Monthly Archives: June 2023

The Anaesthetists Allotment – 4th June 2023

Posted on by
Reply

Hello again! 👋

An update of happenings in The Anaesthetists Allotment since last week’s catch-up blog

I am still languishing with a dose of COVID 🦠. This is now Day 7 of symptoms and Day 6 since my first positive test. Yesterday was the first day that I noticed a slight reduction in symptoms, ha 🤔 a mild improvement! I’ll take it! Still not feeling great however, and I’m amazed at how much this wee virus thingy has floored me! I remain strongly positive on testing.

I’m still locked up in my room to try to prevent giving it to my youngest son who is the only one in the household who has so far escaped this current lurgy. He is desperate not to miss his school Prom on Thursday.

I managed to get outside yesterday into the lovely sunshine – a quick dash through the house with mask on – and got some photos of the latest from the Anaesthetists Allotment to share with you.

Disclaimer: I’m a professional anaesthetist, not a professional gardener. I do a bit of gardening and cycling in my spare time. I have grown veggies for many years and have learnt what works for me (sometimes!). These are my ramblings! I would be honoured to be corrected / advised by those with more knowledge than me!

In the Veggie Garden / Allotment:

Summer has arrived in the Far North of Scotland. It has been sunny and a baltic 17’C for the last 5 days. No rain 😮!!!! It is almost unheard of for “Summer” like this to last for more than 2 days here usually. What’s even more unbelievable is that it is predicted to continue and perhaps even develop into a heat wave, with temperatures of 21’C, over the next week. 🤩 . My plants have been enjoying the warmth and growing away nicely.

The Veggie Garden / Allotment is looking much more green as all the plantings develop. I will take you around some of the highlights.

Spring Cabbage (right back) are developing hearts now. We harvested our first one yesterday evening and had it as coleslaw – soooo green and delicious 😋.

Summer Cabbage (Caraflex) (left & right front) is coming on nicely.

Brussels Sprout (left back) – looking great!

Potatoes (Casablanca & Picasso) have all germinated and are looking really healthy

Broadbeans – successional planting used here. At the back are those started in the greenhouse early in March. They already have loads of flowers and thereby promises of nice crops. In front are the plants which were sown directly as seeds into the soil. They have all germinated well and will hopefully give us a slightly later harvest.

Gemsquash (front) and Pumpkin (back) are both looking healthy after being planted out a week ago. They continue to grow nicely.

Shallots are coming along nicely. They have been in the ground since February and are now starting to split into individual shallots. It wont be long until harvest time!

Foreground: Spinach (left) & Chard (right) are looking really good. We had our first harvest last night – see later. Delicious! One of my favourite vegetables!

Rhubarb (back left) has grown again nicely and is now due another cropping. Ahh! 😌 Rhubarb Crumble 😌 😋

Leeks – Musselburgh and Below Zero (a later harvesting variety) are looking great. They have now started growing on quite strongly.

Parsnip Countess F1 (foreground) seeds are sown directly into the ground. Five rows this year. They take ages to germinate and are very fickle. Some years we get a brilliant crop, other years, like last year, its a disaster and we get only a couple of parsnips to harvest. Let’s hope for a better year this year! Nothing yet! 🤞

Carrots (Sugarsnax) (back) have germinated and three rows of wee carrot seedlings are now visible. I have tried to sow the seeds very thinly to avoid having to thin out the seedlings and thereby reduce carrotfly infestation. I will also spray them with namatodes on a regular basis.

First bed – foreground: Beetroot – Red and Golden. Successional sowings. On the right is the first sowing started in the greenhouse in March. They are maturing nicely and it wont be long until we are harvesting these. On the left, are those sown directly into the soil in late April. They have germinated nicely and need thinning out now to one (the strongest) plant per station.

Second bed – behind: Peas. On the left are 5 plants I started in the greenhouse in March. The rest of the row are plants which have germinated after sowing the seeds directly into the soil towards the end of April. There will be another successional sowing on the near side of the bed within the next couple of weeks.

Beetroot – Red and Golden. As described above, those were sown directly into the soil in late April, and have now been thinned out to one (the strongest) plant per station. Looking good! No fatalities!

Garlic. Looking really strong. Wont be long until harvest now.

Runner Beans: Planted directly into the soil towards the end of April. These have germinated and are looking good. They will soon start to wrap themselves around their support canes and rocket skyward.

