January 2024
After a relatively mild start to winter, the temperature has dropped outside. Spend some time outdoors and see if you can spot any of the seasonal visitors and weather conditons shown here.
Seasonal Weather - Frost
What is frost?
Frost forms when the temperature of the surfaces of the ground, leaves and trees falls below the freezing point of water. Water on the surfaces freezes to form ice.
Flowers and Plants
Hazel Catkins
From January to March Hazel catkins are one of the first foods for Honey Bees.
Their pollen is a great source of protein
Nectar and pollen can also be found in Snowdrops, Pansies, Heather and Hellebore; these are all great plants for your garden or window box
Birds
During the winter months we can harvest lots of green leafy vegetables such as cabbages, brussels sprouts and kale. We can also harvest parsnips and leeks.
What to Harvest
What to Plant
As it is cold and the ground might even be frozen, there aren’t many seeds we can plant outside at this time of year. We can however plant herb seeds in pots for the windowsill.
From the end of January we start to chit our seed potatoes ready to plant them out from mid March onwards.
We stand our seed potatoes upright in egg boxes and put them in a light but cool place, like on a windowsill in an unheated room. The potatoes then start to sprout. We do this so that they mature quicker when we plant them out.
Icy art
Put a container of water in the garden to freeze and add leaves and flowers to create icy art!
By Victoria Rees