A Happy New Year to you all. I hope 2012 is kind to us all.

January brings out the hoarder in me. I am particularly interested in cardboard tubes (from toilet and kitchen rolls); egg boxes; wire coat- hangers; jam jars and discarded ladies tights. I will also be searching for discarded 100mm down-pipes.

Cardboard Tubes make excellent seed planters for parsnips. Put compost in and plant two seeds in each tube. (Longer roll holders will have to be cut to toilet roll lengths.) Wait for germination and discard the weaker seedling. When the time comes to plant out, make a hole to accommodate 80% of the tube, and them firm in each one.

Egg Boxes can be used to allow seed potatoes to chit. Place your seed potato with one or more of the “eyes” pointing upwards where once was an egg. Place the boxes somewhere where it is cool and light and those “eyes” will produce sprouts. Alternatively you could spend £20 to £30 on wooden chitting trays. The choice is yours!

I use wire coat-hangers for a hundred and one things but this month I’ll limit you to one use. Making your own 3.6m mini poly-tunnel. Cut off the curly bit of each hanger. Straighten out the bit without the curly bit and bend it into a semi- circle. Repeat 18 times. Buy some polythene one metre wide (available in 5, 10 & 25 metre rolls). Push each end of your wire hoops into the ground so that the ends go either side of the row of plants you want to protect. Repeat at 45cm intervals. Lay your polythene over the top, tensioning each end with a brick or similar. Now push another coat-hanger hoop over the top of the ones which are now under the tunnel. Bunch up a loose end; tie off with string and secure with a stake. Discard the brick! We may not have anywhere to hang our shirts but we’ve saved a fortune!

Inverted jam jars make excellent individual cloches for vulnerable seedlings. They are particularly useful when we get those unexpected frost warnings from March onwards.

You may think that I have a thing about ladies tights! I promise the blame lies with the Royal Horticultural Society! Another one of their top tips ... Ladies tights make excellent tree ties and soft ties for other bushes and plants.

N.B. Always ask permission before using a lady’s tights!

100mm down-pipe cut into 25/30cm lengths is excellent for blanching and protecting celery heads. (This is used by an allotment gardener par excellence at Thornwood with stunning results.)

I am gradually digging out the soil from the greenhouse and dropping in a small mesh barrier about 30cm deep around the edges. Hopefully my furry visitors will be dissuaded from tunneling into the place to eat all our tomatoes and aubergines this year!

The second plot is now completely dug! We’ve put in a wooden decking pathway because my wife complains if she has to walk on mud while harvesting leeks, broccoli and greens during the winter. We’ve also paved the area in front of the shed.

WATER will become a major problem this year unless we get significant rainfall. The other day I learnt that Essex is now drier than several Middle Eastern countries, which is a rather sobering thought. However, we can do our bit by following a few steps .

• Collect rainwater in butts from any building.
• Water-in new plants well and then only give them a little from then onwards. Not only are we saving water but the plants will develop deep root systems.
• Employ water retaining methods around plants. Compost and manure will help retain moisture while gravel and bark chippings will give protection to the soil from the sun and will keep the soil moist for longer.
• Check which part of the world first gave us our plants. Plants from hot climates (such as herbs) require very little watering.
• Remember that one hour’s worth of sprinkler is equal to an average family’s usage in a whole day!

Jobs For January

• Continue working on the greenhouse.
• Check and repair all fencing where necessary (including our windbreaks)
• We will be lifting and dividing some of our rhubarb crowns and replanting some of it on the new plot. Excess good bits will find new homes somewhere on other allotments!
• Should we get snow it is important to knock it off any plant where it is going to cause damage.
• Send off our seed orders and an order for our asparagus crowns (which should be delivered in March).

I am now going to have another hot drink and prepare for a freezing February. Until the...

Photographs of packet seeds by kind permission of Harlow Garden Centre.

For more information about North Weald Basset Parish Council Allotments contact:

Adriana Jones by phone on 01992 523825

For information on Harlow allotments contact the Allotment Officer, Suzanne Prunty, through Contact Harlow 446655 or by email: contact@ harlow.gov.uk or for your nearest self-managed site contact the Harlow Allotment Association on Harlow 442809.