Orchard Runs and Hedge Heroics with Goodgym Barnet April 1st, 2025 – Friary Park, North London

It was a cloudless, golden evening for GoodGym’s latest outing to Friary Park, where four valiant volunteers converged from across the borough — by foot, bike, and good intention — to lend a hand (and legs) to the Friends of Friary Park.

Our mission? Water an orchard and a very thirsty hedge, both planted to boost local biodiversity and food sustainability. The orchard, a collection of young fruit trees, had had a drink recently. The hedge? Not so lucky. It hadn’t seen much water since Christmas, and it showed.

Led by Nick and Sarah, with help from Sarah’s young daughter (who enthusiastically joined our end-of-session exercises), we got to work. The hedge was a long way from the tap, so we made do with watering cans, a wheelbarrow, and a repurposed caravan tank, jogging and schlepping our way across the park in a joyful sort of sloshy relay.

As the sun dipped behind the trees, we closed with a bench-based workout: squats, dips, press-ups, and sprints. The perfect blend of graft, laughter, and effort with a purpose. We even managed a group photo on a beautiful old tree stump — captured with flair by our junior photographer.

Why do we do it? Because when community groups lack manpower and councils lack funding, an hour of help can make a real difference. We need more hands, more hearts — so why not join GoodGym and bring a friend?

Two valiant Goodgymmers joined the regular Pymmes Brookers near the top of the brook on Castlewood Road in East Barnet. Emily even cycled all the way from Islington, a steady uphill warm up.

Organiser Eamonn dished out equipment from their extremely well-stocked inventory: waders, wellies, gloves, pickers, hooking forks, loppers, sacks and hoops, trugs... even some spare socks to pad out the boots! After a quick safety briefing and pointing out some of the more notable fly-tipped waste - scooters, bikes, a sofa - we got stuck in.

We filled sacks from the verge with the usual trash: bottles, cans, fast food containers, old bits of plastic. Then, climbing down into the culverts, George found a moped. Others found a shopping trolley, bicycles, a traffic cone, footballs, and mattresses and rusted bed springs overgrown with vines.

Undeterred by the scale of the waste, we gathered what we could piece by piece and sack by sack. Using ropes, a saw, loppers and a bungee, we hacked free the trolley and cleared a path. Then eight of us hauled the moped up through holly and brambles until it was level enough to wheel it onto the grass by the road. By the end, we had three towering piles of rubbish waiting for the council to collect it, which according to Eamonn, was "our biggest haul to date".

A fantastic effort all round, but there's still plenty to do, so more Goodgymmers needed for the next session!

Two Goodgymmers, Theo and George joined the wonderful volunteers at Finchley Memorial Hospital for a session clearing the 'other' kind of beds and then planting some of the displaced sage and lavender plants.

We dug over the dandelions and pulled up pansies, but we left some clover for ground cover until the team are ready to start sowing in their veg. After digging in the shrubs, the volunteers watered everything well. After weeding the bed next to us, volunteers put weed suppressant sheets down in preparation for sowing beans.

The composting, planting and mulching in the raised beds is still not quite finished, so we hope to be back a couple more times in spring to help.