It will not always be summer; build barns. The potting shed goes on...

[echt]

Please ignore my first, illiterate thread. I'll try again.

I hope this quotation from Hesiod captures the moment of movement from high summer to the splendours of harvest and the planing for the new year.

:o

I'm wreathed out as I've realised today: a fake hollied one from a UK discount store that has been on our door in the UK and here for about 15 years; a big plastic lighty one from IKEA; a lovely table wreath of pears from, I think, the Habitat sale and the latest, a massive rusted barbed wire and baling twine one on the side of the house. If anyone was to ask me what I thought of wreaths I'd go , but the truth is out there. It creeps up on one.

It's 58 minutes to Christmas here, bogging sweltering and I'm watching "Four Weddings and a Funeral". It's the Scottish wedding. Oops, he's dead.

All the best you lovely gardeners.

And all the best from me too. For me and others here, it's been a difficult year so let's hope for better things in 2016.

I'm loving the idea of a barbed wire wreath - could you post a pic, echt?

I'd love to see the barbed wire wreath too and happy Christmas echt!

We're watching Life of Brian.

He's not the Messiah; he's a very naughty boy!

Happy Christmas! I really hope everyone gets better and that next year is peaceful happy and productive and great for gardening!

I'm happy because dd turned up for Christmas so the whole family is at home for a few days. We had a lovely brunch (7 kinds of indian veg not the usual ones)

We went to see Matthew Bourne's gothic Sleeping Beauty (magical, stunning, not cheesy at all) and then after more vegetarian food including baked Alaska climbed onto the top of a red bus (puffed: Ds highly amused) to see the Lights. Managed to do NO Shopping at all. Ds is getting cash (which he wants: he got let off the ballet) and a book of Confucian analects}

Am now trying to finish dd's present (knitted hat designed by Kate Davies the colours of the sea : it is taking a lot longer than expected and will possibly be finished by boxing day oh well)

We often watch Love Actually (cheesy) but everyone is asleep tired out by yesterday.

I suspect we will be snoozing a lot, sitting around chatting, perhaps going for a walk in the woods. Everyone still alive so far. I love that Christmas is about the birth of a little tiny precious child.

Dear Gardening friends, I hope you are all well.
I'm holed up in Scotland with the inlaws, having a lovely time although there has been a death -one of Dh's cousins a couple of days ago. I didn't really know him but it has put a damper on things. His poor mum. I'm yet to see Downton forgot to record it at home, so hoping I will be able to get itv player when we get back.

I crocheted a wreath this year but then gave it to mum in law -Im not sure she liked it, oh well thought and all .....

Hearing about all your ivy wreathes I will make one next year, the fake 15 year old one is looking a bit naff!

Your vege meal sounds lovely funny I've bought 3 vegetarian cook books and am going to make a concerted effort to eat less meat, dd2 is still pescetarian and I fear it won't be long before she ditches fish.

A crocheted wreath sounds nice Geoff. That's very sad about DH's cousin. My DH's cousin died Chrustmas day but she was a lot older I think, Dah only met her once as lives in Australia.

FP that sounds like a lovely Christmas, lovely to be all together.

I hope everyone else is having a peaceful time. Ours is very quiet but we need that after this year. I might potter to the Wyevale sale armed with a couple if Christmas vouchers. I didn't get round to giving an amaryllis as a present so planted that up yesterday.

It is sad . He stayed with us for the first time recently having announced very last minute that he wanted to visit, Dh dropped every thing to make him welcome, (hid the booze as alcoholic) took him fishing and we all got up in the middle of the night to watch the lunar eclipse. He told his Mum he had a nice time so I am glad.

How was the bungalow with all the land? sugar ? And sorry about your Dh's cousin. When cousins start popping off it makes me think of my own mortality. Must do something about my weight this year. More gardening should help

Next year duh

I have been thinking the same Geoff !!! DH is the youngest by years but another friend lost a cousin recently and my younger cousin has Non Hodgkins Lymphoma . Will be getting very busy with the gardening tools this year. Bungalow was nice (well could be nice) but a bit of Googling put paid to it for various reasons. Plans for extension going in next year. Maybe I could dig the foundations to get fit !!

So sorry to hear that others are having intimations of mortality. Several of my contemporaries from primary and secondary school have already gone.

I received several gardening presents, which were very nice, although I'm slightly worried that the eremurus and fritillaria bulbs are rather dessicated and may not prosper. I'm very excited by a black hippeastrum.

Sorry to hear of the intimations of mortality - we are lucky, and are currently awaiting the birth of a great-nephew. Had been hoping he'd appear on Christmas Day to match another great nephew born Xmas Day 2014, but it was as not to be.

On another plus side I got some Japanese shears like Funny's as they are so beautiful. DH can take a hint, bless him.

