Mint - slung under the hedge

At the back end of last year, Mum gave me a pot-bound, raggedy mint plant to "dispose of properly".  The intention was to get something new this year. Given that refreshing our herb stock doesn't constitute an essential journey, I thought that we would have to do without.

Of course I didn't get round to dealing with the discarded mint!

Fortunately, my idea of disposing of a plant properly usually comprises removing it from its pot and slinging it under the hedge, intending to get back to it later and - of course - forgetting all about it.

Splitting the mint.

I divided it using the classic two-forks back-to-back method. Or at least, that's how it started. I ended up doing what I always do and ripping the thing apart and hoping that at least some of the leaves would stay attached to some of the roots.

Two mints for the price of none!

Given that we are unlikely to be able to more compost or grit until the end of the crisis, I wanted to avoid using any of our stock for our recycled mint. Instead, I mixed our overly heavy clay soil with the rough bits of compost - the bits of stick etc. that I sieved out when sorting out some of the good stuff for sweet pea seeds.  I'm hoping this "roughage" will provide some much-needed drainage.

Finds from my BSBI Garden Wild Flower Hunt

I wouldn't want you to think that I spent the whole weekend doing proper gardening. On Good Friday, I spend some time doing the BSBI's Garden Wild Flower Hunt.

I'm sorry - I've disgraced the name of name of lazy gardener

I don't know how to say this.

I've done a bad, bad thing.

I've disgraced the name of lazy gardeners everywhere.

Our eighteen year-old lawn mower.

I mowed the lawn.

There's a pandemic on and I really can't justify asking someone to travel to do a job I can do myself.  So I dug the mower out of its honourable retirement and mowed some of our grass. I'm not sure which of us was most shocked.  The only reason that we still have a mower is that I couldn't be faffed to get rid of it.

So I mowed the lawn and dropped the clippings on the compost heap, where it will turn itself into a fairly respectable mulch.

Jasmine prunings, ready to create a wildlife refuge.

Talking of disposing of garden waste, I pruned a winter jasmine and needed to get rid of the clippings. They are too coarse to go on the compost heap and, during the crisis, Wealdon won't be collecting garden waste. I've decided to stack them in a corner, where they will provide a refuge for insects and other small creatures.

7-spot ladybird

While, I was pruning the jasmine, I found and rehomed a 7-spot ladybird - a real sign that spring is arriving.