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 8th post of 2025 in this year’s series of
“The Anaesthetist’s Allotment”.
It is only a week or so since my last posting, but things are starting to move forward at pace now in the allotment, so I will update you as often as is needed.
In the greenhouse:
The Seed Potatoes (Picasso) which I had planted into grow-bags in January had sprouted whilst we were away on holiday. So, two weeks ago, I added some more compost to the bags, covering most of the new growth with the compost.
By last week, the potatoes had grown through the new layer of compost. So I have added some more compost to fill the bags up.
Hopefully the weather will warm up a bit over the next week or so, and then I will be able to put the bags outside the greenhouse to continue growing.
The Seed Potatoes (Picasso) have been chitting in the greenhouse since January. The process has worked well and they all have nice healthy little stubby growths.
So, it’s now time to plant them out into the Allotment.
I have a handy potato planting tool (top). You wiggle it down into the soil. Open the handles………
Pop a nicely-chitted potato in (middle) ……
Remove the tool…….
et voila, the potato is planted at the correct depth (bottom)……
“Seem-pilz” as they say!
……..then cover over all of the potatoes with soil (top)…….
…….and wait…….
……for them to start growing.
Two raised-beds of potatoes planted ✅ (bottom)
I received three Broccoli (Marathon) plants from a mail order just as we got back from holiday earlier in the year. I put them into a cold frame to acclimatise them to the Scottish weather for a week or so.
They have now been planted out into their allocated raised-bed in the Allotment. (Left)
A protective netting has been placed over them to protect them from the pigeons and other scavengers at the moment, but later to protect them from the dreaded cabbage fly!
I have more Broccoli plants arriving later in the growing season – I’m attempting to get a nice staggered approach to the crop (successional sowing!) instead of the usual glut of Broccoli which we get at harvest time. However, these later plants only arrive in June / July. So, on reflection, 3 broccoli will not last us that long. So, I have sown some more Broccoli seeds in the greenhouse. They have all sprouted over the last week (right). I will wait until they have produced true leaves before thinning them out.
Right, so now we get on to the seed sowing saga which took place two weeks ago………………
Leeks – Oarsman and Below Zero – Both have sprouted nicely. Looking good.
Also sown last week:
Summer Cabbage (Caraflex). – These have sprouted in every cell. 😊 (top)
Broad bean (The Sutton). – Most cells have just sprouted in the last day or so. 😊 (top)
Beetroot (Boltardy = red) & (Burpee’s Golden = yellow). – Both have partially sprouted, more still on the way (middle)
Chard (Bright Lights) & (Perpetual Spinach). Both have sprouted well (bottom) 😊
Tomatoes (Gardeners Delight) plants from our local Garden Centre. Looking much better after a feed and some sunlight! I’m waiting for appropriate grow-bags to arrive in the garden centre to allow me to plant them out into their final position in the greenhouse.
The two Acer Bonsais are looking great and in full leaf now. I am hoping to move them outside over the summer.
The two Jacaranda Bonsais and the Ficus Bonsai have both started sprouting lots of new growth and are looking great. I will move them outside of their mini-greenhouse into the actual greenhouse in a week or two when the weather warms up a bit more.
In the Garage:
………yes………
……….in the garage!
As I explained earlier, I have set up a heated propagator with artificial lights added. Within this, I plan to germinate my squashes, pumpkins, cucumbers etc. I can set the temperature of the propagator quite high (at 25’C) which these seeds need to germinate.
I tried this last year and it worked very well. The seeds germinated quite quickly and the wee seedlings grew like triffids. But then, there was a disaster. I left the top of the propagator on tight which created a tropical jungle-like humidity. This caused a fungal overgrowth and my poor wee plants started rotting. I lost pretty much the whole lot and ended up starting over from scratch, resowing. This meant that the plants were all behind schedule and our crops were very poor last year.
I am determined to learn my lesson this year, so here goes!
All of these seed trays have been placed into the propagator in the greenhouse.
Note the wood logs – allowing ventilation – hopefully not so much as to lose all the heat!! 😬 This strategy seems to have worked just fine and there is lots of lovely healthy green growth within the propagator.
Now, my regular readers will know that I always have to experiment with something! Others would say that I’m a sucker for punishment 🤷♂️! Well, we have some newish air plants. We have found that they do quite well with a high humidity. So I have placed them on a rack above the seed trays, hopefully taking advantage of the high humidity in the lid of the propagator.
As expected, the air-plants did very well in this environment. Unfortunately, they have had to move back up to the kitchen because the seedlings have grown too big.
