What a gorgeous evening spent at Surbiton Library weeding the frontage and paths. Rachel and Dave cycled and ran from the Quaker Centre and met Anna, Luke and Jana. We had a simple task - to smarten up the front of the building by removing all the weeds and litter.

We got to work. Luke tackled the beginning of a tree that had planted itself in the walkway planters - as much as we love trees it had already started to lift and destroy the brickwork. Not the right placement for a tree at all! He also tackled an ivy root ball and made a great attempt at pulling out a large number of roots.

Dave started on the weeds in the centre of the walkway and Rachel, Jana and Anna got to work on other weeds in other areas.

The hour flew by and we made a positive difference to the area which will hopefully prevent antisocial behaviour and littering in front of this important community hub. Well done team! Great work.

After some demanding sessions clearing the planters outside Surbiton Library in all weathers, we returned for the most rewarding stage of all on a beautiful evening as we finished them with flowers for the summer.

It wasn’t all easy; they first needed to be filled up with enough earth. Luke, Emma and Helen excelled themselves, carrying wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of soil through from behind the library and emptying them out.

Claire, Jo, Julie and Tom started off putting the first plants in before attempting to recreate a mirror image of salvias, bushes, marigolds and petunias in the opposing beds, while Rachel tidied the existing beds.

It served to really brighten up the view outside the library, and hopefully they’ll continue to bloom over the next few months.

The less than clement weather this evening didn't stop 8 intrepid GoodGymers from donning their cagoules and heading over to Surbiton Library for some extreme gardening. The task was to empty out two ivy root filled planters to enable them to be refilled with cleaner soil ready for planting.

What a wash out! The weather was stormy from the get go with lightning in the distance and heavy rain starting soon after we arrived. We were even treated to a bit of hail too! This was just a mere distraction (kind of) to us GoodGymers as we set to the heavy work of emptying the beds. Mattoxes and shovels flying all around, we managed to fill four big ton bags with waste and were thankful of the run home to warm up!

A big congrats to Marie-Noelle who was celebrating her 50th good deed this evening - amazing work!

Tuesday's group run got us up the hill to Surbiton Library where we met the walkers and the cyclists. A great turn out which was much appreciated as we had some heavy work to do. The ivy in the planters had got 2/3 foot deep and the poor plants were trying hard as they could but were struggling to get through the mass of roots and stems. It was our job to get rid of as much ivy as possible and free the plants.

With great gusto we grabbed loppers, secateurs and mattox and got to work. It took great effort to give the planters a haircut but we really got into it with our head torches in the dark. Once we shorn the first planter within an inch of its life we split into two teams with the first team continuing to get out as much of the root mass as possible and the second to start the process again with the other planter. So many hands did indeed make light work and we started the tidy up process well within the hour. Three massive sacks of green waste was produced from the two planters and 11 very delighted GoodGym volunteers!

We are looking forward to the next session where we empty out more of the planters so we can refill with good soil and then the planting can be done. Join us for the next session at Surbiton Library

This evening's mission was to carry on with the great work GoodGym have carried out previously in and around the flowerbeds @ Surbiton Library. 9 avid weeders came together to crack on with the dandelion-plucking, litter-picking, flowerbed-tidying, broom-sweeping and lavender-pruning.

The enthusiasm we were all showing was obviously infectious as our numbers soon increased to 10 as a passerby appreciated our efforts so much he got involved himself! To be seen again (more formally) in another task soon we hope.

It's always amazing what can be achieved in an hour with many busy hands - what a transformation. From stacked with rubbish and weeds at 7pm to super-clean and tidy at 8. Excellent work team!

This week Emma, Jade, Jorge, Rachel and Dave met at the Quaker Centre to start their group run. A half lap of Fairfield Park and up the hill to Surbiton Library – the hill never seems to get any easier but Strava tells me that my time is getting quicker so the training is paying off!

We met up with Jana, Tom, Larissa, Laurel and Marie-Noelle at Surbiton Library, did a round of introductions and got straight to it. Our plan for this evening was to remove yet more ivy but on the other side of the path and have a general tackle of the weeds that had started to grow round the building. Glendale had kindly brought us some more plants so we could plant them in the gaps that we had created from removing the ivy.

The hour passed quickly – lots of work, lots of laughs. No broken spades this week as we had a mattox to mash up the thick ivy roots which made their removal so much easier. We finished up within the hour and said our goodbyes to some of the group and the rest of us went to the Albion for our monthly social.

A big welcome to Larissa who made it out on her second task tonight. Lovely to meet you – thank you for all your hard work. See you all soon!