I planted a 30cm wide terracotta pot with Iris reticulata ‘Purple Hill’ at the top, Narcissus WP Milner in the middle and Tulipa ‘Merlot’ at the bottom.

I got my  plant in August 2019 and put it in a terracotta pot. The plant label said hardy to -5° C, and I’ve kept it outside ever since, but it hasn’t looked entirely happy.

The RHS says it can be kept outside in the summer, but not below +5°C, so I’ve brought it inside for the winter.

When I got compost from various sources during the spring compost crisis, I tested each batch by growing some broad beans in pots of each. They all did well, with no sign of persistent weedkiller damage. It seemed a shame to put the healthy plants on the compost heap, so I grew six plants on in pots and eventually got a few tasty beans from them.

Spectacular fruiting bodies in this pot. They’re not growing on the plant, I’m glad to say, but presumably on all the wood in the late lamented Cowbridge Compost.

What is the fungus? Might it cause trouble?

This is the first attempt at windproofing the potted brugmansias which have been kept in the house over winter. Quite a neat effect, and really shouldn’t blow over.

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This pot was buried in the gravel near the garage. Different, but still pleasing, effect.

These narcissi had finished flowering in pots. I planted them out in beds rather than trying to keep them for repotting later this year. It’s easier to get new bulbs. Anyway, I’m not so keen on narcissi in pots, on their own or with something else.

• Narcissus ‘Thalia’
• Narcissus ‘Kinglet’
• Narcissus ‘Lieke’

I brought two of the small brugmansias indoors a couple of weeks ago, cutting one right back and putting its cuttings in water, as usual.

This big one at the back is the best it’s ever been. It gets blown over if it’s left on the astro platform in the wind, and it has to be moved out of the way if I need to get a telescope out. I stopped my weekly feed a week or so ago.

The big and medium plants in the front are looking a bit battered. They can’t be moved out of the wind.

This is the third year they’ve flowered after being overwintered in their pots by the compost heap. They’re fed with tomato fertiliser every week. The white one, in particular, is superb. The lily beetle I saw earlier seems to have gone away.

While there’s not much astronomy happening (it’s still not dark at 11pm) there’s space for a few pots on the astronomy platform.