It was a frosty but sunny Saturday morning in Cardiff and 8 Goodgymers headed to help out at Global Gardens. The main planned task was moving some flytipped waste to a skip so we were in for a bit of a workout. Also we discovered that on top of the fly tipped waste, sometime over Friday night, individuals had disposed of many dubious plants that definitely wouldn’t be grown at Global Gardens (and were the inspiration of the title puns)..

We started off moving the fly tipped waste out of bags and into various combinations of wheelbarrows, buckets and other bags to heave the stuff into a big skip at the other end of the gardens. Polly optimistically commented that it was like a lucky dip although I don’t think you’d get many takers willing rummaging around the mix of alcohol bottles, slippers and other abandoned items.

Once the fly tipped waste was moved, there was debate about what to do with the incriminating plants and bin bags.. Since the gardens were hosting a family friendly Wassail later that day, it was decided it was best to move them. As with the other waste we made the same journeys to the skip, getting in plenty of steps for the day and catching up on what people had been up to in January so far.

In no time at all, everything was moved and the entrance to the gardens was looking a lot more tidy and clear without all the bags of rubbish. Polly finished by inviting anyone to come to the Wassail and we then took the obligatory group photo in the now cleared patch of grass.

Overall it was a lovely, if not slightly unexpected way to spend a Saturday morning!

Every time we visit StarGarAllot we seem to get the most beautiful weather, so all creamed up (suncream not whipped) the 5 of us got to work. Today's task seemed simple enough, we were creating another bed for planting - but wait what is this? It would appear to be a LOAD of red ants.....time to call ANT MAN.

Carefully, we began our digging as the ants scurried away taking the ant eggs with them back into the caverns of their nest under the community gardens. We were double digging the plot, to help loosen and aerate the soil ready for the stargaral-Lot to start their planting without the need for to much future digging. Before too long a mound had appeared which did give the look of a freshly dug grave - RIP Red Ants....although I think most survived the dig.

Unfortunately as we dug the plot we did hit a snag of a GIANT rock, at first thinking we might be able to dig it out but after Sean, Ben and Michael went feral and started digging at the rock with their (gloved) hands it was realised that this beast went deep. So we let Camilla know, buried it back under the ground and finished off the new plot ready for planting.

ANT FACTS

What are ants?

Did you know that most ants that you see are probably female?

Ants are eusocial insects related to bees and wasps (Hymenoptera). They live in nests that contain many hundreds and sometimes thousands of ants. Most are wingless sterile females, known as workers, but there will also be fertile females, known as queen ants.

Ants have a caste system, where responsibilities are divided. The queen is the founder of the colony, and her role is to lay eggs. Workers tasks range from caring for the queen and the young, foraging, policing conflicts in the colony, and waste disposal. Workers will most likely never have their own offspring. The vast majority of eggs develop as workers, but once the colony is ready the queen produces the next generation of reproductives which will go on to start own colonies.

A female ant’s fate to become a worker or queen is mainly determined by diet, not genetics. Any female ant larva can become the queen – those that do receive diets richer in protein. The other larvae receive less protein, which causes them to develop as workers.

More than 30 species of ant are found in Britain, a few of these can occur in gardens, including the familiar black garden ant, Lasius niger.

Sunday 23rd May – happy birthday goodgym Cardiff and the Vale.

What a great way to celebrate by getting stuck in with some tasks, destroying an old compost and leveling out the ground ready to build a new one. And this was good hard work, plenty of things to pull up – oh watch out for the nettles. The original compost heap had been made with pallets and these had to be removed as they were starting to rot down. They were going to be replaced with one made with old scaffold boards which should last much longer.

The heap of weeds on the tarpaulin was growing, lots of insects and arachnids had been rehoused and then we found our wonderful newest friend, a fantastic slowworm – Scientific name: Anguis fragilis.

FACT TIME

With long, smooth, shiny, grey, or brown bodies, slow worms look remarkably like tiny snakes. In fact, they are legless lizards and are quite harmless. Although found throughout mainland Britain, they are most common in Wales and south-west England. They are absent from Ireland. Slow worms like humid conditions and emerge from their hiding places at dusk or after rain to hunt for food. They spend the winter hibernating under piles of leaves or within tree roots. If attacked by a predator, a slow worm can shed its tail to escape, although it never grows back fully. What they eat: Slugs, snails, spiders, insects, and earthworms. Measurements: Length: Up to 50cm.

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With a sudden down pour of rain, we all made our way to the shelter to rehydrate and have a chat, it has been a good old social weekend for the goodgymers in Cardiff. As the rain passed, we said goodbye to Nic who had lunch plans and went to finish off levelling the ground.

Time to down tools and tidy before saying farewells. It was time to get out and complete our virtual 4 for our fourth birthday.

It was a showery morning when Jo, Flo, Sean and Martin turned up at Stargolot Community Gardens for another community mission. This time the task was to lay out the borders for one of the paths which would eventually be filled with gravel.

We set to work digging two narrow trenches where we would lay the path border, removing weeds and stones as we went and taking care to rescue the many worms which populated much of the ground on which we were working.

After much digging, we had two trenches dug, and we positioned the wooden border in place, initially using wooden stakes to hold this in position before backfilling the earth we had removed (if you see what I mean). It took us over an hour, but we managed to position the borders on both sides of the path, before taking some refreshments and heading home.

Much more work to do at Stargalot, so we’ll be back.