I am glad to see you back! Well done on the full time job, too! Just think...if you put aside some of your hard-earned - you could pay someone to do your basic grunt work - and come home to a 'clear canvas'.

I know that after I've done the weeding and the edges and the pruning the people I work for have all sorts of gorgeous ideas for their gardens - serene in the knowing that the maintenance is going to be Guess Who's problem!!! (Ahh - the yards of deadheading and plant grooming...worse than being in a garden centre.)

Nothing too dreadful with the rain at this end, thank goodness. What we did get was enough to get the last dozen buds on the Brugmansia to flare into fullness. It felt almost ropical - until the southerly came through.

I've planted the bulbs - in rows - as a crop, because my mother is forever finding people who 'love daffs'. If they're in the crop garden I've got the 4-season path access. None of this slipping across the mud for me! And my planting schemes can do their bit safe from the bouquet collectors.

The only two persimmons are lurking under those gorgeously coloured leaves, hoping to avoid the Aussie parakeets. The early narcissus are just about open and the Encore azalea is forming bunch after bunch of buds/blossoms. I do like them!

I went through my accumulation of plastic pots and wish I could find someone who could use them. After I did my inventory of what I'm holding in pots I sat in a daze for quite a while. I don't mind the three figures - it's their proximity to four figures that really took my breath away!!! And that was after I'd given away a couple of ute loads. There's something about cuttings and divisions, though. It's so easy... Hence my desire to pass on Lots of Pots. Perhaps the nice folk who are growing natives for restoration work.

Really pleased to have your cheery notes back again. With winter coming on perhaps we can share some more.

Talk about having withdrawel symptoms! I missed being able to read what everyone else was up to in their parts of the country/world. I'm so glad that the hectic-ness of work has settled down, I was beginning to wonder if I'd done the right thing!

My baby fruit trees have amazingly survived being negelected - I even have 4 huge apples on my Baujade. I'm drooling just thinking of eating/cooking with them. Being a green apple (similar to Granny Smith apparently) I have no idea how to tell when they're ripe enough to pick though! Mum said they might get a yellowish hue to them, but there is no sign of colouring at all. My persimmon is still to young to be producing, but it's sure set some fat buds so next year might be a different story.

Even though I haven't had much time to garden, I have still found time to still accumulate plants. Our Oderings garden centre has a $2.95 sale on Good Friday starting at 8am. I got there at 7.50am and picked up 3 blueberry plants. Negelected and full of weeds, they actually scrubbed up quite well once I'd soaked them overnight and wed them. I even found one tiny berry, which of course I ate - yummy! I did find time to plant them into a planter trough, hopefully I've got the pH right for them. Silly things are in full bloom and covered in new leaves now though and they're meant to be the deciduous type. Maybe I should have left them in their pots till spring?

If only nectarines and peaches grew o.k in the Waikato - there were some beautiful trees in same $2.95 sale...I guess that's why they were there though.

As much as the idea of paying someone else to do the hard yards in the garden is appealing, I prefer to do it myself - I have noone else to blame if it all turns to custard, and I can only get upset at myself over shifting something upteen dozen times! I worked in a garden centre while at High School - I never want to dead-head another pansy, petunia or snapdragon in my life. Although picking white butterfly caterpillars off the brassicas and feeding them to the goldfish was satisfying!

I have hubby lined up to create a new patch of vege garden - I aquired some potted asparagus from someone who didn't realise the space that was needed for them. I sat the pots in my one decent vege area while I contemplated where to put them and they took root. Looks like they chose where they want to go so I'm going to leave them to their own bed!

You could construct one of those pot people for your garden. You know, the ones that used to be featured in the NZ gardener that are composed of lots of EXPENSIVE terracotta pots. Although in your case, it might be a village of pot people!
I find myself inundated with punnets and cellpacks. Palmers garden centre in Hamilton has a bin in their car park for people to dump their unwanted pots and punnets, so I go there once I've got a boxful of punnets and return home with a box of proper pots!

I love daffs! I'm slowly adding to my daffodil strip down the...

