Clematis Capers, Snails, Ladybirds and a Spider.

Myself and Ellie met at Ms E's for a clematis tidy-up and general de-weed. We were instructed to go 'round the back' via an alleyway further down the street. Once we'd found the correct side gate (after I realised I was trying to get into someone else's garden by mistake - good job it was locked!) and manhandled Ellie's bike through a very narrow space between a car and a shrub we finally arrived in the back garden. Then we were met by fellow GG-er Ed who had arrived just after us and sensibly came the easy way through the house.

Ms E had a good selection of tools and we set to work. Myself and Ed tackled the clematis whilst Ellie trimmed some plants that were full of snails, until she'd had enough of the snails and swapped jobs with Ed. Ed came back to the clematis to tackle the taller bits and then bravely went off on a journey of discovery to go and find the other side of the rather rampant clematis which backed onto a footpath. I very much enjoyed throwing the two bags over the fence for Ed to fill (maybe I need to get out more?) and after much trimming, tugging and snipping the clematis was much reduced in size. However Ms E said she would like it trimming even more so we carried on, giving it a really good haircut (us York GG-ers love a good bit of severe cutting back/destruction). Unfortunately in my excitement I forgot to get an 'after' photo to prove what a good job we had done, so you will just have to take our word for it - it looked so much better! Ms E agreed anyway.

Ms E's garden was host to lots of ladybirds, snails of varying sizes and a huge slug that Ellie said she would have nightmares about. Ellie made the lawn look really neat by doing some edging and after a last weed of the borders we called it a day. I nipped inside the house for a 'comfort break' before heading home and discovered one of the many ladybirds on my head! This was liberated once back outside. We'd filled lots of bags which were kindly taken away by a friend of Ms E's and the last pile of weeds was put into the green bin (once Ed had manhandled it via the narrow gap). We trundled the green bin back down the alleyway, ducking the huge spider web right across the path (at head height) complete with large resident spider (how did we miss it on the way in??). After hoiking the green bin and Ellie's bike back over the narrow gap we were finally able to go our separate ways home.