6 of Luton's Goodgym elite had 2 tasks to do yesterday evening, so we split up into a walking group and a running group to tackle them.

Our walkers set off to our first task at Penrose roots to recovery garden, where they met with Pete, who, after providing gloves and tools, got team 1 hard at it weeding one of the vegetable patches.

Our running team set off slightly later after having a quick warm-up, which included running up and down the town hall steps a few times. The runners were headed to Trinity Community Centre to help maintain their garden and play area but unfortunately the task leader was unable to open up for the team, so they headed back to meet up with the walkers at Penrose. Turned out being a slightly longer first leg than anticipated.

After some digging, weeding, and tipping, and before heading back to town, I took a little walk around the garden with Pete the task leader to look at the fantastic veggies they've grown. They have an amazing variety, including squash, beetroots, brassicas, onions, and potatoes, to name just a few, and it great to know our efforts have supported this. Team photo taken, we called it a night and headed home.

Three weeding musketeers made it to the Trinity Community Centre this week to tackle the weeds that plague the front and back gardens.

Arriving by walking, running and cycling they got to work and made this outdoor space much clearer and tidier!

This week a long, hot hayfevery run brought us to the Trinity Community Centre where Training4UServices are looking to get their overgrown garden space back into use.

We had a little workout trying to get the mower started but it roared to life eventually. We cleared the area of the random rubble and rubbish hidden among the long grass, mowed down the grass, pulled weeds from the gravel and used the big humps in the lawn to fill in the big holes.

The space was left looking pretty tidy and welcoming once we were done, though one rake was killed in action, as Ruth vigorously achieved her 10th good deed! 🎉

Five runners came along on this fairly long run to the Trinity Community Centre where Mohammed from Training4U is trying to get a hold on the wild garden!

We started by clearing out the biggest weeds from the grass by hand while we figured out how to get the mower started, then gave up, then tried again... Eventually after discovering the throttle handle we brought the motor to life and the mowing could begin!

Hidden among the long grass were a number of discarded heavy old paving slabs, so these had to be prised free and lifted out of the mowers way.

By the time we left, an area had been converted from uneven long grass and weeds to an actual lawn with all random bricks and slabs removed!

This week we visited a new task in the middle of our 8km run. Suitably for Halloween, we found ourselves digging in the dark with a view of the graveyard and accompanied by loads of large spiders! 🕷️

The garden area of the Trinity Community Centre had been neglected for several years but the current occupants, Training 4 U Services, are putting it back into use as a vegetable garden.

Martin, Jenny and Sam got started digging and found absolutely no soil in the first area, just chalk, so we relocated and tried again and found mostly sand, but turned it over to clear the grass and weeds.

The area was also littered with piles of fencing and heavy paving slabs so we cleared them up to make space for the garden works.

In the end we had created a bare patch that is a perfect blank canvas to build a veg patch on. Theres plenty more to do here so I'm sure we'll be back to help the continued development.