5 January 2025

Happy New Year to you! We trust it has started well.

For us, January is the month to enjoy beans, zucchini, cucumber and lettuces. Although we’ve had plenty of rain, there have been warm days, enough to burn the tips of lettuces, so just a reminder to cover the tops of your lettuce beds with shadecloth.  You’ll be amazed at the difference this makes.

Sweetcorn is almost ready.  Don’t forget to pull off side shoots at the base of each plant so that the growing energy goes into the main stem.  And give those seedy heads a good shake so the cob is fertilised.  This makes the difference between lots of kernels on the cob or a bit of a patchy one.

Our tomatoes are sizing up, but not ripening yet. 

Perfect time to apply that comfrey liquid we made.  Give it a good stir then siphon out the liquid into your watering can and add water – pretty much half comfrey and half water, but more water to comfrey is also fine.

Slosh it over the foliage.  You don’t need to use the rose necessarily.

I just put the mushy remaining leaves directly onto the beds of the tomatoes or other fruiting veges, like capsicum, chilli or eggplant.  If you don’t have access to any other comfrey to make another lot of liquid, you can just add more water to the remaining comfrey leaves.  And you can always buy comfrey liquid.  The potassium from comfrey liquid really enhances fruit production.

At this time of the year birds, bees and beneficial insects are thirsty, so rather than have them pecking away at your juicy vegetables, set up water for them to drink.

I’ve finally made the pile of biomass that was accumulating into a hot compost.  Our ingredients are fresh grass clippings, chicken manure, Morganics, egg cartons, used coffee grounds, wood chips (use soil or old compost as an alternative) and the all-important spent crops which we call biomass.  

Layer it all up.  Watering as you go is extremely important to help it all break down quickly with the heat that the pile generates.  I water the biomass at each layer as that has become quite dry. 

You don’t need to cover it as thoroughly as I have here although the black polythene does help heat things up.  I did it originally like this as I have a mortal fear of rats and I didn’t want to be making anything that would attract them, but there’s no fresh food here, so they’re not interested. Video with Rob making hot compost here.

Keep up the sowing of leafy greens each month.

Our Christmas potatoes were a joy again this year.  Here’s the bowl for one family on Christmas Day.  I took two more bowls of similar size out of our patch.  Enjoyed by all with lashings of butter and some mint.

And here’s an article I read recently with an idea that, while not original, might spark some interest.

In the meantime, happy January gardening!

From Jan and Rob

8 Responses

  1. Thank you for taking the time to do these newsletters and share information and ideas. It’s very appreciated

  2. I see that you water the tomato leaves with the comfrey .
    Ive always avoided watering the leaves of my tomatoes .
    Does watering the leaves with comfrey make them more drought and disease resistant ?
    Thank you for your blog , its so interesting to learn more from you.
    Happy new year to you too.

    1. Hi Janet Yes the comfrey liquid which is a fertiliser is more quickly absorbed when applied to the leaves of tomatoes, so quicker results. And yes, when watering we avoid the leaves of the plant so as to lessen the chances of a fungal disease setting in. That may sound contradictory, but you’ll be watering more often than applying comfrey liquid, so there’s more chance of encouraging fungal disease. Comfrey, applied in the morning to the leaves, will have been absorbed well by the end of the day. Comfrey is high in potassium which is the mineral that encourages fruit production, so you’re likely to get to higher yield with its application. For drought resistance, mulch heavily. For disease resistance, keep your plants in high health. Bugs and diseases are attracted to the higher sugar level in ailing plants 😊

  3. Hi Jan and Rob,have had mildew on my Courgette plants which we have sprayed for and it has knocked it back,but now I am wondering do we need to treat the soil with anything special to be able to replant.Thank you for the newsletters they are always so interesting and helpful

    1. Hi Beryl Powdery mildew and courgettes go hand in hand for gardeners in the North due to humid conditions. No need to treat the soil where your courgette has been, just plant another type of crop – leafy green, root crop or legume. There’s still time to get another new courgette plant in before the end of summer. All the best 😊

  4. Looking for some advice. I have a pasionfruit plant that every year get infested with pasionfruit hopper, just wondering if you have any tips combat them.

    1. Hi Lorraine We recommend spraying your vine with Neem Tree Oil – spray 3 times in the evening, each time 3 days apart. We would also suggest pruning excess vine branches off and feeding the plant well. Hope you see some improvement 😊

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