Frosts and snowdrops: The allotment in January

January is a very quiet month on the allotment, not much is happening but it is a good time to prepare for the new growing season and to get ahead with things before the "madness" of spring starts.
As much as I love spring with all the new growth, seed sowing, buzzing bees and flowers opening everywhere, I also enjoy the down-time now which gives me time to think and plan ahead.

A frosty day on the allotment

Little blue stem (Schizachyrium scoparium) in the foreground, adding some colour to the allotment

I have mainly been emptying the composters at the beginning of January and spreading the compost onto the flower beds. I have 8 composters now which give me a nice amount of my own compost. I use it mainly for the perennials as it is much easier to spread than the manure and not smothering any plants. The only downside is that I am also spreading annual flower seeds around as the composters don`t get hot enough to kill the seeds. Nigella and Calendula are a bit of a nuisance sometimes and I have to remove most of the seedlings to protect my perennial plants from being overwhelmed. But I always leave a few as I like their cheery flowers.  I was also shifting the manure which went onto the beds destined for growing pumpkins & squashes, potatoes, tomatoes, beans and sweetcorn.

Echinacea purpurea seed head

Perennials hardening-off in the cold frame

On milder days I have planted perennial flowers and grasses in the new flower beds. I grew most of the perennials from seed last year and hardened them off in the 2 cold frames I have on the allotment.
The new steppe planting is nearly finished now, one of my favourite areas on the allotment. It will be very exciting to see it develop in the next years. I planted Kniphofia,  Euphorbia epithymoides, Ratibida columnifera, Inula ensifolia, Pulsatilla vulgaris, various Eryngium, Echinacea pallida & purpurea, Phlomis cashmeriana, Tulipa praestans and the grasses Koeleria glauca, Melica ciliata, Bouteloua gracilis, Schizachyrium scoparium and Festuca glauca. I still have to plant Asclepias tuberosa and Geum triflorum. I will cover the area with sand and gravel to mainly keep the slugs away as apparently Asclepias tuberosa and some of the other plants such as Ratibida are very palatable to slugs. It also looks nice.

The new steppe planting area

Another new planting on the allotment

Me explaining a new planting to my partner

I have put some bird feeders out last autumn and since then there is a constant stream of birds, mainly blue tits, great tits, long-tailed tits and my allotment robin, filling their bellies with tasty peanuts and nourishing fat. It is a joy to watch them, busily flying back and forth between my feeders and the nearby hedge.

A great tit and two long-tailed tits visiting my bird feeders

The first crocuses

One of the highlights of January was the appearance of the snowdrops, crocuses, Cyclamen coum and winter aconites. I saw the first crocus flowers on the 12th of January, the earliest I have ever seen them flowering (see also my earlier blog post here). The snowdrops seem to be spreading slowly and some appeared in places I have never planted them. Snowdrop seeds have an attachment called elaiosome containing fats and proteins, which ants find irresistible and carry off down their tunnels to feed to their larvae. This successfully distributes the seeds to new locations which explains my spreading snowdrop population. Cyclamen seed are distributed in the same way.

Cheerful winter aconites

Snowdrops nod their heads in the light breeze

Frosted Cyclamen coum flowers

It always lifts my spirits to see these hardy flowers in the middle of winter, adding a splash of colour to the mainly green, brown and grey colour palette. It is also a sign that spring is not too far away now.

The allotment at the end of January