January is generally a quiet month spent mostly ordering and sorting seeds, and planning the sowings and plantings for the coming year. Towards the end of the month I started testing some of the older pea seeds in the
Reading Food Growing Network's seed swap boxes for viability. Most of the packets had good rates of germination and high enough to be included in the swap boxes for another year. It is, of course, far too early to plant out the seeds once they have germinated so they go into pots on the kitchen window sill and the pea shoots add a welcome variety to our winter salads.
It's also the time of year when I go through the seeds I already have and donate the surplus to the RFGN seed swap.
We had some snow and cold weather in Caversham. The snow was quite impressive while it was coming down but it didn't last long on the ground. SI really hope that we don't have long drawn out cold spell this spring as we have over the last couple of years.
