The Anaesthetists Allotment – 13th April 2025

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 7th post of 2025 in this year’s series of

“The Anaesthetist’s Allotment”.

It is only a week 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.

It has been fantastic weather for the last week. Sunny, hot (well for here anyway 18-20’C) and very little wind. We often do get a warm sunny spell in April just like this. But do not get complacent! Next week we are back to normal, cloudy, windy, rainy and maximum temperatures of 10’C. Yay 🥳 – 😔. We have to enjoy it though. Last year we did not really have a summer during “summer-time”!

Soooo…… this might be out last summer until September, when we often get another warm sunny week just before Autumn.

In the greenhouse:

The Seed Potatoes (Picasso) which I had planted into grow-bags in January had sprouted whilst we were away. So, last week, I added some more compost to the bags, covering most of the new growth with the compost.

Today (left) the potatoes have grown through the new layer of compost. I think more compost will have to be added during the coming week.

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… This means that they are now ready for planting into the Allotment. I hope to do that during the next week….

I received three Broccoli (Marathon) plants from a mail order just as we got back. I put them into a cold frame last week to allow them to acclimatise to the Scottish weather. They will then will get planted out into the Allotment next week. They are looking good and have grown dramatically in the last week (left)

I have more 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. These later plants only arrive in June / July. On reflection, 3 broccoli will not last us that long. So, I have sown some more Broccoli seeds in the greenhouse (right)

Right, so now we get on to the seed sowing saga which took place last week………………

Leeks – Oarsman and Below Zero – No signs of any activity yet!

Also sown last week:

Summer Cabbage (Caraflex). – with the eye of faith, there may be a couple of signs of activity just below the surface. Maybe tomorrow!

Broad bean (The Sutton). – No signs of activity yet

Beetroot (Boltardy = red) & (Burpee’s Golden = yellow). – No signs of activity yet

Chard (Bright Lights) & (Perpetual Spinach). One solitary seedling has appeared. More will follow, hopefully!

In the Garage:

………yes………

……….in the garage!

As I explained last week, 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!

Last week, I had sown:

Courgettes – “Gold Mine” (yellow) & “Zucchini” (green) – a couple of the Zucchini have sprouted (top)
Butternut – “Walnut” – No signs of any activity yet
Summer Squash – “Little Gem”, or for those from Southern Africa, “Gemsquash”. – No signs of any activity yet
Pumpkin – “Jack of All Trades” & “Wicked”. – the Jack of all Trades have sprouted well. The Wicked not yet! (Bottom left)
Cucumber – “Mini Munch”. One newborn sprout in the centre cell so far (bottom right)

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!! 😬

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. 🤞

So far, so good! The air-plants are also looking good. Unfortunately, they will have to move again as the seedlings grow.

Veggie garden / Allotment:

The allotment still looks pretty bare at the moment.

But there are a few new protection nets, and if you zoom in (or read on below!), you will note a few new structures!

The soil is clearly warming up. The weeds are germinating like mad.

Time to get weeding 🤮!

and……….

Time to get sowing………

if the soil is warm enough for the weeds to germinate, it should be warm enough for some of my seeds to germinate!!!

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)

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.

I have also sown some more Broad Beans (The Sutton) directly into the soil. Last week, 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.

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.

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 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, it has taken off and is now bulking up nicely. Wont be long until we get delicious cabbages from these – they are the most tasty of our cabbages.

Last year’s crops are still providing for us.

The Brussels Sprout are looking very tatty now (top), but I did get a few tiny Sprouts from them today for our Sunday Roast. This will be the last crop from them – they will be confined to the compost heap next week! 😥

There are still lots of Leeks left over from last year (bottom). They will be turning woody and inedible soon, but so far, so good. We are still getting tasty leeks for the table.

Today’s harvest of Brussels Sprout and Leeks to go with our Sunday Roast.