January – The Wrap Up

Ahhh January, I miss you already.  Well I would do if we weren’t having a nice warm start to Feb, or indeed if Miss 5 wasn’t happily packed off to school, or if January wasn’t synonymous with the gradual death of many of my tomato plants.  

At the start of the month they were looking full of promise, lovely and bushy:

But then as they month went on they gotten sadder,

and sadder, and sadder

until the Broad Ripple Currant died completely.

The month wasn’t all bad though, some things looked happy and healthy throughout the month:

And some were looking much happier at the end of it than they were at the beginning:

Plus we had lots of good harvests.  As well as the potatoes which some would say I’ve already documented to death, January produced: the shallots, the first of the capsicums (from an overwintered plant) and more than a few cucumbers.  In fact I became inordinately interested in cucumber growth during the course of the month.  Here is the development of a cucumber over a 10 day period.

 It was, of course, harvested a few days later and went on to become salad.

January also had its share of pests an annoyances, citrus leaf miners on the potted citrus, black aphids on the garlic chives and most annoyingly what seems like thousands (about 5 in reality) of baby blackbirds practising their scratching skills wherever they can.  Any number up rooted lettuces later and I deployed the trusty cages to protect the most vulnerable of my plants. 

But finally check out what’s hopefully in my future (last year they all went missing during February), oh I do love Tamarillos, but they will make me wait – these should ripen in about May.