What An Odd Month So Far!

I think it's true to say that so far this month hasn't been all that much like January. It looks as though it will finish up as a very mild January.

Temperature and Barometric Pressure Records 18-24 January 2020

Looking at the chart above it shows the temperature falling below zero last Sunday. That's the only time this month that's happened which is unusual for January. With no more frosts forecast that might be the only day this month with a below 0°C (32°F). The lowest number of such days over the last ten years was in 2018 when we had 4 such days. The average temperature for the month stands at 6.9°C or 44.4°F (up to the 23rd of January) well above the 5.9°C (42.6°F) the highest previous value I've recorded back in 2014. I think the highest value for January, from Met Office records, goes all the way back to 1916 with a temperature of 7.5°C or 45.5°F.

The record high pressure earlier in the week brought with it some dry weather but it hasn't done an awful lot of drying up at the plot. We did make one visit during the week to make a little bit more progress at sorting out our old honey berry bed.

The lavender plants which edged 2 sides of the bed were dug up. The ground was very hard to say the least and a pick axe came in handy to prise the biggest of the lavender bushes out of the ground. After some deliberation we have decided to try and take some lavender cuttings from the existing plants rather than attempt to replant the old plants. The bed was dug over and left for the winter weather to break down the soil.

I've still got to clear the edge of the bed adjacent to our plot boundary. I'm planning to remove the existing post and wire fence after cutting back the grape vine which grows along it. Once the bed has been dug over I'll replace the post and wire fencing and re-attach the grape vine.

Copyright: Original post from A Gardener's Weather Diary http://ossettweather.blogspot.co.uk/ author M Garrett