This week at GoodGym we spent a lovely summer evening helping at OxGrow’s community garden at Hogacre Common.

OxGrow aims to educate children and adults in growing food sustainably, and gives back to the community by sharing its fruits, vegetables and herbs with local food banks and other organisations. During the lockdown, OxGrow volunteers were busy supplying food to mutual aid groups and other charities.

To start off the evening, a few GoodGymers met early for a social-distance jaunt as part of Bethan’s couch-to-5K programme. Then gathered in our large socially distanced circle, we were happy to welcome a number of new runners, with some who are new to Oxford but familiar with GoodGym (welcome Annabel, Kayleigh and Laura), and others like Georgie who are new to GoodGym but familiar with Oxford.

We then headed over the railway tracks to the hidden Hogacre Common, and our bumper crop of GoodGymers got to work on a number of different tasks. Some watered the plants and seeded some spinach in the polytunnel, while others picked the perfectly ripe raspberries and blackberries. At the same time, a crew equipped with forks and gloves got to work weeding the veggie patch that had become overgrown during lockdown. We managed to get rid of many wheelbarrows’ worth of weeds, all while being careful not to uproot the potatoes!

At the end of the evening, we were invited to take home a variety of crops from the garden, including berries, chard, garlic, tomatoes, herbs and more. We even got to enjoy some veggies from the plot we helped weed last year – the fruit of our labour!