Angela, Rachel and Sheila joined the group of regular volunteers at Nature's Haven. Our first task was to help weed the flower and veg beds. Just as we were finishing Kanika managed to escape from work and join us. Our second task was to plant out some broccoli plants which had outgrown their seed tray Before we knew it, it was time to socialise over a cup of tea and celebrate Claire's birthday with chocolate cake! They are really building up a lovely community.

A warm(ish) Wednesday evening back at Maidenhead Community Allotment saw 10 GoodGymers facing a long list of jobs to do. But there was no point in losing the plot because, as we all know, manure hands make light work.

So, we quickly set to our tasks, which included: shovelling soil from one overfilled raised bed to another empty one, trimming the side branches off of some tree cuttings so they can be tree-cycled as canes for the plants, and tipping horse poo into plastic compost bins so it can mature.

As always, there was lots to chat about as we went, and it was lovely to welcome new member Samrita, all the way from Reading, and to welcome back familiar face Meggie, all the way from Italy! It was also brilliant to have Mother/Daughter dream team Brenda and Jen visiting from Slough. We hope to see you all again soon.

We made a good start on digging trenches for runner beans in one of the beds we’d just dug, when, before we knew it, it was time to down tools. But we were pleased with how much we managed to get done in just over an hour, which shows what you can achieve if you keep calm and carrot on.

Angela, Sheila and Jack gathered at Nature's Haven, alongside other volunteers, to continue the creation of the new mini orchard. Sheila and Angela fancied some physical work, so set about digging up some Choisya roots to clear the ground ready for seeding with wild flower seeds. Meanwhile Jack helped Roger pull ivy off the building. We admired the bee hotel that had been made that afternoon by a volunteer team from Centrica. Nature's Haven is living up to its name! We took a break for a cup of tea, some cake and wished Jack a Happy Birthday 🎂

This evening's group run took us about 2km up the hill to All Saints C of E Junior School, where it turned out we had just 20 minutes to blitz a gardening task.

No problem! When a dozen GoodGymers are fenced into a small triangle of land and Nicola is armed with a children's spade, we can do quite a lot of scarifying, weeding and generally flinging bits of turf around.

This was exactly what was needed to prepare the ground for master re-soiler Angela, who arrived just in time to spread some fresh compost around.

We then bombed the area with seeds and we hope nature will do the rest to turn this patch into a lovely wildflower haven for pollinators.

After what was possibly the speediest bit of gardening we've ever done, we headed off to celebrate Scarlett's 50th good deed with some of Gillian's gorgeous ginger cake. Scarlett started GoodGyming in July 2023, so has done really well, notching up more than 1 good deed a week. Congratulations Scarlett - here's to the next 50!