h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I think this is the last of the Deua Flames in this garden. If it needs full shade, I've nowhere to put it.

There's no list for the next mass planting. It all depends what's available on the day. I'm thinking that I'm likely to go for cheap, common plants that I've seen doing reasonably well in neglected gardens. This is no time for experimenting with fussy little triffids; I'll settle for things that will last more than a season.

I have no lawn to cut. Even the dead grasses have started crumbling to dust.

I would do the same as you, cheap, common and really, really tough, at least all the time the rains pass by.
We are having some glorious sunny and warm days, it makes me want to be in the garden all the time. Unfortunately my health is still crap so i'm having to curb any ideas of spending a whole day gardening
It's another hospital trip for me tomorrow, hopefully i'll get the all clear for new treatment If not, then it's just a case of plodding on and living with the constant pain

Do they have a particular new treatment in mind for you? Good luck, either way...

I'm thinking of spending the entire weekend in the garden, apart from the hot parts of the day of course. This will be a nice counterbalance to the week I'm having in the office.

D'you think planting daisies all over the place would come to look like overkill? (Can't remember the precise name of the type I have in mind - tough shrubs, basic yellow or white flowers, greyish foliage.) 'Mediterranean' is the keyword for future plantings in this garden, apart from natives with proven staying power.

Senecio or Sinecio is the name of those daisies, they are related to Ragwort, which is a tough weed over here. I think they could survive just about anything, fire, flood, nuclear explosion.

Yes, it is a new treatment called 'ant-TNF' specifically for RA. It comes in the form of a weekly injection and is meant to be really effective. So i'm hoping that i will be able to have it

Hurrah for new treatments, and medical advances in general. I'm always amazed by the pace of progress in medicine - the device which keeps my sister alive hadn't been invented when she first developed a need for it, for instance. I hope progress works for you.

Thanks for the daisy name. I'll have to fish around for other supertough plants... I've just fouund a couple of dead nandina domestica nana, which I thought could survive anything; I don't like being proven wrong.

I passed the assesment! I should start the new treatment in 4-6 weeks. I'll keep you posted on how it works.

Holy bamboo! I thought Nandina's were as tough as old boots, clearly not.

Well, I do hope the treatment does what it's meant to do. And quickly, too.

I'll be off to the nursery this morning to see what they have in the tough-as-boots department. H'mmm. I hope there's something I can tolerate, and not just lavender. (Lavander? Lavandar? I can never spell it. Not that it matters when I don't like it anyway.)

The scariest dead plant scenario - there's a stand of actual genuine bamboo on my way home from the office, and some of *that* has died.

So, what plants did you buy? I hope they were ones that you kind if like.
I don't think bamboo is drought tolerant at all, from what i remember they are very thirsty plants. Mind you, given the fact that there are 100's of varieties, they are probably all suited to different conditions.
I bought 3 new orchids for my garden, to put with the other wild orchids. They are all British natives, Fragrant orchid, Green-winged orchid and Late flowering Spider orchid. I cant wait to see them in flower.

Grevilleas, mostly, and a full-size pomegranate (height to 2m, according to the label). Also a hebe, a westringia and some eriostemons. They're all planted out now. Unfortunately a few other established plants are dying off, including a large diosma which dominates the kerbside plantings. I'll have to replace that with something or other. Not a diosma, as I don't actually like them.

Orchids. I still haven't experimented with orchids. One day I will.

Hooray for the pomegranate Now if it is full size, will the fruits be edible?
Hebe's do extremely well over here, i have several different ones in my garden. The bees and butterflies love them for their nectar
It's all grow here, everything has burst into life very quickly, it's not only the plants that have come to life, i've found two lily beetles since yesterday It means i will now have to do a daily check and pick off any i find. I hate squishing them, but it has to be done.

Thwe pomegranates will indeed be edible. I'll have to dust off my Middle Eastern cookbooks.

The latest problem here is that the legal watering hours now fall after dark. Not sure what I'm going to do about this. Last Autumn I only watered on weekend, when I'm home during the morning legal hours, but last Autumn was already autumnal by now. At the moment we're still having summerish temperatures...

Pomegranate juice is the latest fad over here, another one of those hyped up ideas that pomegranates are 'super foods' along with goji berries and blueberries. It's all a load of nonsense of course.

How ridiculous to have watering times after dark! Common sense would say alter the watering time to make it daylight for a few months.

The rationale behind the watering hours (7am-10am, 7pm-10pm, on odd-numbered days when one lives in an odd-numbered house) is that at this time of year watering usually isn't needed so much as the temperatures have dropped. Unfortunately, temperatures haven't actually dropped by much this year...

Having watering hours after dark is a pretty effective water-saving measure, do admit.

Rather than changing the hours, they're simply left alone so people will remember them in Spring.

Pomegranate juice is pretty horrible, if you ask me, but it's useful in Arab-type dishes. Can't think of any use at all for goji berries, though. I saw some the other day labelled as *Tibetan* goji beries. That must add some sort of mystical status for the sort of people who get sucked in by such hippy-drippy things.

Yeah, i can see the reasoning behind the watering times. I would'nt even venture out into my garden when its dark, there is no light at all out there and who knows whats lurking behind the shrubbery

I've seen these goji berries, but only in dried form. I've no idea what you would use them for. They were advertised everywhere last year, untill it was discovered that imported plants carried a disease. Anyone who bought an imported plant was advised to burn it. Strangely we did'nt hear much about them after that.

Yes, that would put a dent in some conman's business plan.

The only thing lurking in my shrubbery seems to be next door's cat. It's an extremely nervous animal; all I have to do is open the door and it bolts.

We had some rain. About 10mm. I now have three greenish tufts of grass in what used to be the lawn, but that won't last if there's no more rain in the next few days. I'm not daring to get my hopes up. (Meanwhile, there's floods 1000km north.)

I hope you're making the most of those green tufts of grass, it's about as close as you're going to get for a lawn.

I planted the three new orchids today. I put them with all the others, so they should feel at home and hopefully thrive.

My new treatment should begin very soon now, the funding for it has been approved. I just hope it works after all the waiting.

Yes, I hope the treatment works too. You've certainly had a wait for it to come along...

The green tufts in the 'lawn' are looking quite robust. It must help that the sun has drifted away to the north and the garden isn't getting grilled daily. But if there's no rain in the next three days I think that'll be the end of them. All of the latest plantings are still alive - this is through good luck rather than good management, i admit.

Good news that the new plantings are doing ok. I'd hate to think that those new pomegranates would suffer after just finding a new home.
I can't wait untill the new treatment kicks in and i can get out into my garden again. It needs weeding badly and i just cannot do it at the moment.

How much needs to be done? Is it just the crop of Spring weeds taunting you, or is it a matter of planting as well?

Weeds taunt me regularly, usually when I know I won't have a chance to deal with them for more than a week. The Autumn weeds have started already; one damp day and there they all are. *sigh* I'm reluctant to use chemical controls so I'll just have to pull the little blighters up one by one.

Its just weeds and the grass edges that need attention. Is'nt it amazing how quick weeds can grow, but plant something else and it takes forever to get bigger. The biggest weed problem i have is ground elder, it's impossible to get rid of, so it's a matter of keeping it under control. At the moment it's running rampant all over the flower bed.
I still have a holly that needs planting, but it's ok in it's pot for now.