5 Goodgymers met at Lakeview park on a lovely sunny evening to tackle Himalayan balsam. This highly invasive species degrades river banks and outcompetes other native plants thereby reducing biodiversity in a vital green space in the middle of the city . We all quickly got to work ‘bashing the balsam’(pulling it out by its roots and snapping the stems before crushing them. ) We all got a chance to catch up with each other while clearing vast clumps of the dreaded plant. A great evenings work from all helping to promote biodiversity in Coventry’s green spaces

This week our start location was the rather spectacular location of Coventry Council House- thank you Jo, it gave us a chance to learn more about the History of this impressive building which is decorated with images reflecting the city's history.

With Jackie as back marker we headed out to the allotments and arrived there in super quick time. Having had a quick tour of the site and a health and safety briefing we got on with the task, focusing on shifting the 2 tonne of gravel that had been delivered at the entrance and spreading it around the pond on the allotment.

Soon, like a well oiled machine the gravel was being loaded, transported and spread at the pond and on our return to the base, we foraged for blackberries.

Back at the Council house, we took part in a brief fitness session and organised meeting up at the first outing of the GoodGym Coventry race team :) (See you at the Visitors' Centre at the Memorial Park from 6.15pm tomorrow)

See the rest of you in two weeks as I'm on holiday and you will be in the very capable hands of Rob from Solihull for the week.

Liz x