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 have the Sarah Raven catalogue to dip to. I'm rubbish with planning but I think if I do start doing so I'll set up a folder in drop box (have word docs and pictures in it) or use the scrapbook facility on my phone (not sure if that's specific to phone ).

The camellia starting to show pink buds and the first couple of daffodils are out. One of my Astrantia seeds (only one seed head) might have germinated if it isn't a weed.

I am saving SR catalogue for February. I am always really busy in January so can't think about the garden - I have to focus on tax in Jan.

I now keep my garden diary, and wishlist, on my iPad. I use the Word app, and it works really well. I can add photos and use the dictation thing, so keeping it up to date is very quick. Much better than the exercise books I used to keep and misplace. It is so interesting reading what I was doing on this day 2 or 5 years ago. And increasingly I note the specific variety I plant, as I usually forget.

I have a patch of Leujocum out. They didn't flower at all last year & I thought I'd lost them, effectively, as all I got were a lot of leaves. Maybe they like a drenching.

Gosh, you're organised, funnyperson. I've only this year got round to a gardening diary. Unsurprisingly I am an unruly, overcrowded and unplanned gardener.

Today was very virtuous, renovating the big pots of aspidistra. They sit in a narrow space down the side of the house that leads to the back yard, but awkwardly as it's steep, with no steps, so they give structure to an unpromising space.

There are twelve 420mm pots: huge things that haven't been touched in nearly four years. Every one came from slips of two or three leaves. Each was cleared of dead leaves, topped with best potting mix, water crystals, fertiliser and rock dust. That should do them, bar the annual fertiliser, for about three years.

They are so forgiving, except when they need to be divided, which two pots do. Cue sulking for a year before cheering up with an air of: Oh, OK, if you must. :o

Thats industrious echt!

I love that the aspidistra grow outside and that they have thrived and expanded in their pots for so long.

On the telly yesterday there was an old Sherlock Holmes episode of the 'Bride of Bohemia' and there was a very healthy aspidistra on Shelrock's landing when Watson came home from a few days away
I'm hopeless with Aspidistra. They and Peace lilies look at me and wither rather sadly. It doesnt really matter where I put them or how much I ter them I;m always doing the Wrong Thing.

My few orchids are doing well though: lots of new spikes and some flowers

My garden diary is too organised and has no room for ideas and creativity.

I can't keep aspidistras or peace lilies either funny; (nor sarcococca, despite an article by Joe Swift in today's Times proclaiming how easy they are). But I have persuaded a kalanchoe to grow and flower again, so I can keep some house plants going, phew. I also have a wonderful spider plant, which is so much more healthy and happy- looking than those 1980s ones.

I kept a biggish pot in the UK, where it spent every summer outside (London), but it never grew as it does here, and always wibbled a bit when brought indoors for the winter.

I've had no luck with peace lilies either, though I've never tried them out of doors, just the one DD wanted.

Now I think of it, I keep no plants in the house at all and, bar the overwintering aspidistra, didn't in the UK. No idea why.

Most houseplants fail here too (house is too dark for many of them, I suspect) but my ZZ plant has just put up a new shoot, which is very exciting.

I have finally planted all my bulbs. Phew.

Well done Maud! What's a ZZ plant?

I would have more houseplants than I do, but our house has very narrow window sills so I have only a few places to keep them.

Letter in Guardian today from someone who is harvesting asparagus.

Asparagus guy is in UK.

The ZZ plant. They were recommended a while back when the Guardian did a big feature on houseplants. They're supposed to be bombproof (although so are aspidistras and I've killed two). Mine is in a dark spot, I'd forgotten to water it for a coiple of months and yet it has beautiful glossy leaves and has still produced a new shoot.

ZZ are lovely, and I have killed two of them, as I invariably kill MIL-tongues. . This is because I grow them outside (good), but in the open (bad), and they die from Melbourne downpours. I have learned my lesson and now keep such plants under the carport where they get full light but can be kept dry.

Putting house-style plants to use, I have planted a jade plant hedge today. The unpromising bit of the garden where I keep aspidistras in containers has had two attempts at growing a hedge under DD's bedroom window. The area faces north, is narrow andunder eaves, so catches little rain.

I tried native hibiscus: straggly and unthrifty, then westringias, the native rosemary, an unbeatable hedging plant. No dice. I have pots and pots of jade plants, cut-offs from the mothership plant in the front garden, so decided to give it a go. Digging away with a trowel, I encountered two metres of bogging weed mat. Aargh!! No wonder everything died. DH and I had dug up miles of the stuff when we started to make over the garden, but plainly overlooked this bit.

