Harry and Anita dropped by The Arcade to plant 80 Gladiolus grandifloras ‘Plum Tart’ and 120 Anemone Coronaria ‘Royale’ bulbs which will hopefully add some vivid colour in September.

At The Three Pigeons Plot we added an extra purple bow and a couple of Union Jacks to add to the Queens Platinum Jubilee decorations.

Harry and Anita tidied up The Three Pigeons Plot and the Arcade in Buccleuch Gardens, Richmond to make it look extra special for the Jubilee weekend.

Purple bows and a regal, willow-withy pigeon called Lilibet were added in honour of the Queen’s platinum Jubilee.

Jack The Weed Slayer

Luckily for GoodGym Richmond and the human race, Jack during his 100th Good Deed, failed to open a portal between our realm and a race of giants and thus averted rekindling an ancient war. Phew!

What Jack did magnificently (in a fetching pair of celebratory gold wings) was to help slay the weeds at The Arcade Rockery and The Three Pigeons Plot, aided and abetted by Sam, Stella, Maena, Adam, Jenny, Africa, Cathy, Teresa, JP, Monika, Jack, Harry and Anita.

Gardening Tasks completed tonight:

· A 10 minute ‘Plantain Challenge’, with everyone helping to remove lawn plantains from the lawn by the Arcade. · Weed-slaying · Loads of Watering · Planting 18 blue Aubretia plug plants (sent by J Parkers to replace sickly plants provided earlier in the year) · Edging one of the lawns by the Arcade · Wiring a terracotta pot, donated by Cathy, into the Three Pigeons Insect Hotel. Hopefully securing it will deter theft/vandalism which has been a problem in the past.

Congratulations Jack and thank you everyone.

Anytime Watering and weeding sessions at The Arcade and Three Pigeons Plot.

Our sponsored flower beds in Buccleuch Gardens always benefit from weeding and (in dry weather) watering. If you are able to drop by and help with either of these tasks, please do take a selfie and record a self logged mission.

If you are watering you’ll need to bring your own trug or watering can and get water from the Thames from the steps beside The Three Pigeons plot. Do ensure you wash or sanitise your hands afterwards and be careful on the lowest steps as they can be slippery.

If you are running and can’t carry watering equipment, maybe bring a cutlery knife and carry on tackling the plantains in the lawns in front of the Arcade. Any weeds dug out can just be added to the compost heap to the left of the Arcade.

Thank you!

Despite the dark December evening, Ken, Harry and Anita managed to get 600 'daffodowndillys' planted at The Arcade Rockery and Three Pigeons plot.

A huge thank you to The Metropolitan Garden Association and Taylors of Holbeach for the donation of all these narcissus bulbs: 100 Big Golden Trumpet; 100 Kinglet, 100 Binkie, 100 Salome, 100 Minnow; and 100 tete a tete.

'Daffodowndilly' by A A Milne

She wore her yellow sun-bonnet,

She wore her greenest gown;

She turned to the south wind

And curtsied up and down.

She turned to the sunlight

And shook her yellow head,

And whispered to her neighbour: "Winter is dead."

It's close to six at night
Something evil's lurking in the dark
Under the moonlight
You see a sight that almost stops your heart
You try to scream
But laughter takes the sound before you make it
You start to freeze
As vollies looks you right between the eyes
You're paralyzed

'Cause this is GoodGym
GoodGym night
And no one's gonna save you
From the help about to strike
You know it's GoodGym
Mission night
You're fighting for your life
Inside a killer
GoodGym tonight, yeah

You hear the trowel slam
And realize there's weeding to be done
You feel the broom stale
And wonder if you'll ever see the sun
You close your eyes
And hope that this is just imagination
But all the while
You hear a creature creepin' up behind
You're outta time

'Cause this is GoodGym
GoodGym night
There ain't no second chance
Against the thing with the forty hands, girl
GoodGym
Mission night
You're fighting for your life
Inside a killer
GoodGym tonight

Night creatures calling
The dead start to walk in their masquerade
There's no escaping the broom of the skeleton
It’s sweeping wide
This is the end of your life

They're out to get you
There's vollies closing in on every side
They will possess you
Unless you change that number on your dial
Now is the time
For you and I to work close together, yeah
All through the night
We'll save you from the terror with our team
We'll make you see

That this is GoodGym
Goodgym night
'Cause we can help you more
Than any ghoul would ever dare try
GoodGym
Mission night
So let us help you right
And share a
Killer, 3P, chiller
Thriller here tonight

'Cause this is GoodGym
GoodGym night
We can help you more
Than any ghoul would ever dare try
Goodgym
GoodGym night
So let us help you right
And share a
Killer, thriller
Tonight

with apologies to Michael Jackson

A late night session, under the light of Monday's Hunter moon, to shift 5 red pallets donated and delivered by food distribution charity City Harvest, moving them from the Three Pigeons Plot to The Arcade. These will be transformed into compost bays.

