and most remarkably, everyone remained dry!

Hopefully we have inspired a new generation of tree lovers and environmentalists.

The weekly watering session was going ahead as usual. The little rain that fell earlier in the week was not nearly enough to sustain young tree life on Stoke Newington Common,

Despite getting held up at work (again), I decided this week to work on the 'better late than never' principle (the same principle has been applied to writing this report). Despite being a good half hour late, there was still several rounds of the common to do so I was able to help out as well as get some fresh air after a long day.

This week we had not one but TWO first time GoodGymers join us for the tree watering task!

Echo and Serafima immediately got stuck in and soon had the hang of the hosepipe (permitted despite the hosepipe ban because we're watering young trees planted in the last 3 years).

Hosepipe handling skills are measured in the number of fellow volunteers who get sprayed (or preferably don't get sprayed) with water during the bottle filling stage of proceedings.

With each tree receiving 15-20ltrs or 1 ltr per sapling there's a lot of bottles to fill and refill, so plenty opportunity to hone these skills.

Despite the rain forecast, we'll be back next Wednesday to do it all again.