Goodgym on tarp

Another Tuesday, another concert in the City. Back to our old starting location of Sport Wales, on what turned out to be an extremely hot day.

First, we welcomed to our group for their first task - Will

Croeso Will

It was a lovely route to the task in the Summer sun, and out of the hustle and bustle of the concert. Michael had found some donated tarpaulin from his allotment that was going to Cwtch Together to help supress the nettles at the back of the building that they use. The bag was quite a challenge and certainly slowed his run down, but determination got everyone there on time and ready for WATER....

After some very welcomed water, we got our tools out from the store and set ourselves up into groups. 2 volunteers for the front garden, to cut the lawn and strim the edges - thanks Su & Will. The remaining three to tackle the nettles out back, loppers and shears at the ready - watch out for those stingys David, Emily & Llion.

We realised that the strimmer was out of wire, so Michael quickly ran to the store to find more and get the strimmer set up again to actual help cut. After a few minutes of fiddling, winding, rewinding after using to much wire and more cutting, we finally had a workable strimmer.

Michael took a few pictures before heading to the back to help with the nettles with the power of his RAKE. The conversations got a little strange as we tackled the rest of the nettles, from Shakin Stevens and whether that was slang for someone with drug issues (NO) to the smell of a ladybird infestation (hmmm). Maybe the heat was getting to us more than we'd realised.

As we cut and battered down the nettles we were attacked by a swarm cloud of insects and moths, and spotted more ladybird larvae. Once most of the nettles were down we quickly laid out the tarpaulin and weighted it with some slabs, now we wait for the worms to do their job and take those pesky greens down into the soil. There was plenty of space too for any insects to find their way out from under the cover, so please don't worry about them!

Learning ALERT

There are about 5,000 different species of ladybirds in the world. These much loved critters are also known as lady beetles or ladybugs, and in many cultures they’re considered good luck. They come in many different colours and patterns, but the most familiar in the UK is the seven-spot ladybird, which has a shiny, red-and-black body. Gardeners and farmers love them because they eat aphids and other plant-eating pests. And boy do they eat – in it’s year-long life, a single seven-spot ladybird can gobble more than 5000 aphids!

Seven-spot ladybirds are native to Europe but were introduced to North America in the mid-1900s to control aphid populations.

Ladybirds live for around a year (sometimes 2) are up to 1cm in length and can reach speed of 24km/h.