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!
Dr Doug (Douglas) McKendrick 
Good to see how well everything is doing. Lots of hard work getting it all to this stage. Just hope you have great pleasure enjoying and eating your produce.
Meanwhile hope in a couple of days you start to feel better and are able to get out and potter on your garden.
Cheers mum and dad
LikeLiked by 1 person