Just some January thoughts.

After finding several collections of sea shells from when I was a child, I decided to put them onto the compost heap at the allotment.  They are mostly made from calcium carbonate so will erode rather than decompose. They will last for quite a while if you don't crush them but they mix in well with compost if crushed. They will help to raise the pH of the compost so be careful not to put it onto things like rhododendrons or camellias. Be fine for brassicas they evolved from beach plants. Lots of shells on beaches. 

You have to start chitting potatoes as soon as you get them really. It is to stop them getting those long white shoots which fall off if you look at them. If you put them in the light then they make small dumpy shoots which are much more robust and will not fall off when you plant them. I'm hoping that JMB don't send me my seed potatoes until quite late because then I don't have to bother storing them by chitting for very long.

 

My little pond that now has frogs, toads and newts in it. No spawn yet but I expect it soon. It was a little overgrown by mint plants last August but they have all been cut back now. The water is very clear and has a lot of oxygenating native plants in it. It is right by my greenhouse and I have lead down a solar power wire to a pump in the pond from a panel in the greenhouse. 

My two Crystal tomato seeds have germinated and I am molly coddling them.  I know that the seeds were free but who puts two seeds into a seed packet?