Another concert Tuesday in Cardiff as this week Taylor Swift and 70 000 fans take over the City, after the Pink concert last week we made the decision to move the start location back to Sport Wales for this task. It made our active travel much easier with a great direct run and walk.

Tonight's task was a great new one for the goodgym crew to get their teeth into, we were helping out at Llandaff Cathedral and to the background music of bell ringing. The water from the cathedral runs through guttering and out under a bridge, out job was to get in the trench and start clearing it out so that it can be transformed into a bog garden.

Learning ALERT

A bog garden can be created by adapting an existing soggy area, or from scratch, either at the edge of a pond, or as a standalone feature. Permanently damp, it creates an area where moisture-loving plants thrive. These plants are different to those suited to the standing water of a pond, so will attract a host of different wildlife.

A bog garden may be a better option than a pond for families with young children. Like a pond, it should attract frogs, toads and even grass snakes. Dragonflies and damselflies will perch on the taller grasses, and bees and butterflies will flit around the flowers.

wildlifetrust - make a bog garden

The soil in the trench was already springy and the area is surrounded by trees, the graveyard has a range of wildlife including some lovely foxes. This project will help to increase biodiversity even more and we can't wait to see the end results. We had lots of plants to remove, some could simply be pulled up with our hands (gloved of course) whilst others needed to be dug out with trowels. There was some overhanging branches that needed removing and lots of brambles trying to root themselves, all of the green waste could be placed in the grounds in-between trees to put their nutrients back into the soil.

Circle of Life

We bagged up all rubbish that had made its way into the trench, dating things as we went - can you remember ring pull drink cans? All fallen branches and wood was moved to the woodland areas too and the rather LARGE stones were placed on the side of the trench to be used in the next phase of the project. It was a good workout tonight, and everyone of us could see the work that we had just done.

As Cardiff is taken over by PINK, 6 goodgymers (maybe the only people not going to the concert) meet to run the RED flag of goodgym.

Our task tonight was to help out the wonderful OASIS, that's the charity not the band. They are having a redevelopment of the front yard to their building, they are creating what will be a haven for biodiversity and a wonderful space to use for the people of Splott. The planters have been built and with a little help from goodgym, lined. But now they need some drainage and weight to help secure them, and this is where we come in once again.

We were heading to the house of one people looking after the project, where we had the task of bagging up as much grit as possible. The grit was then to be loaded into the Oasis minibus and driven over to the building. We got straight to work with shovels and spades, getting the grit into bags. Steve (from Oasis) loaded the bags onto a sack truck to take through to the van, Karolina carried some and we kept those bags coming.

We filled the minibus to its maximum weight, and three goodgymers went with Steve to help unload the van. There was still plenty more bags to load it for a second time too, those of us that didn't head to Oasis got all the remaining bags together ready to be loaded and took a few more photos. Suddenly, we found ourselves locked in a house as the deadlock seemed stuck on the door.

How do we get out?

After a lot of pushing and pulling, Michael finally got a chance with the door and managed to get the thing to open and finally we were all free. A quick group photo and we had to run back to the City Centre to celebrate our freedom. We will be helping Oasis again, this time at the Centre in Splott as they will need to get the soil into all of the planters.

Next week we will be out of the City Centre due to the Taylor Swift concert, so if your coming our meet point will be Sport Wales. Sign up here