Is Winter boring in the outdoors-- NO WAY HOZZY!

Are you reading this now with your feet up against the fire eating a big bowl of steaming hot soup and thinking to yourself -"oh thats me hibernating for the winter. Im not going out in that. Sure there's nothing to do!!"

YOU COULD NOT BE MORE WRONG.
I am going to give you a few ideas I have and also give you some website links to fun pages I have found that will help.
Well if you have already been growing some food,what can you do to look after your already growing veg and help make things easier for next season.

• Firstly look after your winter crops. The one major thing I did last winter was secure netting over my kale,cabbage and Brussels sprouts.The birds are hungry and pigeons especially could wipe out a few plants of a morning. A cloche or some heavy polythene and old blankets etc. are good for keeping the cold away from your tender veg. Kale is one of the toughest out there and my own survived about minus 14 degrees Celsius last winter. It may sound silly but plants may need some water if its dry and sunny for a long period ( unlikely you say). Harvest any vegetables that would be killed in severe frost although your parsnips will benefit from a wee frost which will improve the flavour.
• Secondly look after your raised vegetable beds. November rain or the rain we got last week will wash all the goodness and nutrients out of your soil. What I do is cover with some old carpet or black polythene.This will protect against the weather but it will also kill any old weeds or grass if its a new vegetable plot.
• Thirdly get your compost bin in order and turn over if it needs it. Maybe dig some into your soil before you cover the beds so it will be ready for next year. Get a separate leaf mould bin going beside your compost bin. Make a cylinder shape by curving some chicken wire or similar and packing old leaves down into it. Now it takes about 18 months to be perfect but its worth waiting for and its free!

When all thats done now its time for a bit of fun and learning how to enjoy the outdoors.

There is so so much to do and if you dont believe me have a look at this brilliant website called Nature Detectives-( click to go to ) . On this site you can download loads of fun outdoor activities like Playbooks-Puzzles-Bird spotting sheets- Insect hunts etc. There is loads to do there.

Walks on a cold crispy morning with the sun shining, be it in the park or around your town or maybe feeding some ducks in the pond or river.

And lastly dont forget the hungry birds. When everything is frozen they find it hard to get food and also which is very important they need water so please leave out a wee bowl of tepid water as a treat.

So I will stop waffling on and let you get back to your fire which is nice aswell in the winter.

Stay safe and stay warm.