It has been a while since Goodgym Ealing volunteered at Bixley allotment. Therese and Steph Ducat walked to the allotment while Iram cycled. We then met with Jason who was going to give us some tasks for the afternoon. Changes have been done since Jason is looking after the 2 allotments. The green house disappeared with a lot of the rubbish and a polytunnel has made its place. The pond is still there but the parcels were re arranged and loads of plants have made this there home.

Jason gave us a 1st task of filling the empty buckets with water from the tank - the buckets make it easier to water the plants/vegetables. Then 2nd task was to remove weed but also the overgrown amaranth to avoid all the seeds dropping on the ground and take over this space. We then had 2 wheelbarrows at our disposal to move the unwanted greenery, but then Steph Ducat realised that his one was drunk...yes we all now remember that Bixley has always flats tyres on the wheelbarrows!!! We relocated the snails - out of the vegetable parcel but plenty of green stuff for them. We spotted one of the foxes that live here - can you spot it in the photos?Jason harvested some cucumbers and gave them to the Goodgymers.

Yes Goodgym Ealing is back at Bixley - return of the red crew!!We wioll be back next month - Hasta la vista until next time.

Arriving at Feeding Ealing today, there was already a large group of volunteers there. More than had been at the site for months. Walking through the growing area, compared to August plenty of harvesting had already been completed as growing beds had been picked and cleared.

Joseph was glad to see the GoodGym team again and had tasks ready for us to do. In the polytunnel, there was produce still shooting upwards and ripening, which sounded like a nice problem to have. Hiding behind the polytunnel were raised beds, where potatoes had been been growing and were ready for harvest.

Team To-may-to

Giles, Therese and Sevan made up team To-may-to. Their goal was to untangle tomato plants that had gone rogue. They were mingling together and not sticking to their own bamboo stakes, making them hard to support with the canes and difficult to spot ripe fruit and harvest from when the time comes.

They joined another volunteer in the very densely packed tomato patch who'd been at it for 2 hours already. The volunteer was teasing the vines apart to try and have a single stake per plant, from the roots to the shoots. The plants were brittle though and easy to break, so there were some casualties along the way.

This was Therese's first task and she asked if they were all like this. Complicated and difficult to complete? Well, it's not unknown and GoodGymers often need to use their ingenuity to solve problems at tasks. Today's was particularly challenging though. Well done on your first good deed Therese and we hope to see you again soon 👏🎉.

Team Po-tah-to

Team Po-tah-to was larger, with Delphine, Kash, Maxime and Dora, who's become a regular recently. They found that some potatoes had already been removed from the soil in the morning and Joseph said to leave the rest to be harvested later. Instead, the team was asked to tidy the area around the veg and potato beds to help the remaining produce grow stronger.

Time To Call It Off

The weeds were removed and Team Po-tah-to were successful, with plenty of time left in the session. They were even able to flex their muscles and move a heavy table too 💪.

Inside the polytunnel, Team To-may-to admitted defeat against the renegade tomato network. Between the heat, the density of plants and not having a good way to keep each one supported and separate to the others, they let Joseph know that it was best to leave things as they were.

Despite the tangled tomatoes still growing wild in the polytunnel, Joseph was very happy with what the team had achieved and decided to call it a day.