Last night we were asked to return to Cotswold House Eating Disorder Unit to work on the garden. The unit has a pretty courtyard garden filled with aromatic herbs, lavendar and buddleia. It's nicely thought out, with treats for the eyes and the nose, as well as being full of plants which pollinators love. Last year we did a couple of gardening sessions to keep the weeds at bay and as the weather starts to warm up it was high time we returned to give the garden a once-over before the weeds take hold. The pots and planters had been planted up with pansies since out last visit - lovely and cheery - and a general prune of the larger shrubs had obviously been done recently. That meant we didn't need to tackle too much bamboo and could focus on weeding between the paving, digging out long grass encroaching on the borders, and some light pruning and trimming of last year's dead growth to allow the newly emerging shoots to get light and space.

An hour flew by - it's easy to lose track of time when you're busy!

GoodGym - Masters of tree care!

After several sessions recently caring for saplings across Oxford we are now the self-declared masters of (fruit) tree care. This Wednesday we were in another orchard area planted by the Marston Community Gardeners weeding around saplings, laying cardboard, mulching and watering. We also detangled trees and rhubarb from brambles, and saved gooseberry bushes and black currant shrubs from the encroaching Goldenrod... no, not a Bond villain but a tall yellow flower!

Chips in the pub rounded our evening off nicely.

Congratulations Hattie on your 50th Good Deed!

Guess who's back? Back in Marston?...This time helping weed, feed, remulch and water the fruit trees in the Community Orchard. Sounds simple, but not so fast - it's quite a procedure.

First the chicken wire cages need removing, and it's not all that easy to remove them without breaking the stakes holding them in place. There were some casualties.
Next the weeding - tenacious brambles and bind weed removed and the area lightly dug over.
Add a sprinkle of bone meal, then a layer of cardboard (arts and crafts coming into play as we cut a hole to fit around the tree trunk).
Finally a generous layer of fresh woodchip, a glug of water, and replace the wire cage to stop the deer nibbling.

2 extremely important matters arising:
* Can anyone teach Jessica to do a cartwheel?
* Answers on a postcard for achievable items for a "30 things to do before you turn 30" list.

For those who have developed an interest in niche apple varieties following last night's task you can read about Studley Salamander here (scroll all the way to the bottom). Apparently it could survive being set on fire, but not a bramble and bindweed infestation.

Cotswold House is an award winning specialist adult eating disorders service provided by Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust. There are 2 two modern eating disorders units in Oxford and Marlborough, Wiltshire. After our day trip to Marlborough to tidy up the garden of the Cotswold House there we were recommende to Oxford site too. Et voila! Cotswold House take 2!

After some minor faffing trying to get the garden gates open, we soon got to work in the walled garden. The Warneford Hospital site is large but only has a very small gardening team, so it's difficult for them to lavish lots of attention on weeding and pruning. The Cotswold House garden used to be looked after by a keen volunteer gardener, but recently it has got a bit overgrown, so secateurs and pruning saws in hand we started to tackle the job.

This turned into one of the most fragrant garden tasks we've ever had, as we lopped back sage (who knew sage grows into a whole woody shrub if you let it?!), rosemary, lavender, and buddleia. Jessy and Sarah did great work clearing a bench from under a tangle of bamboo and roses - looked beautiful in a wild kinda way, but not great for accessing the seat! Others pruned, weeded, and sawed, amassing a large pile of trimmings and weeds. Wheelbarrow crew trekked across the site to dispose of most of it on the big compost heap near the meadow, but there was a small amount left in the garden to be collected another time.

There was even time for a bit of ping pong before we left the garden.

Good work team!

Thanks to our Run Leaders for their help - Ben for leading the run up to Warneford Hospital, and Bethan for coordinating a longer run after the task.

Welcome to GoodGym Joe - lovely to meet you!

Scythes! Spades! Log carrying!

Last night was our first task of the year at Aston's Eyot, and it did not disappoint: There were nettles to scythe and rake, the pond edge to reprofile, and lots of logs to carry over to the pond edge to build a hibernaculum for reptiles to hibernate in.

The pond is a new feature on Aston's Eyot. As it was dug the soil was piled up around the edges and now needed smoothing into a gentler slope. An artistic quartet got to work shovelling and sculpting - with an architect in the group surely the landscaping will be exemplary?!
Meanwhile the rest of the gang ventured into the woodland area and flexed their muscles carrying logs from woods to pond edge to form a pile which will hopefully be an attractive habitat for reptiles to snooze the winter away.
And finally....the scythes were back in action. Happy to report no loss of limbs from over enthusiastic wielding of sharp blades (woo hoo!) and a whole load of nettles were chopped down, which will hopefully allow a bit of breathing/growing space for a wider variety of plants.

Great work team!

Welcome to GoodGym Julian and Laurie - lovely to meet you both.