Six enthusiastic Goodymers braved steady rain to support Heston Community Gardens, a brilliant local initiative to tackle fly-tipping and transform the space into a welcoming, sustainable haven for the community.

Aneel and Phil from the Heston Action Group shared the story of how the gardens began. The aim was to transform a once-neglected litter hotspot into a vibrant green space that encourages people to come and use the space and contribute to the gardens.

With more rain on the way, Aneel gave us three options: hedge-cutting, weeding, or shifting a long-donated mountain of mulch. As highly motivated mulch movers we chose the latter. Mulch better than plane old gardening!

Working in unison filling barrows and hauling bags until there wasn’t mulch left we powered through with planes overhead on their descent to Heathrow, and in no time at all the once-towering mulch pile had been completely cleared.

Cue group photo and the ultimate reward: tea, biscuits, and fruit generously provided by our Community Garden hosts. Along with saplings to take home and cultivate.

Great to help this fantastic community group and we hope to be back at the gardens in the future.

There was plenty of chat pre-task about whether we would be planting bulbs in the snow last night, but that didn't stop a group of be-thermalled GoodGymers turning up to help out with the second half of a big task last night. Just goes to show that GG Hounslow is made of sterner stuff!

So, after a much needed warm up at the town hall, we ran down to meet Abundance London for the second part of our mammoth task to plant thousands of bulbs on Chiswick High Rd. The plan is that the spring flowers will deter passers-by from throwing rubbish in the beds, to improve biodiversity next to a busy road, and to cheer up the place with a splash of colour!

Last week we had spent some time clearing away the leaves and doing a bit of weeding. Not only did this prep the area for planting but it made sure the pavement had fewer slip risks from the wet leaves. We grabbed our shovels and bulbs and started work.

There were established plants to get in, tulips, daffs and narcissus, and a limited period before we lost all feeling in our fingers. There was no time to lose!

With hundreds of bulbs to go in, and we dug and planted steadily. By the time we had finished, Karen from Abundance London said that we had saved them days of work! Well done everybody.

Don't forget about the session this Saturday at the Bend it like Beckham task and next week we're back at Harvard Hill - see you there!

It's hard to measure the impact GoodGym has had, but nine years and 6217 is a good place to start! Not only that, but we have had 9 people reach 50 good deeds, a massive 17 people soar over 100 good deeds, and one person is well on their way to a giant 1000 good deeds. A special shout out to all the lovely faces that have joined in the last year and are well on their way to reaching their first milestone. If you've come to one session or 500, you've all been part of something really meaningful. Here's to the next year of doing good and getting fit!

We kicked off the night of celebrations with a warm up and thanks to Ariane, a beautiful selection of party hats! In our best party wear we ran up Chiswick High Rd for the first of two weeks of sessions there to first clear, then plant. This is a busy area which often gets lots of rubbish chucked into the raised beds. It has been taken over by Abundance London, a local charity, who want to make it more environmentally friendly. The hope is that if it is filled with spring flowers and cleared of leaves, it will stop people littering, create better air quality and look beautiful too.

We got straight on with the work, clearing the space and packing up leaves into bags. In just a short window of time we managed to get no fewer than 50 bags, which is amazing. The area looks so much better, has reduced the chances of slips and is all ready for our planting session next week.

Everybody knows that no party is complete without a fitness element, so it was on to Turnham Green for our birthday themed session. First up was a balloon relay - everyone got their own balloon and the challenge was to transport it between our knees using lateral jumps. The first team to complete the sprint and then pop their balloon between their knees (squeeze those quads!) wins. The ladies achieved the first victory, so it was on to the next game to decided who took home the prize. This involved keeping a balloon in the air, and involved quick wits, fast reflexes and even faster twitch muscles. Again, it was the ladies that emerged victorious and snagged themselves an early Christmas selection box!

On Saturday we have a lovely mission planting bulbs at Chiswick House -why not join in the fun!

Happy Birthday GoodGym Hounslow - here's to all the litter picked, trees planted, community hubs planted, gardens created and mulch shifted so far!

It was all about the wildlife in Chiswick tonight as we delivered information locally about hedgehogs underneath the beaver moon!

Wild Chiswick is an organisation which works to protect vulnerable animals in the area. There have been recent sightings of hedgehogs for the first time in years at Strand on the Green and Jo, who runs the project, wanted to make sure the population continues to grow. Our job for the night was to deliver information leaflets to houses in the area so they knew how to care for hedgehogs, improve their habitats and help them thrive!

We divided up into teams and, like the well oiled machine we are, started delivering the leaflets at impressive speed.

We were done before we knew it, so meeting back up with Jo, we posed for some photos under Justin Beaver. (thanks for the punspiration!)

Then it was back to the town hall for a short but sweet tabata session working our major muscle groups.

The good news? The task was very effective - Jo got an enquiry about creating a habitat before the evening was out! Amazing work.

We have a couple of weekend missions coming up. Fancy taking part in a huge bulb planting task at Chiswick House??

Or maybe some hedge care in Heston is up your street.

Either way you'll be kicking off the weekend doing something positive for your community and getting in a great work out!

Last night we were back at Strand on the Green school to help out with a huge wood staining job. There were huts to treat, there were sheds, there were tables and chairs - who wooden want to help out?

Headtorches on, we divided up into a leaf clearing and wood staining teams and got straight to work. With so many hands making light work, it didn't take too long to get all the structures done. So while the sweeping team carried on scooping up every last leaf, the staining teams moved over to the sensory garden to work on the weeds.

Thistles, bind weed and dandelions dispatched, the end of the session was signalled by....was that a donkey? Not a sound we expected to hear in the middle of Chiswick, but given our recent animal sightings nothing surprises us anymore.

We downed tools and went round the corner for our fitness session which last night was speed based. Learning what it feels like to run at different paces between 60 and 100 % effort helps us control our running, maximise efficiency and stamina and helps us understand just how much we have left to give at the end of a run, race or parkrun! We started off at 50% effort and slowly built up, trying to increase our speed by 10% each time. There was some impressively controlled running from the team last night, and some even more impressive turns of speed. Great work everybody!

Next week we're back at Chiswick House - hope to see you then!