The Weather

Like every good gardener, I like to talk about the weather and keep up to date what it’s going to do next.

The usual weather in the UK in January is cold, frost with periods of rain. We have had rather a mix of lots of rain, a few storms, high winds, a period of very cold and dry, down to minus 5 degrees celsius and now it is dry, windy and mild at 10-12 degrees centigrade.

In this mild weather, I could start sowing seeds and they would germinate. However the weather in the east of the UK has a nasty habit of turning cold again quickly, I have been burn’t a few times by this as the coldest month of the year is February in the UK. So don’t be fooled by the mild weather. I’ll start my sowings in mid February for the year ahead.

Vegetable Garden in Winter

I’m currently growing:

• Beetroot – Pablo F1 – sown in late August, harvest now. Small beets.
• Carrot – Sylvano F1 – sown in late August, harvest March.
• Perpetual Spinach – sown in June. It just keeps on growing. Harvest all winter.
• Spring Cabbage – Durham Early – sown late august. Netted until December. Harvest outside leaves through winter and head in March.

• Autumn cauliflower – Bola de Nieve – sown late august. Netted until December. Cauliflower heads are forming in Jan, harvest February.

• Kale – Black Magic – sown late august. Netted until December. Harvest from November to spring.

• Autumn Fennel – De Firenze – sown late august. Survived minus 5 degrees centigrade. Harvest March.

Striving for a better winter harvest

As gardeners we always like to improve our growing achievements every year.

My aim for Winter this year is to have a full 4 vegetable beds of overwintering vegetables, instead of 2 beds this year. I miss my leeks and garlic and onions seem to be a challenge in our wet soil.

I can be happy for the winter vegetables I have grown this year, as they have survived a cold snap and have provided us green leaves through the winter so far. I absolutely love the dark green leaved kale because it is so nutritiously good for you.

Spring is coming and it won’t be long before the vegetable beds will be full again.

Spring Countdown in days

Find out how many days there are to Spring where you live.

Countdown to Spring

There are 53 Days til 20th March which is the first day of Spring in the northern hemisphere.