So after being enthralled with the signs of Spring in the garden I made it to the greenhouse and enjoyed some pottering around - the first of the year. But for a change there wasn't aimless pottering as I set out to achieve one thing that'd been bothering me for a while. And that job was to tidy my Aloes.

I've mentioned before how promiscuous my succulents are and they're at it again. I have three pots in a row on my kitchen worktop and they've grown and grown and had lots of babies, and so it was time to sort them out.

*Stop sniggering, I'm being serious*

My backup plant had also had babies. And yes I have a backup plant on the off chance that any that I pot on don't survive. Truth is I can't bear to put any of them in the compost heap.

That purchase at a Dorset County Fair was one of our best investments ever, for a couple of quid I've been kept in Aloe Vera plants ever since. The mother plant is still going strong and I was surprised to see so many roots.

THE MOTHER PLANT WITH AN IMPRESSIVE ROOT SYSTEM

With all the baby plants separated, it was onto the potting up.

First there was one:

And then two:

And a third:

And then a few more, including the mother plant backup pot.

I had more roots than plant left when I'd finished with all the baby plants, so that pot with the label marker and seemingly nothing in has those roots, as I was interested to see if they'd continue growing.