Hello again! 👋
Welcome to this edition of The Anaesthetist’s Allotment. I hope you enjoy it.
Please feel free to follow, like or comment and I look forward to getting some of your feedback.
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!
General:
This is the 1st post of 2025 in this year’s series of “The Anaesthetist’s Allotment”. It has been ages since my last post. Things got really busy, between gardening, cycling, holiday-ing and home renovations, over the summer and into autumn last year. Before I knew where I was winter was upon us and I realised that I had abandoned my readers. My most humble apologies!
We are now well into winter. Not much has been happening in the allotment so far this “growing” (or should I say non-growing) season. The good news is that we are now over a month past the shortest day of the year. The days are definitely starting to lengthen, and there are a few signs that spring is in the air!
Snowdrops – the first flowering.
The rest not far behind (right)
They have self seeded again and are spreading out into quite a nice display now
Some Hardy Cyclamen are also putting in an appearance
Daffodils in the pots are growing nicely, but it will be a wee while still until they flower.
There is the odd Snowdrop in the pots as well
In the greenhouse:
I have a “salad bar” growing in a mini-greenhouse within the greenhouse. This saves having to heat the entire greenhouse to the required temperature. Winter sunlight is so minimal at this time of year that the lights are essential to get any growth at all
Similarly, the tender Bonsai, ie the two Jacarandas and the Ficus, over-winter in a mini-greenhouse. Again this is heated separately and has some lights to assist the plants.
Both mini-greenhouses are watered automatically by a battery controlled water-butt irrigation system. I cant use the normal hose based irrigation system during winter as the pipes would freeze and burst and we would have a disaster!
The whole greenhouse is kept just above freezing by the thermostatically controlled greenhouse heater in the photo.
There is also a collection of other plants within the greenhouse over-wintering.
The hardy Bonsai – Juniper and Acers.
A couple of strawberry plants and last year’s chilli (not looking good at the moment, but I am doing an experiment to see if it will resurrect after winter). 🤞
I bought a couple of Acer’s from our local garden centre in late autumn. A week ago, I took them out of their pots and gave them a massive root trim and repotted them into proper Bonsai pots. Apparently mid-winter is the best time to do root trimming and repotting of Bonsai. They both seem to have survived this radical treatment – so far!
The Acer Palmitum Orange Dream (left) is already starting to sprout its leaves in a glorious colour.
The Acer Palmitum Atropurpureum (right) is also looking fine and has grown tiny little buds along its branches
Potatoes – Picasso have just arrived and were set out today to start chitting. This is a process whereby they develop tiny shoots in response to light, much as old potatoes do if you keep them in the kitchen for too long! This allows them to grow quicker and better when they are planted. It’s a sort of pre-conditioning.
My Onion (Hercules) sets also arrived and I have planted them today. This is a new variety – my usual variety was not available, so I am trying these.
The Shallots (Longor) also arrived today. They have also been planted in the greenhouse.
The new arrivals, all set up in the greenhouse.
The Fruit Garden:
Today, I winter-pruned all of my fruit trees. I am maybe a bit late with this, but as they say, better late than never!
These are the two apple trees (right) after their haircut. It was a bit of a radical prune today (short back & sides!), but they needed a bit of a reshape. 🤷♂️
Veggie garden / Allotment:
The Herb Garden, outside the greenhouse, is also showing signs of life again.
The Welsh Onion (two brown pots) is a kind of perpetual spring onion. I split these up just before winter. They are now showing signs of new growth, so hopefully we should have a nice crop of spring onions next year.
The Rosemary has survived the winter so far. It does look a bit bedraggled, but will come away nicely as the temperatures increase.
The Chives are also starting to sprout. Looking good.
The Mint looks brown and dead. But it is not. It will also grow back good and strong when spring arrives.
Winter Cabbages – Tundra We still have three of these left. During a recent very cold spell, the pigeons got desparate and started devouring everything in sight. Including the cabbages. So I had to put a net over them to protect them.
The Brussels Sprout (on the left of the picture) have given us a fantastic cop of good sized, and very tasty, Brussels this year. And they are still cropping very well. The pigeons absolutely destroyed them during their scavenging spell, so they look very bedraggled. But the Brussels Sprout themselves are still fine. Again, I had to get the net out to protect them.
The Kale (on the right of the picture) is coming to the end of its life. I am still harvesting a few leaves from time to time to put into the airfryer and turn into delicious crispy kale!
We still have some Beetroot left. It has over-wintered very well and is still delicious. Normally by now, it has gone very woody, but so far…………
The Chard looked like it had died, but some new shoots seem to be growing. We may have some lovely “spinach” soon 😋
The Leeks are still great. We are still getting nice tasty leeks from these. Again, have not gone woody………..yet 🤞
The Garlic was planted in October. It has over-wintered with no signs of life apparent. Now, however, tiny shoots have appeared. It begins!
I sowed seeds for the Spring Cabbage (Spring Hero) in September and planted the wee seedlings out into the allotment in October. They have over-wintered well. Sure, they look a bit bedraggled, but wouldn’t you if you been out in the snow, ice, rain and wind all winter long! Oh and the slugs seem to have had a wee nibble as well!
But, soon they will grow away quickly to give us our most tasty cabbages of the year.
Today’s wee harvest. I find it amazing that we are still getting delicious fresh veg from our Allotment at this time of year and in the harshest of conditions.
A couple of weeks ago, in a really cold spell, I went outside to harvest a cabbage. The ground was frozen solid, so I couldn’t dig it up. I cut off the cabbage head and retreated inside to make my coleslaw. Only to find that the cabbage itself was deep frozen. Solid! 🧊 My coleslaw had to wait a bit!
I look forward to keeping you updated regularly on further developments in The Anaesthetists Allotment.
See you next time!
Dr Doug (Douglas) McKendrick 