Leeks: (foreground) were planted at the same time as the other bed, but for some reason, these are stronger and much further ahead than the others in the other bed which were planted out at the same time 🤷🏻‍♂️.

Broccoli (back) This is the first planting of broccoli. They have grown well. If I look closely, and use a bit of imagination, they are starting to form hearts which will develop into lovely broccoli. Not long now!

Onions: Looking really good

Carrots: 3 rows of carrots planted between the rows of onions to try to deter the dreaded carrotfly. The carrots are growing quickly.

Courgette – yellow and green. Looking good after being planted out a week ago. We have already harvested 3 green courgettes 😋

In the greenhouse:

Potatoes: These have moved outside the greenhouse door permanently now. They are growing beautifully in their pots. Looking really healthy. They have flowered already so we could start harvesting them as new potatoes, but I will wait until the leaves start to die back before I harvest to allow them to bulk up a bit.

Cucumbers (Mini-Munch): Growing beautifully. Lots of mini cucumbers already in place – see the bottom of the two plants on the left and the close-up. We have a had a few already. They are delicious – full of flavour!

Gemsquash are really taking off along their trellises now. Flowers, and hopefully fruit, forming already

Tomato plants coming along well. I have already been removing side shoots to promote growth as a cordon (single straight plant) and thereby improve the harvest. I have also removed some of the lower leaves to allow light and air to circulate. This reduces disease and accelerates ripening.

Flowers on the Tomatos. Fruit will start forming from these.

Pumpkin growing like a triphid

Sweet Pepper growing well and tiny fruit starting to develop

Bonsai – I am resurrecting a interest in Bonsai cultivation this year and now have four wee plants in my collection.

Front left: Juniper This was a Juniper bush from a nursery which I have shaped and trimmed into a bonsai. My most recent endeavour!

Front right: Ficus This is Alexander’s bonsai. It almost died. I managed to resurrect it and have been extensively redesigning the shape. Looking really good!

Back right & left: Jacaranda both in very early stages of development. To be honest, I didn’t expect them to survive winter, but still looking good. Branches are very brittle and difficult to shape!

Harvest:

As mentioned, we have started to enjoy some of the fruits of our labour

You cant beat the flavours from home grown, freshly picked veg. Oh my!

Courgette (top left) and Chard & Spinach (top right) together with the stems from the spinach and chard which are also lovely to eat – a bit like celery!

Radishes (bottom) juicy and peppery 😋

Hopefully, I will be on the mend from this viral scourge soon and will keep you updated on developments in The Anaesthetists Allotment

See you next time!

The Anaesthetists Allotment – 31st May 2023

Posted on by
1

Disclaimer: I’m a professional anaesthetist, not a professional gardener. I do a bit of gardening and cycling in my spare time. I have grown veggies for many years and have learnt what works for me (sometimes!). These are my ramblings! I would be honoured to be corrected / advised by those with more knowledge than me!

Hello again! 👋

Wow! It’s been a month since I last posted. Can’t believe how time flies!

I am now languishing with a dose of COVID 🦠. I’m locked up in my room to try to prevent giving it to my youngest son who is the only one in the household who has so far escaped this current lurgy. It is still in full flow and I feel dreadful 🤒. I have been really busy recently, so will use this time in jail to try to catch up with the blog. Hope it makes sense through my befuddled virus-infected mind!

The first week of May:

The weather warmed up slightly, so it time to get those brassicas out of the cold frame and into the veggie garden / allotment.

The Spring cabbages (Spring Hero) are now starting to forge ahead quite nicely. (Left)

It’s time to plant out the summer cabbages. The winter cabbages are not quite ready yet. They will go back into the cold frame for a bit.

Summer Cabbage (Caraflex) is a Hispi like cabbage (ie pointed). It’s a new supposedly improved variety which I’m trying for the first time this year

That’s the Summer Cabbage planted out next to the Spring cabbages and the adjacent bed. The netting is protection against the cabbage white butterfly which lay their eggs on brassicas and the emerging caterpillars devour the plants in days

Top photo: Beetroot Boltardy (red) and Burpees Golden (yellow) are planted out into their final position in the veggie garden after having spent some time in the cold frame. I have also sown another 3 rows of seeds directly into the soil next to these to give us a successional harvest, so that they don’t all ripen at the same time.

