On one of the hottest days of the year, three determined GoodGymers – Emily, Isabella, and Jana – braved the heat to help tidy up the Staywell Garden in New Malden.

On arrival, we were welcomed by the manager Clair, who set us to work on a rather tangled mission: freeing the garden from the grip of bindweed. Armed with patience (and gardening gloves), we untwisted the clingy climber from anything and everything it had wrapped itself around. Once we’d done the delicate detangling, Clair’s friend gave us handy tips on bagging it up carefully – the plan being to treat the roots with weed killer the next day for a longer-lasting solution.

With the sun blazing above, we wisely sought refuge under the shade of the beautiful big oak tree, where we continued weeding and also gave the patio a good sweep and tidy. The whole team got stuck in and – incredibly – we completed the whole task in just two hours!

Shoutout to Emily, who joined us straight from a night shift – what a superstar! Meanwhile, Isabella kept us entertained with fascinating stories about shared living and her house-buying journey – garden chat at its finest.

To top it off, Clair kindly provided us with cold water, which felt like absolute gold on such a scorcher of a day.

All in all, a brilliant task with lovely company, leafy shade, and satisfying results. Bindweed: untangled. Patio: spotless. Spirits: high!

GoodGym Kingston attended one of our favourite local charity shops this evening - the Kingston branch of the British Heart Foundation.

After running, walking and cycling to the task, we were met by our BHF task leader, the ever-joking Christine. Before the task even began she decided to give us a quick behind-the-scenes tour of their massive charity shop. BHF Kingston is housed in what was once a huge BHS store and is set over three floors. Christine took us upstairs, through a couple of locked doors and into what used to be the old BHS cafe and kitchens... now looking more like a post-apocalyptic zombie movie set! Slightly glad that I wasn't alone in the space but fascinating all the same.

And so on to the task. We initially thought we would be setting up a fitness window display this evening but a delivery of sports equipment and tennis racquets had failed to arrive in time. Our attention was hence turned to checking if a load of donated exercise machines were functional. This involved running, cycling, rowing and crunching on a few dozen different machines. Quality control completed we moved a few of the machines from the storage room to the main shop floor and made a mini fitness area ready for the customers to peruse when the store opens tomorrow. Mission accomplished.

It was all hands on deck (and trowels in the soil) as a crack team of GoodGymmers—Jana, Emily, Emma, Sabir, Farzeen, and Anna—headed to the Bradbury Day Centre to help them get summer-fair ready! With Clair from the Centre giving us our marching orders, we set out to transform the outdoor space in just two hours… and what a transformation it was!

Farzeen didn’t waste a second, diving into a corner of the garden destined to become the Silent Disco Zone—because who doesn’t want to boogie among the begonias? With her speedy hands and creative flair, she not only cleared and cut back overgrown plants but also helped place a perfectly summery bench in the area. By the end, it was practically begging for a party.

Emma turned multitasking into an art form—sweeping, weeding, brushing, and even giving the windows a shine. If there had been a "Best All-Rounder" medal, she'd have earned it before tea time.

Emily took on the artistic challenge of the day: painting the raffle tombola. But that wasn’t enough—she then went into full transformation mode in the greenhouse. Despite a surprise ant invasion, she bravely cleared out old debris and reorganized the entire space, turning it from “abandoned jungle” to “garden showroom chic”.

Sabir arrived and brought his weeding A-game to the front of the centre, steadily amassing a mountain of weeds like a gardening machine. His dedication made a huge impact—especially to the front-facing first impression.

Anna arrived fashionably late (thanks to a very late night on the dancefloor!) but was full of energy and good vibes. She brightened up the space by hanging bunting inside and out, transforming it into full-on summer fair territory. Glitter optional, joy guaranteed.

Jana tackled the patio, giving it the weeding equivalent of a deep tissue massage—by the end, it was ready to welcome a hundred fair-goers with open slabs.

We were powered throughout by cups of tea and an excellent biscuit selection—essential fuel for community transformation. As a bonus mission, Emma and Jana took to the streets to flyer the local area and even charmed their way into a church to get a poster on the notice board. Local outreach: complete.

To wrap up (literally), we bundled up prizes for the Lucky Dip and admired the results of a job very well done.

So here’s to a fabulous fair on Wednesday—we’ll be cheering you on, Bradbury Day Centre!

Our group run this week took us to Refugee Action Kingston and we were tasked with jobs at two different locations. Claire, Dave, Emma and Farzeen all ran and walked to one of the offices were they were asked to take apart a desk so that it could be transported to the other location. They were a very efficient team and they got to work making sure all the screws were accounted for so there would be no issue with reassembly. A staff member then drove the desk in her car to the second location while the runners transported themselves to help unload.

The second location was where all the other GoodGymers were hanging out and organising the rest of the shelving units. The women's clothing area and toiletries was tidied up by Tom, Anna and Marcos, Amy got stuck in to the bunting making sure there were no knots and neatly folding it ready to put away, and Raquel and Luke sorted the menswear. As soon as the desk arrived it went up in the lift and was reassembled well within the hour we had there.

A great session with lots of big and small jobs completed. Heidi from Refugee Action Kingston was so grateful that these jobs were completed as it then frees them up to concentrate on other important tasks within the organisation. So well done team! Thank you for all your help.

At Canbury Community Garden...

We met up with Marilyn for our evening's good deed before separating into two teams. Armed with buckets and a good sense of humour, Marie-Noelle, and Jana formed the ultimate human river-link, ferrying water from the river to quench the garden’s thirst. Meanwhile, Jacqui and Petra rolled up their sleeves (and their rollers) to fill buckets and cans with liquid gold. Jana, Petra, and Jacqui then went full 'splash squad,' expertly soaking the veggies under Marilyn’s green-thumbed guidance. With Purdey the pooch tailing us like a furry forewoman, we had one hour to turn dry soil into a hydrated haven and we absolutely nailed it. Mission: plant-possible complete!

Tom and Luke helped a former community garden volunteer by cutting up and removing two small trees from her houseboat-garden. They also resisting the tempting offer of a beer each while they worked - showing great restraint on the job!

And on the GoodGym Kingston plot...

The sun had been shining on the GG flowerbed so there were plenty of weeds and laurel to tackle. Ken and Dave set to work on the laurel, brambles and weeds at the back of the flowerbed making sure it looked all neat and tidy.

Marcus dug up the dead plant and the small weeds then headed off to the river to fill lots of buckets with water as the plants were in desperate need of a drink. Meanwhile Claire planted a couple of new plants and tackled the weeds.

The bed was looking very tidy and colourful by the time we left.