The first rule of potting shed is YOU ALWAYS talk about potting shed. The thread continues.

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Here goes, and feeling bit cheeky as I didn't post much on the last one.

A fine autumn day here, with much seasonal clearing done. Now I come to think of it, is there ever a non-clearing season? :o

I have dug up my dahlias this week. I really must get the roots cleaned up and dried ready to overwinter.
Leaf raking too - there do seem to be a lot this year - but only one conker that I can find this year.
Also been a bit frantic planting out all the last bits of bulbs, pansies and primroses, after doing all my spring pots so they are in the ground before the cold arrives this weekend.
All of a sudden , it is dark at four

Bah! I was planning to dig up my dahlias and salvias this weekend but I was injured by an exploding bottle of a friend’s fermenting apple juice, so have had to have stitches and am feeling a little fragile.

Somebody abandoned a beautiful yellow begonia onto some waste land outside my house. This was in August. I rescued it and put it in a pot and is still flowering.
The chrysanthemums that I bought as plugs in the summer are also in full flower. Most of the Acers have held on to their leaves and are looking stunning. My Acer Griseum is a deep Salmond pink and sangu kaku has turned yellowy-orange with the scarlet stems growing through.

Probably the best November display for years.

Searabbit, you poor thing Hope you're better now

Any pictures RickcakesRock, sounds lovely. Very jealous of you all with cosmos, dahlias etc, I did nothing this year so don't have any.

Carrying on with new veg beds andvhave managed to find some free manure. Would like to get some fruit trees to have a mini orchard in pots but haven't got as far as deciding what to get.

Finally got my dahlias up ( some I am leaving in place and mulching to see if they survive.)

I am so amazed by them! They are Bishops Children, grown from seed, but they have magically developed great tuberous roots, as well as being really big plants, with stunning flowers for ages.

Plants are astonishing things. All that from a teensy seed planted less than a year ago.

Stunners!

Photo from this week

Oops

Lovely!

Lovely pictures, thanks you

So what gardening goodies did Father Christmas bring you all? I'm very pleased with my orchid, and will try to keep it flowering.

I got Penelope Lively's book on gardening which looks lovely.

I was also one of 4 people in our family to be given Yotam Ottolenghi's "Sweet". A fifth was very envious and may buy it for herself.

I seem able to get orchids to flower again Maud. I kept them in the shade in a south facing room indoors all summer, then moved to a south facing window for winter and they all have flower shoots. They are also putting out roots one of which I initially mistook for a flower shoot... I love orchids. Maybe I succeed because they don't like much water so basically thrive on neglect.

That's good to hear, SeaRabbit. I'm going to commandeer the windowsill at work and see if they're happier there. They seem to be healthy and happy here, apart from the absence of flowering shoots.

I got a Prunus Triloba and some terracotta watering spikes. I have had some success with orchids by putting them on a chest of drawers then forgetting they are there. They break my terrible record with house plants!

Bought a wooden arch for the garden recently and have some garden vouchers so a shopping trip happening soon to the sales I think. Having said that I have a Zephirine Drouhin Rose I could use and a Daniel Deronda clematis that needs a home that I should probably use. Looking at pictures though I don't want something that completely covers it as want to see the structure still this one. It's going between the back section of garden and the side, between the greenhouse and the raised beds to keep dog enclosed and off the veg I will hopefully have. Might need to ponder further on that.

Ooh. That's a very nice arch indeed. I've got an obelisk I'd like to remove, to replace it with an arch, but it's wrapped in an ancient, woody jasmine that's going to be very hard to deal with, so I keep putting it off. I never get tired of the rose/clematis combo, and am off to look up Daniel Deronda!

One for the 2018 to do list then Maud! just looking at the Yotom Ottolenghi book, looks lovely.

Got DH a dwarf hop plant which I guess I should get into some soil tomorrow really.

have had some success with orchids by putting them on a chest of drawers then forgetting they are there

Yeah that is pretty much what I do, even down to the chest of drawers- it just happened to be in the shade, which seems to work.

That's exactly why mine ended up there , the shade . Funny we both stick them in the same place!

Right. I am resolved to put mine on the shady windowsill behind my desk!

We can have Orchid Watch 2018!

Oh yes! Doubt that my office would be happy with me setting up an Orchid Cam, but it'd be fun.

It can be virtuall using words!

Any gardening resolutions forming for anyone?

I have resolved very year to stake things properly, and fail to do so. I resolve to stake things properly, and actually do it in 2018.

After my garden make over last year, very little needs doing. Just a bit of cutting back. It is still remarkably green and has stood up to the wind. I am going to buy just Berganont and Chocolate Cosmos this year. These were my big surprise success last year.

I learned that I don’t need to cut plants after flowering, the ones I grew for their seed heads as well as their flowers, repeated 2 or 3 times.

Confession time: I'm a relapsed allotmenteer. I have plans but I fail to act upon them.

Over Xmas DH made two small raised bed frames for me. About 1.2m by 2.4m (the size of the scrap wood we have). I'd heaped up some rotted compost where the frames are, and I've covered with cardboard.

I'm now going to take DHs car (while he's asleep) to the council site and get as many trugs of soil improver I can fit in the car. I did this a couple of years ago in the heat of the summer, left them in the car for an afternoon and it took a month to get rid of the smell.... I'm hoping the hard frost we had last night means it won't smell as bad, and this time I'll go straight to the allotment.