By Ruth D'Alessandro, The Wildlife Gardener

The Wildlife Garden is looking rather forlorn. The Wildlife Gardener is also feeling forlorn: it’s too cold to plant early broad beans in the greenhouse and any attempt to rake up fallen leaves and debris disturbs tiny hibernating froglets fast asleep under their humus duvets:

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This year’s leaf mould still lies on the grass:

And ice coats the greenhouse panes:

I’ve left everything far too late due to pressures of work and domesticity, expecting a mild New Year break to tidy up the Wildlife Garden and get cracking with the planting. Although the big advantage of a wildlife garden is the scruffier it is, the happier the wildlife. What a great excuse.

For once we have a proper winter, and I’m completely unprepared for it! Perhaps, though, if we have a proper winter we might just get a proper summer. This is not just armchair conjecture and optimism: La Niña, the weather phenomenon responsible for knocking the jet stream off course and bringing us miserable summers in 2007 and 2008 is now declining.

The jet stream (global high altitude winds that push Atlantic depressions towards Britain) brings wet and windy weather to the British Isles in winter. In the summer the jet stream should move farther north taking its foul weather with it. La Niña occurs when the tropical seas of the Pacific ocean cool down. (El Niño occurs when these tropical seas warm up). For all manner of complicated meteorological reasons, La Niña knocks the jet stream off course so that it brings its miserable weather to Britain in the summer. Which it has done for the past two years.

There’s some sunspot activity going on that bodes well for a warm summer too. The Sun gets spots (storms on its surface) in 11-year cycles. It starts with none, then gets spottier and spottier until some sort of astral Clearasil gets rid of them and the process starts again. High solar activity has been linked with high temperatures and droughts.

Last year the Sun had the complexion of Sonam Kapoor and thus its quietest sunspot period for over 50 years. And we had a rubbish summer. But this year those irritating little pimples have started to erupt again, perhaps heralding warmer and drier weather for our little planet so dependent upon that star.

Although the economic forecast for 2009 may look stormy, we might just get a decent summer. Clouds, silver linings etc. Remember you read it here first.

Happy New Year to all our Wildlife Garden readers!