January Jobs and Harvests

January is nearly over and there’s still plenty of jobs to complete up the allotment before the busy growing season starts. Not that I’m panicking at all… the temperature has dipped rather low this past week and snow has landed in the UK so there’s no rush. The last frost date in the UK is usually around May time so I won’t be planting anything out up the allotment until the danger has passed. However, saying that it would have been nice to have had the allotment ready and dug over before the frosts came! Next year I plan to get everything ready by the end of the year so that I can sit inside and knit by the fire during these colder months instead…

I have been slowly ticking jobs off my list though but there are a few major ones that need completing in February. One of these includes weeding and digging over the wildlife area as well as cleaning out the pond and sourcing a Clematis to plant next to the shed. I also need to prune the blackcurrants, gooseberry bushes, raspberry canes, the grapevine and the rose bush too. I managed to support my purple sprouting broccoli last weekend but that bed also needs a weed and a good dig. Then there’s also the leeks and swiss chard that need weeding around and I also need to start harvesting them too so that I can get that bed ready for this growing year.

One of the crops I harvested last weekend were the Brussel Sprouts, they were starting to go over so the time came to pick them and pop them in the freezer. I only planted out one row of 6 plants here and I’ll admit now they didn’t grow very big. However, I did serve up homegrown sprouts this Christmas so I’m not complaining! It was my first year growing what I call ‘normal’ sprouts, the past two years I grew Flower Sprouts (or Kalettes) which were great to grow. So I’m going to give these Brussel Sprouts one last go this year and if they don’t produce an amazing crop I’ll no doubt go back growing that pretty little flower variety.

Now that January is out the way I’m starting to get very excited for the year ahead, even more so when my 2018 allotment and farm photo books came in the post so I could flick through the past year. It’s so easy to forget about all the good times and the beautiful harvests you had during these colder months so I always enjoy looking back at the past year and how the allotment was looking in the Summer. I’ve printed these books out for the past 3 years now and use a company called Blurb, I cannot recommend them enough. What with looking back at 2018 and drawing out my plans for 2019 I’m sure excited for the growing year ahead!