Two weeks ago, I had sown:
- Courgettes – “Gold Mine” (yellow) & “Zucchini” (green) (top left) – all of the Zucchini have sprouted, some even starting to develop their true (adult) leaves. But only one of the “Gold Mine” has sprouted so far – I may need to resow a couple of these 😬
- Butternut – “Walnut” (top centre) – all of the Butternut have now sprouted
- Summer Squash – “Little Gem”, or for those from Southern Africa, “Gemsquash”. (Top right) – all of the Gemsquash have now sprouted
- Pumpkin – “Jack of All Trades” & “Wicked”. (Bottom left & centre) – the Jack of all Trades have sprouted well and have shot up really tall! The Wicked – only two so far with the second only putting in an appearance yesterday!
- Cucumber – “Mini Munch”. (Bottom right) – All have sprouted and are looking good.
Veggie garden / Allotment:
The allotment still looks pretty bare, but it is starting to fill up a bit now.
The Broccoli Marathon which I planted out at the beginning of the week are looking great.
Peas (Early Onward) have been sown directly into the soil (top & middle).
A structure with a net has been erected for the peas to grow up when they sprout.
Last year, someone (I’m convinced it was pigeons or blackbirds) dug up all of my pea seeds. So I have put a protective net fence over the top of them to try to prevent this (bottom left)
…….no signs of any growth yet……
I have also sown the Runner Beans (St George) directly into the soil.
A “wigwam” structure has been constructed for the beans to grow up when they germinate.
Again the same “someone” dug up these seeds last year, so a protective netting has been applied.
…….no signs of any growth yet……
I have also sown some more Broad Beans (The Sutton) directly into the soil. Two weeks ago, I had already sown some of these seeds in the heated propagator inside the greenhouse. Hopefully these two sowings will give us a successional crop, thereby extending our harvest.
Again the same “someone” dug up these seeds last year, so again, a protective netting has been applied.
…….no signs of any growth yet……
I have sown some Carrot (Amsterdam Forcing) directly into the soil.
I have sown these very thinly using a seed tape. I have also sown them very early in an attempt to avoid the dreaded carrot fly.
I will put a carrot fly preventative netting across the top of them soon.
…….no signs of any growth yet……
I have direct sown Beetroot (Boltardy and Golden) seeds directly into the raised-bed.
Hopefully this will provide a second harvest (succession sowing) after the ones which have already germinated in the greenhouse.
I have direct sown Spinach (Perpetual) seeds directly into the raised-bed.
Hopefully this will provide a second harvest (succession sowing) after the ones which have already germinated in the greenhouse.
The Onions “Hercules” from the greenhouse were planted out into the allotment before we went away. They are coming along nicely and looking good. (Right)
The Shallots “Longor” were also planted out before we went away. They are also looking great and doing well. (Left & right).
The Garlic – “Granny’s” and “Solent Wight” were sown in autumn last year. They have both sprouted well and are now growing very strongly. Should be a good crop.
The Rhubarb (behind) is coming along nicely. We should be able to harvest some very soon. However, “the one who is magical” at making rhubarb crumble and rhubarb jam is working all of the rest of this week. I don’t think I dare mention harvesting rhubarb until at least the weekend or there may well be a murder 😬!!!
The Welsh Onions have come on nicely. I split them up last year and planted out several individual plants. They seemed to die at the beginning of winter. But, no, they had not! They sprouted in February and have done well. The plan with these is to harvest some as they bulk up, and to divide others into more “new” plants for the future.
The Spring Cabbage – “Spring Hero” was sown in September last year, then planted out into the allotment last autumn. As the days start to lengthen, they have taken off and are now bulking up nicely. Wont be long until we get delicious cabbages from these – they are the most tasty of our cabbages.
This week, I have taken off their over-winter protective covering to give them better access to light and air.
A protective netting has been placed over them to protect them from the pigeons and other scavengers at the moment, but later to protect them from the dreaded cabbage fly!
In the Fruit Garden:
The Apple Tree (Eater) is beginning to come into blossom (left).
The Apple Tree (Cooker) is a bit behind (right). Most of the blossoms are still forming.
The two Strawberry beds (foreground) are starting to “green” up nicely. Another month or two until we are gorging on fabulous strawberries (hopefully 🤞!).
The Redcurrants are forming on the redcurrant bushes now (left)
Close up (right)
I will see you all in a week or so with further updates. Things should have moved forwards in leaps and bounds by then
I look forward to keeping you updated regularly on further developments in The Anaesthetists Allotment.
See you next time!
Dr Doug (Douglas) McKendrick 