Tuesday 12th May
Report written by Michael
Tonight we are joining the wonderful Grow Cardiff at their site over at the Grange Medical Centre.
But before we start the jog of joy, we have some welcomes to make...
Owen and Samuel, thank you for joining goodgym on your very first task.
A longer route out to the task to help us hit those km goals this week. It wasn't too long until we were at the task. A quick chat about the project and what they do. Supporting social prescribing to therapeutic community gardens for health and well-being.
Our task tonight, to finish updating the polytunnel. Removing old wooden batons, old netting and the old plastic behind this. All to help with temperature control in the Summer months.
We started with filling out the new net to get the right size for cutting, whilst the old batons were quickly removed with a crowbar. Then it was time for us to get destructive, ripping down the old netting and plastic with the might of goodgym arms. Everyone had a section and ripped until, like a plaster, it was all down.
It was time to get the plastic cut to length, but the only piece that we had was exceptionally large. As the evening started to get a bit windy, it took the entire group to keep it in place on the floor - that's what the weight of goodgym is for. The Grow Cardiff team got to cutting with the Stanley knife, and then the volunteers held it up in place just to check that the size was okay.
As we held the plastic in place, Chris went around with the (temperamental) staple gun, securing it to its final position. It took 2 pieces of plastic to cover the length of the polytunnel, so plenty of time for the volunteers to get chatty with each other.
The plastic had to be trimmed, but whilst this was done by grow Cardiff, we started on the opposite end securing the length of netting. As we met in the middle it looked a little bit like we were trying to catch a gardener with our net...(see pictures).
The final task for the evening, to put the batons in place to secure everything fully. This involved cutting pieces to length and then nailing them into position.
Everyone had a go, as the three hammers where passed around with the nails. Dylan took a hammering, Samuel & Owen nailed it. Aaron managed to break his phone screen protector...still not sure how. Jonathan was our act of chivalry as he gave his goodgym jacket to a cold Lucy, now forever know as Chief Hammerer Lucy.
Finally finished (a bit later than usual), it was time for a quick group photo before heading out on a shorter run back (to make up for time).
Join us next week as we celebrate our 09th anniversary of goodgym in Cardiff. Sign up here to join us at Samye for our task and celebration (there will be cake!)
Grow Cardiff is a charity that promotes and enables people to grow their own food, through our community allotment to our outreach work with schools we are a passionate organisation that aims to change the way we think about food.
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