View from the Rear Window - January 2022

January 1st 2022 was unseasonably warm with a maximum daytime temperature of 15 oC and a minimum nighttime temperature of 12 oC. Generally quiet in the garden with the winter-flowering cherry still producing and the sweet scent of Sarcococca brought out by the warmth...

...the middle of the month (12th - 22nd) featured a period of regular night frosts - illustrated here by this photo from the 13th...

...while the end of the month (26th - 31st) had warm days (mean 11 oC) and cool nights (mean 2 oC)...

Jobs in the Garden

Although January can be a quiet month in the garden, there are still a few things to do.

1. Composting continues throughout winter using the hot composting process. Only one of my three hot composters runs over winter because of the lower volumes of kitchen and garden waste.

2. Early Purple Wight soft-necked garlic was planted outside on 1st January after starting off in the cold greenhouse three weeks earlier

3. Last of the Blue Danube potatoes dug up (about 20 kg)

4. Final celeriac roots dug up from the Greenhouse Sensation vegetable planter

5. Continue to harvest parsnips, kale, chard and brocolli harvested from the kitchen garden

6. Start pruning grapevines

7. New seed potatoes arrive (Blue Danube from D.T. Brown); placed in trays to chit

8. Add mature garden compost to fruit bed (grape, blueberry, raspberry)

January 2022 Weather

Summary of key weather parameters are collated in the table below:

January 2022
Weather Parameter	Value	Dates
Average Monthly Temperature	9 oC
Maximum Monthly Temperature	15 oC	1st
Minimum Monthly Temperature	-4 oC	14th & 21st
Number of Air Frost Days	15
Number of Hot Days (> 25 oC)	0
Monthly Precipitation	15.8 mm
Greatest 24 h Precipitation	8.0 mm	1st - 2nd
Number of Dry Days	20
Monthly Sunshine Hours (estimated)	44.5
Average Wind Speed	3 km/h
Highest Wind Speed	45 km/h	29th
Maximum Barometric Pressure (Sea Level)	1043.1 hPa	12th
Minimum Barometric Pressure (Sea Level)	992.8 hPa	8th
Average Barometric Pressure (Sea Level)	1025.3 hPa

A graphical representation of the daily minimum and maximum temperatures is presented below. This shows a period of warm days and nights at the very beginning of the month, frosty nights in the middle, and warm days with cool nights at the end of the month.

The next plot shows the daily rainfall and average solar radiation for January 2022. Rainfall was low and occurred, mainly, at the beginning of the month. The warm days/nights at the beginning of the month were overcast/wet whereas the warm days/cool nights at month-end were sunny with generally clear skies at night.

Finally, January weather parameters for 2020, 2021 and 2022 summarised below.

Compared with the earlier years (2020 & 2021), this January was warm, though with a high number of frosty nights, while sunshine hours were average and rainfall was low. The Met Office reported January 2022 as England's sunniest since 1919. This appears to contradict the data from my Davis weather station until you look in more detail at the Met Office report. Sunshine hours were low to average in the south and West Midlands (where Hereford resides) but very high in East Anglia, East Midlands and the North East. Early flowering snowdrops & cowslips (on New Year's Day) were a consequence of a warm January.