January 2020

This diary is a summary of our garden activities. The links are to blog posts that often give more detail.

01 - 05 January

Finished pruning jostaberries

Burned most of the prunings from buddleia, elders and hazels

Started clearing the honeyberry bed

Started tidying one of the rhubarb beds.

First post of the new decade

A decade of weather records

First plot tour of the decade – video

Getting out after Christmas – video

06 - 12 January

Visited Yorkshire Wildlife Park

Lots of spring bulbs emerging

Sarcoccoca flowering

Hippeastrum/amarllyis bulb opening

Very mild start to the year

Back to wet

13 - 19 January

We lost our lovely little Tivvy this week and are missing her so much

We went for a walk around RSPB St Aidans and everyone seemed to be with their dog.

Devastated

Lost my ‘man’s best friend’ yesterday

20 - 26 January

Had an afternoon on the allotment clearing the honeyberry bed.

Early rhubarb is shooting

First hellebores opening

First snowdrops in bud

One pot of garlic shooting

You say amaryllis – I say hippeastrum

What an odd month so far

First new record of the decade

27 - 31 January

Took part in Big Garden Birdcount

Hellebores and snowdrops starting to flower

Bulbs are growing quickly

Bought seed potatoes and onion and shallot sets

RSPB Big Garden Birdcount

Weather extremes

Mildest January in last ten years

Martyn & Susan Garrett

Sometime in the 1980’s we looked into taking on an allotment. We already had a vegetable patch in our garden but we wanted to grow more of everything - vegetables and flowers - and just didn’t have the space. At that time it was fairly easy to obtain an allotment quickly and we took on a plot on Green Lane as this was the nearest site to us with vacant plots. We set to work on the plot under the watchful eye of existing allotmenteers who were no doubt taking bets on how long we would last. The plot had been ploughed by the council which was a mixed blessing.


	Temperature °C		Temperature °F
	High	Low	High	Low
Jan	13.8	-0.6	56.8	30.9
Feb	12.9	-1.8	55.2	28.8
Mar	19.5	-2.6	67.1	27.3
Apr	22.7	-1.3	72.9	29.7
May	29.3	-0.4	84.7	31.3	84.74	31.28
Jun	29.9	4.6	85.8	40.3	85.82	40.28
Jul	34.2	8.7	93.6	47.7	93.56	47.66
Aug	31.2	3.9	88.2	39.0	88.16	39.02
Sep	27.7	2.5	81.9	36.5	81.86	36.5
Oct	17.9	2.2	64.2	36.0	64.22	35.96
Nov	17.4	-2.1	63.3	28.2	63.32	28.22
Dec	13.3	-1.9	55.9	28.6	55.94	28.5800


	Rainfall
	mm	inches
Jan	33.6	1.3339
Feb	168.2	6.6775
Mar	30.0	1.191
Apr	8.0	0.3176
May	5.8	0.2303	0.2303
Jun	68.2	2.7075	2.7075
Jul	61.6	2.4	2.4455
Aug	65.8	2.4	2.6123
Sep	26.4	1.0	1.0481
Oct	76.2	3.0	3.0251
Nov	29.4	1.2	1.1672
Dec	82.4	3.3	3.2713