Mid January 2022, be ready for the season
Find garden advice for this time in my recent newsletter of 15th January.
Mid January 2022, be ready for the season. Although it’s quiet in the garden, you can potentially be busy with jobs to save time later. You could be preparing potato seeds, choosing varieties and ordering seeds, and cleaning the greenhouse glass! Also finish any mulching you have not done with a little compost on beds and woody material on pathways.
Maybe remove some old wooden sides if they are rotting, and you will probably find plenty of slugs on the inside. This also creates more space for plant roots and is especially worthwhile in polytunnels, where wooden sides take up valuable space and can be obstructive for reaching the middle of beds.
I recently updated the webpage about me. This led to trawling through photo archives which Edward recently made digital. I found the one below, 11 years old and on a course day at Lower Farm. That was my previous garden, 6 miles from here where I cropped 1 acre or 4000 m² no dig.
Dear Charles, I sent a message through your contact form to enquire about possible practical work experience, could I get a confirmation of whether the message has been received?
Regards,
Michal
With plenty of nights of hard frost this winter, it has been time to learn what really survives cold and what merely survives milder frosts. For the first time since I started growing, my over-wintering Aquadulce Claudia broad beans have been pretty much wiped out by about 18 nights of -6C or below and the swedes don’t seem to have done too well either, sadly. The Brussels Sprouts grew a second great wave for harvest during the early January mild spell and the Savoy Cabbages still stand proud.
There’s always something new to learn given the variety of our weather from year to year…..
So tight Rhys.
Often in the 1980s and more recently for example, December 2010, we had colder nights than recently, for long periods, but with less damage.
One extra factor this year was the exceptionally mild November and then a sudden switch to December frosts. Plants I feel were caught unawares and I never saw so much damage in spring cabbage for example.
On the other hand, where we kept a cover of mesh over broad beans, they look okay, if not thriving! We do our best and gardening is certainly unpredictable.
I’ve just sown another 3 trays of Aquadulce Claudia this morning, hopefully to put out in early to mid-February.
They’ll be slightly later and maybe suffer a bit more from blackfly, but hopefully we will still have a nice crop in the end.
I’ definitely try and put mesh over the beans this time, based on your success with that method.
Hello Charles – I’m now in my second year of no-dig allotment and and my compost experiments. I’ve been offered bags of coffee chaff – do you have any experience or words of wisdom to share? I’m thinking that’s it’s a ‘green’ as per coffee grounds, despite it being brown in colour – what do you think. Thanks as always for what you do.
Dear Charles, talking of preparations for the new season — do you think I can expect good crops if I reuse the same large containers of soil-based compost in which I grew cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes last summer? I would add extra, fresh compost on top plus a handful of chicken manure pellets and comfrey to each one. Or would you recommend emptying and refillng the containers with fresh compost?
Many thanks for sharing your experience.
Hi Rosemary, I am not sure! It depends how deep they are, and to what extent they have their own soil-life interaction happening. If there is not too much soil in your mix, it should be sinking each year, and you can add more compost on top every year. If not, I would remove some of the top layer and put new compost on, 5 to 10 cm. Best quality!
Hello Charles, If you are still looking for a lighter weight fleece 25g 10m x 2m is available on eBay., £9.99.
Thanks Andrew, amazing. I bought a 10m roll.
In the description, it says nothing about uv treated, but I’d be pretty confident it is.
Last year there was some fleece sold, which shredded in sunlight within 2 to 3 weeks, so fingers crossed!
Thanks for your Jan 2023 update. I have some charlotte and wilja in store so am going to try some for seed potatoes, this would be my first time doing so. They were very good, so fingers crossed!
I was interested in the Pete’s compost/ digestate trial. I make my own compost and leaf mould but never enough for our large ornamental garden plus veg garden so we were buying ( from Sherborne Turf as am in Broadwindsir ) horse compost but this year they had a new product, part composted bark, part compost from recycling and part digestate. I bought an extra dumpy bag so I can use for sowing, potting on etc., so am hoping ut will be goid. Do you think I would be better off mixing with some if my own compost?
Thanks Katrina, and I would not use that new-mix compost you describe for potting. I reckon that will be disastrous, it sounds very low in nutrients and life. Better for machine, shrubs and trees! So yes, adding your own compost will make a massive difference in potting with it!
Thanks. I had thought with a proportion if ‘council compost’ it might be alright?
Yes Katrina, see my latest newsletter and up to half for a new bed can work, depending how undecomposed it is
Thanks Charles