This was our latest-in-the-evening task since we were asked to tidy up after the never-ending Cranbrook party. Task owner Des had asked us the day before for a later start, because he had to come down from Yorkshire by boat, or something. And astonishingly all of our crowd played close attention: not one turned up an hour early...

Given the later start, there was little or no hope that the Ides of March would bring a daylight start, we’re two weeks away from a full moon, and our main searchlight-bringer wasn’t with us this week. I’ve got three head torches at home, but didn’t think about charging them until it was too late. Luckily, Emma and Martin did bring headlights, and Nia proved adept at pointing Des’s one light in a useful direction

But as we picked our way around the cramped premises, we somehow managed to achieve a lot. Basically, we shovelled a great deal of earth out of planters. And later shovelled it back in. It’s been suggested that paying people to dig holes and fill them up again can boost the economy, but our sequence included a middle bit I didn't mention: we inserted compost before replacing the top level of earth. Des insisted on me jumping up and down on the compost. I had no idea what was in it, but I wasn’t keen on taking it home on my On trainers.

Elsewhere on the estate, Martin, Dan, Kevin and Gabe were displaying their artistic talents, painting a four-sided bench which encloses a tree in an open and well-lit part of Parkview. In fact it looked to me as if the very luminous green paint being applied, was lighting up the whole estate. Task completed, the Fab Four turned to use their remaining paint to brighten a wall within the yard

All we had to decide after that, was where to take the group picture. Rejecting the yard as too dark, and the steps as lit too variably, we plumped for the circle-from-above option. Sensibly, we used Emma’s phone. Any accompanying pictures where you can actually identify individuals in the gloom, were taken by her. Any which are completely blurry and verging on pointless, are mine

Ilana, Ciaran, Kevin and Kareem turned up for the continuing gardening task. When we first started here, the space was so overgrown that you could barely walk through it, let alone see what was hiding at the far end.

Now after many sessions of clearing, digging and hauling we are nearly there!

As it happens when clearing a garden that’s been left wild for a while, a few unexpected treasures appeared along the way. Among the discoveries were a Lego figure, some unsettling large bones and other random things like lighters. It kept things interesting.

Kevin took the initiative and planted cherry and apple plants, which will hopefully become a a nice feature of the garden in time. He also spent time fixing and tying up sections of the fence.

Kareem took on what seemed like a manageable root… which quickly turned into a battle. After 15 minutes of determined digging, the root held its ground and he eventually had to concede defeat (for now)

Ilana tackled a stubborn patch of weeds and overgrown plants and helped with the cleanup. She also lent Kareem a hand afterwards to fill in the impressive (but totally unnecessary) hole left behind.

Ciaran cracked on with tackling stumps and helping clear out the huge bags of garden waste that had built up. As if the earlier bone discoveries weren’t unsettling enough, he topped that by uncovering a mysterious vertebra!! (ranks alongside the dead bird found during a previous session)

Finally, Ms A is really happy to see the progress. She thanked us and said how much she appreciates the time and effort we have been putting in to bring the garden back to life. It’s been great for her to see the transformation taking shape bit by bit and she is really looking forward to enjoying the space once everything is finished :)

We will be having one more final session to do a sweep up of the garden and tie up any loose ends - please join us if you can!