The long term forcast is in

and it looks like we are in for another cold winter in the UK.  I am always interested in these and how true they turn out to be.  Apparently the proper cold (by UK standards that is which is about -8C for me) is due to start around mid November and last through until January.  Could also be a good year to bet on a white Christmas.  Looks like we are also in for a warm patch starting next week which will be great giving me a chance to actually do some non succulent garden clearing as I haven't started at all on the garden.

These Indian summers are becoming a bit of a fixture, although they are a mixed blessing as often it goes from warm to very cold within a day or two.  It is not great for the plants as they continue growing and suddenly get hit by the cold and are not dormant which does more damage. 

I finally feel I am on top of packing things up, I spent a happy hour this morning re-packing the cold frame, this time properly arranging the plants to allow two layers.  The bottom layer are the slow growing plants like the agaves.  These can cope with the lower light levels without getting leggy. Then on top of that goes a second layer of the faster growing plants, that even in winter tend to get leggy if it's too dark.  These are mainly the echeverias for me.  It is always a bit sad packing them up as it means cutting the last of the flowers off, in some cases, like e. blue prince, there are still flowers yet to open and it would carry on flower for at least another month given a chance. But drying them out is vital and I still have the indoors ones to admire.

I seem to have managed to clear this area of snails finally. Having been out there every evening to check and dispose of any and checking for trails it seems to have done the job for now.  The cold frame is away form the rest of the plants so hopefully I will get away without any end of year damage on that front.

I also set up a table for the spoilt plants that are inside.  This will be useful to allow me to arrange them into groups to make the most of the available spaces.  I find almost as bad as loosing a plant to the cold, is spoiling the look of one because the light was too low and it got leggy.  As with the cold frame, I therefore try to place plants according to light vs speed of growth.

I have already move a lot off the table, which was full when I unloaded the crates. Sadly it wont be allowed to stay there once the decorating starts, but there is a similar bay window in the room below (which we are currently working on) so I will have to ask permission to set it up there instead.  It is fun having so many plants inside, I don't have to go out all at the moment to be able to fuss over them and with quite a few of the aloes and echeveria still flowering they are bringing some colour to all the bare plaster walls. Mind you it has been noted that my decorating productivity has decreased significantly since they have been set out. I can't think why.