@PalomaColumbine - I am sorry, I never replied to your kind offer of echinacea seeds! I'm not really set up for growing seeds - no handy sunny window sills or cold frames or greenhouse here. Those that make it through the variable conditions to germination, get eaten by slugs. DH has also pointed out that we've tried echinacea a lot, and the London clay soil that we can offer, rather than prairie silt and dust, does them in after a season or two. Damn' his realism!
I did, however, put in an order to RHS for plants that are tried and tested in our garden (although the geum is new to us, and may or may not thrive). £124, net of a 20% discount on the 3 X 9cm pot bundles. I picked up Dan Pearson's Natural Selection: A Year in the Garden from the library today, and have done a bit more weeding and cutting back. I need to order some bark mulch, and probably some more compost, and give everything a good weed, feed and mulch. It's supposedly 11 degrees here today, but it feels very much colder.
DH made a Jamie Oliver steak pie last night, which was delicious. I am making ragu tonight, to use up the veg and the remaining pasta. This is more red meat in two days than we've had since Halloween.