A lovely little crew of 5 Two Circles employes headed up to Aberdour Court to tidy up a couple of the outside spaces so they can be used by residents. We met Sherron who equipped us with tools and showed us the areas that needed sorting.

In one space there was some plastic ivy which needed reattaching to the fence. George took the initiative and went to grab some cable ties from a local hardware store (Top local knowledge from Gill!) whilst the rest of us started weeding between the pavement slabs. We reattached the ivy, righted the yucca plant and the space looked so much better, and actually useable!

In the second space there were bags of junk to put in the bin and plenty more weeds to uproot. The team promptly got to work and rapidly improved the look and feel of the area. Now the residents will have two communal spaces they can enjoy. Top stuff.

Six team members braved the rain to head to Thames Reach’ Bermondsey Project, at Galleywall Road today, to lend a hand tidying the garden.

Matt expertly navigated the route to Bermondsey, offering a great running route (even managing to avoid the Bricklayers Arms).

It was a great morning run, and a good start to today’s activity.

On arrival at Galleywall Road, Elvis, proceeded to show us the priorities in the garden, as well as the well-stocked tool shed.

Wasting no time, the team proceeded to grab shears, mowers, bin bags and trowels and made a speedy start.

From high hedges to tough weeds; temperamental lawn mowers and thorny branches, all accompanied by some decent rainfall, this was a gardening workout-and-a-half.

With just under an hour to spend at this well-used space, there was a lot to get done. Hedges were pruned, brambles tamed and grass cut. We even managed to tackle a little of the litter behind the front fence.

By midday, we’d already made a real difference, surprising Elvis with the amount we’d managed to achieve.

After posing for that all-important final picture, we divided into our walking and running teams and headed back to base, expertly navigated once again by Matt and Matt.

A really great morning’s contribution.

Well done team.

Laura and Emma arrived at this new venue for Good Gym. Elvis, Taskowner, showed us the 2 gardens requiring some serious de-weeding and litter-picking. We also had to chop down some greenery which was obstructing the view of the security cameras. Over 1 hour later we were done, with 4 bags complete with foliage.

Background to today’s activity

Computacenter's Sales Enablement Team were today joining GoodGym for a team day out in the heart of South East London with London charity, Thames Reach.

Thames Reach is a London charity that offers projects and services helping to support vulnerable individuals and those affected by homelessness.

The support they offer ranges from providing outreach services to accommodation and day centres.

Today Tommy, Elvis, Eunice and Joel welcomed the Computacenter team and GoodGymers Joel and Laura at three Thames Reach locations, to lend a hand in the garden, helping to clear large areas of weeds, cut back hedges and tidy pathways.

Writes Joel,

“13 amazing volunteers from Computacenter's Sales Enablement Team put in a Herculean effort to transform the gardens at Thames Reach this afternoon, supporting this homeless charity.

A strong walk over to the edge of Burgess Park saw a high energy team warm up for the mammoth task ahead: helping the Thames Reach team in Bagshot Street get their gardens back on track, so service users can utilise and enjoy the green space.

A fast start saw the team clearing out the overgrown flower beds, trimming the overhanging bushes - and getting a serious workout on the manual lawnmower!

Filling up black bags at a ferocious rate, we soon had the garden going in exactly the right direction.

Then came the weeding and (labour-intensive) pathway-tidying and brushing down...

A full-on workout was achieved in this 90 minutes of action, and the garden transformed into a really inviting space for service users to engage with.

A massive impact!

Great to have you all along!”

Writes Laura,

“The already-good-sized team gathered in Paterson Park grew steadily this Tuesday lunchtime until we were a fabulous-sized team of 32, heading out to our three different locations.

Team lead Diana took one team across to Thames Reach Bagshot Street location to meet GoodGym's Joel, along with task owners Elvis and Eunice, while Clare, Yvette and I headed over to the Roseberry Street and Galleywall Road Thames Reach locations, where team members wasted no time grabbing gloves and garden tools and getting straight down to work.

This was ninety fast-paced minutes of hedge-cutting, weeding, path-trimming – and bagging. Not to mention a good bit of strategising (compost pile vs bin bags; hedge height preferences; strimming priorities…You name it).

Yes, on what was a warm (not complaining – at one point thunder was on the menu, so a spot of humidity came as a welcome surprise) September afternoon, this proved quite the workout.

The gardens’ before and after pictures are quite something, and our task owners for the day Joel, Eunice and Elvis and Tommy seemed pleased at the results."

The shout-outs

• Thanks to Southwark Area Activator, Sam, for coordinating the tasks, and putting us in touch with Thames Reach.

• And a very big shout-out to the whole Computacenter team, for a fantastic, meaningful, fun afternoon, especially to our team leads. (...And to Brad for today’s fun pun!)

After many months without contact, Thames Reach reached out (excuse the pun) as they called for our help maintain their residential sites as many of them have gardens.

The Roseberry Street site will be used for their late summer BBQ in September and thus, needed our help to cut back the grass, take care of the weeds and trim back the hedges out front.

Lindy, David, Daryl and Sam all came to Thames Reach call on Saturday morning for this hour and a half session. They were met by the lovely Elvis, who showed them the task and took out the tools for our use.

Lindy started out on the lawnmower as she produced interesting lines and design on the lawn before Daryl took over for a finer cut. In the meantime, David, Sam and swapping between Daryl and Lindy, the team weeded the paths.

The last 30 minutes, the team all went outside for a big push to cut back the thorny hedges along the front of the residence.

As it approached 12:30, we had to call it as we had another session at 13:00 near Surrey Docks Farm. Thanks Elvis for helping us and see you next time.

It was windy, it was rainy, it was a slightly longer run than usual…But that didn’t deter an 8-strong team showing up for today’s task, heading just over 2.5km to Bermondsey to help the Thames Reach team tidy up a residential outdoor space.

Why were we doing this?

Thames Reach is a London charity working with those affected by homelessness, offering a range of support from outreach services and accommodation to employment training.

Joel and Elvis head up one of the residential locations in Bermondsey, whose garden needed a bit of TLC in time for the summer.

It’s all about the map reading

After a couple of dynamic stretches at the FGS base, we made our through the streets of Southwark and Bermondsey, led and expertly navigated by Matt.

Stopping only for a brief rest, we arrived at our location nice and early to be greeted by Joel and Elvis handing out all the equipment needed to get the job done.

What’s not a weed?

Trowels were gathered, gloves donned, strimmers powered up…It was all go.

The area at the front of the accommodation was, no joke, pretty much all weeds, along with some tough roots. But the team did good, identifying weeds from the odd shrub, tackling tough roots and avoiding stones.

The weed pile grew, the compost bin overflowed, but still they kept going.

Residents popped out to say hello and we discussed the art of good gardening; a rubbish bag was added for a last minute litter-pick, while the extensive sweeping up was merely a finale.

In terms of before and after pics, this was a good gig.

Before we knew it, it was after 12, and we were returning kit to the shed and saying cheerio to the team.

The run back to base was marginally tougher going due to the 75 minutes our arms and legs had endured in the gardening bonanza, but nonetheless it was fun, companionable and a fitting end to a terrific morning.