Hanging Up the Gardening Shoes

Our final visit of the year to the Beehive garden was a rather poignant one, as we said goodbye to a very special chapter in the GoodGym garden story.

When Margaret moved into the home several years ago, she took on the garden as a way of helping herself settle in after having to leave behind her own much-loved garden. Over the years, she has lovingly tended it, making it her own little patch of green — and we’ve been very lucky to be able to join her along the way.

But the time has now come for Margaret to hang up her gardening shoes and let someone else take the strain!

So, for our final task of the year, Paula and Barbara got stuck into the weeding and general tidying, while Margaret kept a watchful eye on proceedings and made sure standards didn’t slip!

And because we couldn’t possibly leave empty-handed, Paula and Barbara brought Margaret a lovely bouquet of flowers as a thank you for sharing her wonderful garden with us over the weeks, months and years.

It really does feel like the end of an era.

But hopefully not the end of GoodGym’s visits to the Beehive — and certainly not the end of our support for Margaret. We’ll just have to find new ways to keep her involved… preferably ones that require considerably less weeding!

Thank you, Margaret, for letting us be part of your garden story. ❤️

Another lovely autumn evening found us back at St Botolph’s Church Garden with our hosts, Val and Rik, who had a rather prickly job lined up for us.

The mission? Some serious pruning of the Laurel bushes along the perimeter of the church wall. They’d clearly been enjoying their freedom and were beginning to take over!

With El in charge of the photographic evidence, Barbara, John, Roxy and Ricky got stuck into the cutting, while I took on the glamorous role of wheelbarrow shuttle driver, ferrying load after load of leafy casualties over to the compost heap.

And finally, after what seems like a good few years of GoodGym intervention, we’re beginning to feel that we might actually be gaining control of this beautiful — but wonderfully wild — garden!

Slowly but surely, we’re getting it into shape… one bush at a time. Although judging by the amount of Laurel we removed tonight, the garden may have other ideas!

Another lovely autumn evening, great teamwork and plenty of fresh air.

Barbara and Roxy were back helping the lovely Margaret in her care home garden — and, as always, it was a delight to spend some time helping her get everything looking shipshape.

There was plenty to get stuck into. They carefully replanted some little strawberry plants — or, as Margaret might call them, the “strawberry babies” — from their pots and into their new homes.

They also did plenty of weeding, planted some new plants into the soil and prepared an area ready for some beetroot seeds. This involved clearing away some of the old bean plants and getting the soil nicely prepared for its next crop.

Another productive visit, with lots achieved and the garden looking better for it.

As always, it’s a real pleasure to help Margaret and spend time in her lovely garden.