The obelisk is now up – and no longer in my way in the shed. Before I could set it in the triangle, I had to move one of the bear’s breeches though. I nearly put it in the front bed, before remembering the bulbs I’d planted. Instead I tucked it in the left bed, hoping it will hold its own somewhat against the creeping grass and lemon balm.

I scattered some seeds on the ledge – Californian poppies and sea holly. The latter seeds are horribly spiky and take ages to germinate. They can do what they want. I need to sow some more California poppies in a few weeks.

I dug up the geum from the left end of the ledge and it naturally split into a few pieces. That also enabled me to get a few bits of bindweed root out of it too. I haven’t decided where the geums will go, so they’re in a bucket of water in the shed. The daisies that surrounded the geum are going to be pretty much dug up.

I did a bit more heavy edging along the left hand side, sticking the shears into the ground and cutting back the  overgrown grass and also trying to cut down the raised lumps.

I cut back the grass outside my fence – just the left hand side for now. It was immensely long and because there’s a trough right by the fence, it builds up in a tangle. There was a nettle in among it too, which comes through the fence, but it’s had quite a setback now.

In the afternoon Mum came down with me to mow. I uncovered the beds one by one and we did the first test of the mow-over edging. It works great! It’ll just need a little tidy from time to time, but it stops the immediate encroachment. We had one surprise though – the big bed by the trellis doesn’t have any edging! That explains the leftover roll in the shed. By my count I am short a couple of pieces, but the bed will have to be the size of what pieces I have, for the sake of sanity.

Mowing makes such a difference. The beds are covered up again now and there was very little to worry about underneath the plastic. A few bits of horsetail here and there was one dock, which I managed to get out completely!