New plants for old

This has been an extraordinary summer, from hail to heat wave. Jericho has its own little micro-climate and quite possibly its own soil characteristics. Mine was definitely ferrous, until I dug up a large iron plank that must have been there since it migrated, with difficulty, from Lucy's. There are some plants that flourish in Jericho, and some that don't, even if you sit up with them all night. Among the 'good doers' I would list bindweed, dandelions, roses, buddleia, marguerites, phlox, daffodils, clematis, and more bindweed. Irises grow if you can find them the 'well-drained sunny spot' that most gardening writers' gardens seem to consist of. Grass grows, in fits and starts. Mercifully, few of our gardens are big enough to house a noisy, smelly mowing monster dependent on fossil fuel. So the summer afternoons are quiet, save for the curses of wasp haters. Why were there so many wasps this summer? Two pests: one always with us, the other new. The first of course is snails. No, there's no answer. I do know someone who picks them all up, evening after evening, and trudges down to Port Meadow, where he frees them to run loose. Green as I try to be, this is too much. I resort to those blue pellets, which do work. The new pest is lily beetle. It has been around for some years now, but has only lately arrived in Oxford. The beetle itself is quite pretty - a petunia red. I have taken to using a small pair of pliers to catch them and - ugh - squash them. Why this bloodlust? Well, it's not just a case of damaged lilies, it's much worse; the beetle's lifestyle includes at one stage larvae which not only destroy all the lily leaves, but leave the whole plant covered with a revolting black slime. At that stage, you will wish you had been ruthless earlier. Autumn is the time to assess gardening triumphs and draw a veil over the disasters. You will have to dig your triumphs up, quite soon, and divide them, or they'll take over the whole garden. What do you do with all the good bits? I have the answer - a plant exchange. You put the unwanted plants in a container, such as a family size yoghurt pot, a plastic bag, or even a plant pot, stick in a label, bring them along to a central location and then go home with someone else's.