A black hippeastrum sounds lovely. I went for a bold (tacky?) red 'n white stripy one this year. They are another plant where I buy almost them in flower rather than plant the bulbs and nurture them to flower.

In summer 2015, I got flowers on the bulb that I had got for Xmas 2013, when was giving it its summer holiday out of doors. Most unexpected.

i usually grow my hippeastrum from bulbs but have never managed to get them to flower the next year so, rather wastefully, treat them as annuals.

No prospect of becoming a great aunt here for years, alas.

my hippoeastrum is orange I have found on the box, that's what you get for buying a cheap one in Aldi,

This year I became an Aunty but don't hold out much hope that I'll see him as on other side of the world. There has been a bit of a baby boom on DH's side and I'm a great aunt by marriage so some positives from 2015.

Got given gardening gloves (yay) orchid (beautiful) and an arctic white hippeastrum in bud

The weather is mild and pleasant. The daffs are in bud, the roses are developing new shoots, the hellebores are already going strong.

It is a great temptation to assume it is an early spring and start sowing seeds. Instead I have edged the lawn.

An aspect of the Australian Christmas I wasn't quite prepared for was how the garden needs to be gussied up when guests arrive, with tons of watering, mulching and tidying of the west-facing front garden, which is where pre-prandial drinks are taken. It's high up from the road, sunny yet secluded.

I was knackered, and still with the back room to clean - it's full east so very cool on a hot day so I knew guests would end up there.

All this with plants being moved around to escape the 37 of Christmas Day and replaced to look spiffy for the 23 of Boxing Day and guess arriving.

Successes this year with divided agapanthus, and rescued gardenias. The two gardenias are huge, in pots, and were mightily afflicted with scale. Masses of yellow and brown leaves. I picked every one off and scraped the scale off upper and lower leaves with my thumbnail. Fertiliser, Epsom salts and plenty of watering have seen them go bonkers. Now I know to scrape off scale every time I pass the plants.

That conjures up quite another world what with the scent of the gardenias and the 'gussied up' garden
It sounds fab and I'm sure your hard work will have paid off
I'm impressed with the individualised thumbnail scale attack. It sounds a bit like what i do if the rose leaves show black spot

In the garden today even more hellebores are flowering and many of the perennials such as irises, lupins, fuschias, roses, are showing new growth. Near work a yucca is in full bloom.

However other bulbs such as snowdrops and crocuses are not out. I read somewhere that some flowers do so by temperature and others by the number of daylight hours perhaps that is why there is a difference

Hemerocallis shooting out of the ground here, and everywhere covered in primroses, but as you say funny no snowdrops or crocuses. My hellebores are looking remarkably healthy.
It has just started raining again tonight- we had all of 2, nearly 3 days dry...

I love the scent of gardenia, hope they start recovering after all your hard work.

That makes sense about temperature and daylight hours. Will have a look and see if any sign of crocuses here. New Year's Day was heralded by the first daffodil of the year and a small pink rose.

Happy new gardening year everyone.

I thought I might do a few quick gardening jobs this morning (potting up some bulbs I impulse-bought for £1 a pack in the sales) but it's drizzling so, lightweight that I am, I stayed indoors.

Just checking in. Happy New Year, everyone.
My news is that I have a new lodger who is keen to do some growing - she has previously practised guerilla gardening, planting illicit pumpkins around her town

Happy New year everyone from me.

Your lodger sounds handy countess

Happy New Year

I am planning what to do with the borders to help them look less bitty

So far I have come up with the following

-Sow columbines with the bearded iris
-plant more clematis to trail through the roses
-sow more cosmos and move the peonies from pots to beds
-sow thalictrum delavayi alba and sylvestris anthracis to provide transparent plants
-divide salvias and plant in repeats
-divide stachys and plant in repeats
-this year plant sweetpeas in beds not pots

I gave in and got 10 biodegradeable leaf sacks which arrived from Amazon this morning. They are to motivate me into moving the leaves to somewhere other than the old compost heap where I am going to plant other things after spreading the old compost around

Sarah Raven's catalogue is providing pleasant reading as is 'the well tempered garden' by Christopher Lloyd. I really shouldnt be putting my feet up but it is very comfy indoors

I listened to gardeners question time today: it broadcasts through the winter

Anyway there was talk about planning the garden year ahead this time of year and reading notes made from garden visits and one of the panel still has a gardening notebook

I had a gardening notebook for my previous garden but with this garden I have a table for each border: planted, to be planted and wish list. Because it is essentially 3 lists for each border (if plants die they get crossed off) its not very useful to help design the border though it does help me be focussed when buying plants online or at a garden centre. But there is no space to add in notes from garden visits or catalogues or photographs.

What do you all use to record and plan your gardens? I have now got one of these phones which takes photos and want to record things like local topiary and add it to a 'garden notebook' but am wondering what has worked best for techy people