Blondin Park, as one of the southernmost green spaces in Ealing Borough, can easily attract GoodGymers from other areas. At today's session, Kash welcomed Michelle from GoodGym Hounslow and Chris from GoodGym Richmond, who both cycled to Northfields. Blondin Nature Area features a community orchard, a wildflower meadow and a pond. It was the pond that was the site of today's GoodGymming. Was it swimming? Not quite.

Ranger Jon led the GoodGymers and other volunteers to the fenced area around the pond and explained the task. It was a pleasure to get comprehensive instructions and a demo from a ranger - everyone had a good understanding of the background information and planting technique - a luxury the GoodGymers don't always get on the nighttime sessions!

Today's task was to fill the gaps in previously planted native hedging surrounding the pond. Jon produced snips of trees like hawthorn, blackthorn, dog rose and beech and showed the team the fastest planting technique: notch planting. Before the trees could be planted, some areas had to be cleared of invasive brambles. Michelle chopped the bramble stems off to make digging the roots easier. Among the digging tools, there were two mattocks. Kash made sure to secure one of them to aid her destructive power. Chris was the only GoodGymer today to do some planting. His weapon of choice was a spade, so he prepared the soil and planted a number of trees inside and outside the fenced area. The last job to do was to cut back the height of the existing hedging. Michelle got her loppers to work and made sure no cheeky tree was taller than her!

A session at Blondin Park cannot be complete without Linda's complimentary hot chocolate at the Community Pavilion café. If you missed the fun and hot chocolate (and bonus biscuits!) today, not all is lost! There are two more sessions in the next few days at Blondin Park: more planting on Saturday and mulching the trees on Tuesday evening!