Related to planting bulbs: part of today's work off-site was weeding over a long-established bed which has two Hebes between clumps of bulbs. Wot a nightmare!

Those Hebe roots have spread out and colonised the top 5cm leaving very little room for the bulbs. I found a small pocket of Narcissus and another of speices Gladiolus and that was it. The only other survivor was Viola labradorica (that was. Can't remember the latest label.)

That FATAL Good Friday Oderings sale!!! The usual horde poured through the gates at 8 and rushed for the Bargain Bin with all the trees and shrubs. Mostly lifestyle block people looking for goodies.

I'd promised and pledged and, well:-
From the $2.95 bin: Citrus Chinotto - with dreams of bitter orange marmalade sometime 'later'.
A well-grown Camellia 'Quintessence' with many buds.
A deciduous azalea which looked dubious but will probably be fine.
Berberis thunbergii 'Silver Beauty'
And a decidedly warped looking Euryops which has potential as a topiary out of the ordinary.

Also a really nice Lobelia anatina which must have been kept in the shade because it's darkened up a lot since I potted it on.

And another Guzmania, plus a few Tillandsias. (20% off all house plants. I'd have been daft to pass on that...) Why, oh why am I lured by bromeliads???

'Easter comes but once a year' - thank goodness!

Apart from my 'bargains' I've got two double Narcissus out. Crazy weather, but it's been great to get things settled as I've planted out.

Meantime - I'm hoping the weather gods will be kind to the Coromandel. They've had such a drenching already.

Finally, another day off!

You've all ready got Narcissus flowering?!!! Mine have little green shoots poking up, I hope they don't get frosted.

I've tried planting out a few Elephant garlic cloves early as Mums patch she left in are shooting all ready. I'm keeping the bulk of the cloves to plant on the shortest day though - worked well for me last year!

We're feeling a little soggy here at the moment - shouldn't complain really but I wanted to start digging out my new garden plot! So squelchy underfoot, I feel like a duck.

I really haven't got any news gardenwise - concentrating indoors at the moment. We got our new fireplace last week, what a difference! Wood lasts so much longer in it and there is hardly any ash left. It puts out so much more heat for much less wood input than the old fireplace.

My next mission is to get new curtains - the lounge/living/kitchen area has vertical and venetian blinds which do nothing to keep the warmth in. I have had 4 companies come around and all 4 brought exactly the same fabric samples with them!!! Argh! None of them suited as our house is an older Lockwood, which is quite dark internally due to the aged wood. All I want are lightish coloured, thermal-backed drapes that are not green or blue, nor striped or excessively patterned. If I didn't want thermal backing the samples are endless. It initially seemed easier to call in the professionals. If I had the time I'd be resorting to making my own and sew in thermal lining, but, I don't so I guess I'm going to have to keep looking.I've looked at readymades, but it seems our windows are not conventional sizes. They are quite long and wide, exceeding the largest readymade sizes available. So I'd be looking at getting 2 sets and sewing them together just to fit one window in our bedroom, let alone what I'd need for the dining/living areas. I never knew curtains could be so difficult!

Thunderstorms are starting so I'd better get off the 'puter - Hope you're having more fun in the garden than me!

I like double glazing after staying at a friend's house in the depths of Scotland. Real double glazing - not the stick-on sort.

The rains have come and the grass paths are quagmires. The dog looks out, crosses his eyes, and heads back to his pozzie behind the woodburner. No visible snow - but I can't see the tops on the ranges either, so it's bound to be there.

Potted up some cinerarias. The survivors from last year are showing happy green leaves. Hopefully they'll be sheltered enough to survive the coming frosts. In Wellington they grow wild on the Tinakori Hill. Sigh.

Anyone got a recipe for a 'rainhat' for the succulents that doesn't collect bucketloads of water and can be made by an impatient ten-thumbed gardener? And looks tidy. And covers Aloes about 45cm high.

Directions would be very welcome, thanks.

Back to the filing. I've done everything else - apart from scrubbing the algae off the terracotta pots - and it's too miserable even for that.