What a wonderful day at Mulberry Tree Community Garden!

I really enjoyed volunteering alongside Mark, Jo and the other lovely volunteers. We worked together to tidy up the garden, clear away weeds and old plants, and help with the composting area. Everyone was friendly, hardworking and happy to help each other.

After finishing our gardening work, we all sat together and enjoyed a delicious rice meal and some tea. The food was absolutely lovely, and it was so nice to relax, chat and share a meal with such wonderful people.

Before we left, everyone was kindly given a small bag of fresh herbs and greens to take home. It was such a thoughtful gesture and a lovely way to end the day.

For me, it was a truly enjoyable and memorable experience. I was very happy to contribute in whatever way I could and spend time with such a welcoming community.

A big thank you to Mark, Jo and everyone involved for their kindness and hard work!

If you have some free time, I would really encourage you to join activities like this. Even a little help can make a big difference.

Hope to see you all again soon! 🌱

HEN is a wonderful residents' association in Tottenham that has taken really good care of the surrounding streets. Our task was to show them even more love!

An actual treasure map!

When we arrived, task owner Matt was ready with a wheelbarrow loaded with everything we needed: rubbish bags, paint and paint brushes. Due to childcare responsibilities he wasn't able to join us but had already sent a map through showing where we were to go: a series of planters made from wood, green metal barrels and blue metal barrels. Dave was excited about the map.

Mutiny!

Very quickly, run leader Sarah was sacked from navigation duty and Dave took over. One by one, we found the planters. Wooden planter first, no need for paint or weeding, but there was a bit of litter to pick up. We found our first blue metal planters under the railway bridge. The planters were still beautiful and had managed to get through summer's heatwaves thanks to careful watering by residents, but the metal planters were starting to develop rust spots. Asan and Yann set to painting them with anti-rust paint. One of the planters had a rubber rim that had been dislodged, so Sarah and Dave slipped it back into place.

Treasure!

Then it was down the alleyway and around the corner to the next set of planters, where there was a surprise in store for Asan: a book he needed for his course! These planters were green so no paint was required due to a shortage of the right shade of green paint, but we gave them a quick tidy and litter pick.

Finally, it was back up and across the main road to paint and tidy a couple more blue planters.

We returned to Matt's with two full bags of rubbish and smiles on our faces.

It’s fair to say that our latest task at Palm Tree House got off to an inauspicious start. There was some confusion over the expected start time, and as the time that we had planned to arrive drew closer, task leader Latoya was still stuck in Wood Green, proving that sometimes when you wait half an hour for a bus, none will arrive rather than the promised three.

But GoodGym Haringey never saw a challenge they couldn’t rise above. Mark placated task owner Barbara, and seven willing GoodGymers got to work clearing weeds from Palm Tree House’s outdoor space.

We were pleased to welcome back Zuza and Karen for their second task, not having been scared off by the mammoth amounts of clothes sorting at Traid last week. Zuza was even inaugurated into the time-honoured Haringey tradition of finding the weirdest piece of litter: a DVD player. James was less impressed with his find of a stash of Buzzballs and even less thrilled by Julie’s suggestion that they were our reward for our hard work.

Many hands made light work of the weeds and soon all that was left was to throw away the bags of rubbish and speed off into the night.

Another good session with loads of vegetables and herbs to harvest, and picnic lunch in the shade of the Mulberry Tree.