What have you done in the garden today? Part 8

[Jimmyneutronsforehead]

A continuation thread.

Thank you to MereDintOfPandiculation for threads 1 through 6. We wouldn't have built this lovely gardening community without you.

No gardening job is too small or too big to tell us about.

Spring is springing into action, let's get mucky.

Still getting over this lurgy, post viral fatigue I guess so am not up to anything strenuous. I managed 10 minutes weeding this afternoon but there is so much I need to do. Plants to move, plants to put in plus I was half way through doing my Mums pots when the lurgy hit.

Visiting FIL, made inroads into his Welsh poppy problem. Took off about 1000 seed heads just from the ones in the back garden I could easily reach from the paths. Need to tackle the dandelions next then start on the front garden. It’s neverending!

Potted up sweetcorn and tidied up a bit.

Saw this bee on a flowerpot - is this a regular bee? What are the orange side pouch looking things?

@Maggiethecat that’s a red-tailed bumblebee, and the side things are full pollen baskets.
Bees have hairs on their legs that collect pollen as they visit flowers.

Hadn’t a clue 🫢

It was so still while I took the photo - probably too full to move!

I would love a Welsh poppy problem!

I also saw an interesting bug today, some sort of beetle, I had never seen one of these before.

I also thought I saw what I can only describe as a long Dalmatian beetle which took my interest, but when I adjusted my glasses I could finally see it was just 3 white ladybirds getting jiggy with each other. Wished I'd kept my glasses off.

Not done anything today in the garden but DP has contacted a gardener to see if anything can be done about his mares tail problem. I loaned him the strimmer last week, and this week it's back and higher than ever.

He's had a letter from the housing association, though dated before we strimmed it back last week, saying his front garden is looking untidy and he needs to keep on top of it, but it just seems wildly unmanageable without digging the lot up, and we're not sure how deep the front beds go.

They're only about 1x3m patches but there are 2 of them.

The biggest bane of it all is the bloody holly that the last tenant planted and the random stumps, making it impossible to just keep running a mower over it, and meant stopping and starting with the strimmer to rethread the strimmer wire every 2 minutes after it had snapped off on the stumps.

Honestly @Jimmyneutronsforehead cardboard is the answer. Lay it as thickly as possible straight over the weeds , water it, cover in at least 4 inches of compost, then throw some cosmos and marigold seeds down. It will take an hour and look great till October, and give him time to think about what he wants there. If he wants to be rally fancy , he could buy some bedding to give colour until the seeds grow.
i wasted today doing boring housework. Ran out at 8 to water my greenhouse, and see all the urgent tasks I should have tackled. But yesterday I finished thinning my bamboo and tidied up the pond area.

I've watered the plants out the front in tubs while I waited for the kettle to boil earlier, I can't really do anything at the moment as the garden is still not back to normal, there is still some grouting of the path to be done and I was hoping it would all be done by the end of this week.

I've got plants and pots everywhere but where they should be but I'll just have to put up with it until the work is finished as I can then order my new garden furniture.

On the plus side, my back is much better but I am still doing the stretching exercises as it still pulls down the left side when I get up out of a chair. Hopefully be back to normal by next week.

Another beautiful day ahead so I am debating going down to the beach hut again around lunchtime, it was gorgeous yesterday. Never can get enough of the view of the Isle of Wight sitting in the hut with a cup of tea, my friend and a good pair of binoculars.😎🌞