Plus a quick watering and weeding session on Friday, mainly to ensure that the plants in The Arcade (waiting to be planted) don't dry out.

Three Pigeons Plot and Arcade Rockery Anytime Sessions w/e 22 August 2021

Boughton House, Northamptonshire. Living History. Monday 16 August

Anita collected donations for GoodGym’s riverside ‘Arcade Rockery’ from Boughton House, Northamptonshire. Dave Cullum, manager of Estates and Parks at Boughton, helped load up a a fantastic selection of plants put together by the Walled Garden team who had been hunting through their stocks to find a Buccleuch associated collection.

This will provide a wonderful living link between the new planting at The Arcade and the old Buccleuch House ( home to the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensbury) that once stood on the site:

1 Rose ‘Duchess of Buccleuch’

2 Verbena ‘Boughton House’

2 Penstemon ‘Countess of Dalkeith’

Silver point hebe ‘Boughton Silver’

2 fuchsia Marlies de Keijzer

These plants are now in the Arcade and we will plant them in the new bed (which I think should henceforth be known as ‘The Buccleuch Bed’ ) as soon as the nicotiana have finished flowering.

Boughton House is part of the Buccleuch Estates which also include: the Queensberry Estate in Dumfries and Galloway; Dalkeith Country Park near Edinburgh; and border estates including Bowhill. https://www.buccleuch.com/about/

Bargains from Homebase Richmond Friday 20 August

Picked up some heavily discounted plants from Homebase:

12 geranium Roxanne (£1 each, a ‘stupendous plant’ according to the RHS)

2 trays of Mesembryanthemum (45p per tray)

15 miniature purple Asters for a bit of late summer colour at the Three Pigeons (15p each)

At the Arcade and Three Pigeons Friday 20 August

A long early evening session.

Harry planting all the geraniums out, watered the new planting and trimmed the lawn at The Arcade. Anita planted the Mesembryanthemum. These fleshy, succulent-like plants have very pretty daisy shaped flowers and those grown from seed earlier in the year have fared well. As they are half hardy, they should provide ground cover and colour until the first frosts.

At The 🐦🐦🐦 Three Pigeons, as well as weeding, Anita finally got around to dead-heading the wallflowers which looked so much better after their trim. The miniature, purple 15p asters were also dead-headed before being planted to fill a gap next to the wallflowers. They still have lots of buds so hopefully they will provide a few more weeks of colour.

New planting at Buccleuch Gardens, Richmond (pronounced Book-loo).

Amazing work by Will, Susan, Jenni, Cathy, JP, Harry and Anita who responded to an urgent call for gardeners to help with planting in Buccleuch Gardens, Richmond.

We were able to plant and water-in all the plants donated by Petersham Nurseries, weeding as we worked, really transforming The Arcade Rockery and garnering loads of compliments from passers by walking along The Thames Path:

23 pachysandra

5 Achillea Summerwine

2 sage Tricolour

1 French Lavender

1 Nemesia white vanilla

2 salvia memosa East Friesland

2 small hydrangea

10 Primula ‘Hall Barn blue’

Also interred in Will's bespoke, spade-dug holes were 2 purple heucheras, 4 Salvia and 4 Nepetas.

We also filled a few gaps at The Three Pigeons Plot with some of the donations from Petersham Nurseries. 'The Pampas' area, behind the silver bollard, is now looking really good with the addition of Korean Feather Grasses and wood-rush:

8 Luzula Sylvatica (greater wood-rush)

4 Calamagrostis (Stips) brachytriva (Korean Feather Reed grass)

2 Dahlias

2 Lupins West Country Red Rum

2 x small and 3 large unlabelled plants

1 small blue hydrangia

1 lemon balm

1 strawberry

With so much awesome GG manpower, we were also able to weed, clip and edge more of the Arcade lawn and use a 'long-arm' tool to cut down some of the weeds sprouting high up on the brickwork behind the Arcade.