Armed with head torches, bright lights and an hour to make a difference, Kingston GoodGym headed into the darkness at Claremont Gardens to help Kingston Council improve the pond area.

After a briefing from Georgina, we split into two teams. Jonathan, Dave, Rachel and Anna tackled the invasive sumac threatening the pines, quickly filling garden waste bags with the help of saws and loppers.

Meanwhile, Jana, Tom and Georgina took on the two willows beside the pond. Tom sawed through the larger willow’s main trunk, and we chopped up the branches before turning our attention to the smaller tree.

Small willow, BIG roots! All three of us dug and cut our way around its surprisingly deep root system, discovering that the rope edging the pond was tangled in it too.

The larger willow proved too much for our tools and one saw sadly met its match during Jana’s attempt! We focused on the smaller willow instead, managing to remove most of its roots through a determined team effort.

An hour well spent, with bags filled and good progress made. A community group is being sought to help care for the gardens, so hopefully our efforts will sow the seeds for more local involvement.

Well done, everyone! Where there’s a willow, there’s a way!

This week GoodGym Kingston headed to Elm Road Recreation Ground to help the Friends of Elm Road Rec with some autumn maintenance.

Playgrounds and recreation grounds are such important community assets we were pleased to be able to pop down to lend a hand to give this one some attention. Our task was to tackle the weeds and fallen leaves building up around the playground, particularly beneath the fences and along the perimeter, where debris can create trip hazards and litter can accumulate.

Armed with bags, litter pickers, secateurs, and rakes, the team got stuck into clearing weeds, collecting litter and sweeping up the autumn leaves. The nights are certainly drawing in as we all had to have have our head torches on by the end!

What a great turnout we had too. This week we had a running, walking and cycling group. We were also delighted to welcome two new GoodGymers to the team. A lovely way to spend an evening, get active and give something back to a local community space.

Big thanks to the Friends of Elm Road Rec for having us and providing a great collection of tools. We hope the recreation ground and playground is looking a little tidier - before another drop of autumn leaves!