Bottom photo: Perpetual Spinach and Chard Bright Lights both planted out into their final position in the veggie garden after having spent some time in the cold frame.

Parsnip Countess F1 seeds are sown directly into the ground. Five rows this year. They take ages to germinate and are very fickle. Some years we get a brilliant crop, other years, like last year, its a disaster and we get only a couple of parsnips to harvest. Let’s hope for a better year this year!

Leeks – Musselburgh and Below Zero (a later harvesting variety) planted out into the veggie garden. They were sown in the greenhouse and then have spent some time in the cold frame, acclimatizing.

Planting leeks: Firstly, create holes using a dibber in nice neat rows, correctly spaced. (right)

Planting leeks: Secondly, separate the leeks and drop the strongest individual leeks into a hole – one per hole (left)

Between 250 and 300 leeks are planted out

Planting leeks: Thirdly, Water each hole individually with a watering can to settle to roots into the soil (right)

Planting leeks: Fourthly, visit the Osteopath to fix your back!

The second week of May:

The Summer Cabbages (Caraflex) have shot up – looking really good. Maybe the cold frame did help!

The Spring Hero Cabbages are also coming along well now. Their hearts are just starting to form.

I have planted out the Winter cabbage (Tundra) into the veggie garden next to the summer cabbage. Those extra couple of days in the cold frame did the trick and it’s now big enough to be outside with the other kids!

The apple trees are now in full blossom and the bumblebees 🐝 are having a ball.

There’s flowers on the strawberries 🍓 in the fruit garden as well now.

The redcurrants are starting to form. We always have a huge crop of these and it looks like this year will be no different!

Some lovely fruit developing on the Gooseberry bushes as well. One of my favourites!

I will have to keep an eye out for the Gooseberry Sawfly larvae who can strip a gooseberry bush of every leaf with a day or two!

The potato’s have sprouted 😁

The directly sown Broadbeans (The Sutton) have sprouted as well – on the right of this photo.

The first sowing of broadbeans, which were sown in the greenhouse, are also growing away nicely and even have a few flowers on.

The onion’s are looking great, apart from the odd weed and potato (from last years crop) sprouting amongst them – the potatos have been delicately removed!

The carrots have sprouted 😁 – you might have to look very closely between the rows of onions to see the rows of carrots just poking through the soil.

The directly sown Runner beans (St George) have sprouted as well (bottom of the stakes) – together with rogue potatoes – also now removed!

The directly sown Pea (Aldermore) have sprouted as well – together with weeds and rogue potatoes – also now removed!

The leeks, planted out last weekend, are looking great and seem to have survived the trauma.

The Spinach and Chard which were planted out last week have taken off well and are looking great.

The third week of May:

At last, the freezing Arctic temperatures have left us and it seems a bit more like spring!

As I was supposed to be away the whole of the next week, I had a decision to make: Do I plant out the incredibly tender squashes etc, or do I wait another week or two. The danger is that if we get another cold spell, it could wipe them out, completely! I would not have time, though, once I was at work, so I took the bit between my teeth and decided to plant them out now. Good luck 🤞!

Pumpkins sown in the greenhouse were planted out into their final places in the veggie garden. In the last few years I have planted them closer together than advised, but in generous amounts of fabulous garden compost and then grown around these frames, they have done well and we have had good crops.

The Veggie Garden is looking great now. Starting to fill up nicely and lots of nice yummy veg on the way!

Courgette (2 x yellow & 3 x green) planted out into their final positions in the veggie garden in generous amounts of fabulous garden compost.

Gemsquash, beloved to those of us from Southern Africa, sown in the greenhouse were planted out into their final places in the veggie garden. Again they have been planted into generous amounts of fabulous garden compost and then grown around these frames. I am always amazed at how well these grow outside here in the Far North of Scotland and what a brilliant crop we always get.

Hope I didn’t just jinx that!

The greenhouse is starting to look a bit bare now after moving so much out into the veggie garden. However, the plants in there are already starting to grow rapidly and it will soon look like a jungle again!

I am trying an experiment with one of my Butternuts to see if it will grow up this frame.

Note the lovely red strawberry – above the butternut!

Hopefully, I will be on the mend from this viral scourge soon and will be able to get outside and take some photos of what’s happened in the Anaesthetist’s Allotment. I know it has changed a lot, even since these last photos were taken!

See you next time!