You might ask why hadn't I spotted this when digging with a spade: the soil is so sandy, that nothing short of an advanced tree actually needs a spade. The whole area has now been soil-wetted, fertilised and watered. Mulch goes down tomorrow. If I can shift my arse in 41 degrees.

And breathe. Going to sit down in the arvo sun. David Bowie on the radio.

I can't keep house plants either, I have two small Christmas Cacti and that's it. Was it more fashionable in the 70's? My mum used to have loads - cheese plants, rubber plants and spider plants which had multiple offspring. I used to help her dust them all.

I have succumbed to 6 primula denticulata alba from the secret gardening club £6.00 including postage not sure where I'm going to put them!

I do think house plants were more trendy in the 70s, and the Huardian feature was trying to redress the balance.

Amazing that jade plant would be a hedge in Melbourne when it's an indoor plant here. I have several babies - bits that dropped off the motherplant and I potted up. They'll be going to a plant sale in the spring.

I succumbed yesterday to more tulip bulbs (Queen of the Night). Hope to plant them tomorrow if this sun continues.

V sad about Bowie. Part of the soundtrack of my youth. Will be making a playlist for my iPod ::old technology::

I can't do houseplants either, am the kiss of death to those miniature roses people give you. We had a half landing with a big window and sill in the 70's and Mum used to keep her collection of house plants there. Remember often seeing cheese plants etc in people's houses.

My Aldi amaryllis is growing though so fingers crossed. It's next to the Allo Vera on the kitchen window which seems to like the neglect it gets.

Also sad about David Bowie, a playlist a good idea.

I got into Bowie when Lets Dance came out and then bought all his earlier stuff, didn't really like anything after that period and haven't listened to his new album. Dh bought himself a record player for Christmas I'm sure I've still got Hunky Dory somewhere next to Bay city Rollers

Poundland have bulbs, tempted by purple sensation 6 in a pack which looked healthy enough.

Something is eating my sweet peas - black flying creatures that hide in the soil. I squashed as many as I could, any one know what they are? And how do I get rid?

Sorry, no idea Geoff. How annoying, I'd take that personally at the moment ! Might at some point have a look at Poundland.

One of my spring clematis has a bud or two, unlike my winter clematis. I'm sad at the lack of snowdrops in my garden, they don't seem to like it much.

Has a quote for the drive yesterday. A rather whopping 12k. Think he took one look at my face and knew he'd overshot somewhat. Part of that is £750 for digging out the rest of a half dug out tree root plus cutting other half of hedge. I did the first bit, only took 4 hours plus a tip run. Plus he inflated the size of the area by 20 sq metres. Hate people like that, he obviously thought I was stupid.

at cost of drive, are you having paved? If that's how much think we'll have to go with gravel.

No it was a quote for Tarmac. It's not just resurfacing it to be fair as entrance has to be constructed to bridge meter height difference between pavement and drive plus a bit of fencing. But ridiculous quote considering previous quote was 3k for the Tarmac. £1500 for a bit of fencing, think I can get it done for about a third of that.

Our Amaryllis has flowered! A truly magnificent thing. The flowrs are much larger than I thought, and lots of them
I have a Bowie LP lurking. Probably bought by DH. I always liked his get up and attitude. Not sure about the music.

12K seems a lot for a tarmac driveway

I feel slightly less bad now that I know I'm not on my own as a houseplant killer. :o

No whit abashed, I'm giving another plant a go, one that that can be killed by over or under watering; is hard to grow/dead easy, so giving me lots of opportunities to get it wrong. It's adenium obesum, AKA desert rose.. I have four little specimens, about 4" tall, and have them growing in different positions to see what's best.

I surprise myself by liking amaryllis as normally I don't like showpiece flowers, but there is something about their exuberance that I love.

The first album I remember in our house was Bowie's Aladdin Sane, but I can't remember if it was mine or my sister's. His music formed a backdrop to my early life, but not so much recently. I like it, but don't love his music but I approve of his stylishness and constant reinvention of his look. I bet he had nice gardens...

Now, I love amaryllis, although I admit I prefer the papilos and other slightly less blowsy forms. I was given a black (which actualy means dark red) one for Christmas.

I managed to get out and do some weeding a few days ago, mainly because I wanted to try out my new Kneeler, it's one that old folke use with side handles -I love it I did return to Poundland for the Allium bulbs so they are in, although rather hurriedly as the weather turned, the ground is so soggy they may well rot. I couldn't find the grit to do it properly.

Today I resisted Lidl Helleborus Niger, £1.99 if any one feels tempted!

Well done for resisting Geoff !

I've not been out but the stump of a large conifer is now out and a hole in the hedge forming the start of entrance for new drive has appeared. It is going to take a bit of getting used to being exposed to the road.