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 9th post of 2025 in this year’s series of
“The Anaesthetist’s Allotment”.
It has been a couple of weeks since my last posting. Unfortunately, I have been very busy with DIY projects at home and have not been able to update the blog as often as I would have liked. I am now starting to catch up with the DIY projects and will attempt to update you on what has been going on in The Anaesthetists Allotment. It has not been standing still, I can assure you! Especially at this time of year!
In the Garage:
As I explained in earlier postings, I had set up a heated propagator with artificial lights added. Within this, I 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 had a major disaster last year because I left the lid on causing too much humidity and death by rot and fungus of all my lovely seedlings.
This year, I have managed to avoid all that nonsense by allowing a good airflow into the propagator using logs (left). The vast majority of the seeds planted germinated well.
In the propagator, I had sown:
- Courgettes – “Gold Mine” (yellow) & “Zucchini” (green)
- Butternut – “Walnut”
- Summer Squash – “Little Gem”, or for those from Southern Africa, “Gemsquash”.
- Pumpkin – “Jack of All Trades” & “Wicked”.
- Cucumber – “Mini Munch”.
All of these had sprouted well and were now showing their true (adult) leaves (right). So it was time for them to leave their tropically warm propagator in the greenhouse and move up to the main greenhouse – see below
In the greenhouse:
As described above the squashes, cucumbers etc which had been propagated in the garage have now been moved up to the greenhouse. They acclimatised for a few days in the mini-greenhouse within the greenhouse. I then started the potting on process:
Cucumber – “Mini Munch” have been potted up into individual pots to continue growing. In a week or so, I will pot them on again into their final position: a grow-bag in the greenhouse.
Some of the Pumpkin – “Jack of All Trades” & “Wicked” have been potted on into their final position in big pots within the greenhouse (right).
Others have been potted up (left), ready to be planted out into The Allotment once all risk of frost is gone
Summer Squash – “Little Gem”, or for those from Southern Africa, “Gemsquash”.
Some of these have been planted out into pots in their final place within the greenhouse (left).
For some of these, I have put a climbing frame above each pot instead of my traditional trellis attached to the greenhouse. This is for the plant to grow up. I have used the frame as there is a chance that the Allotment will be relocating and I can then take them with me.
There are also a couple of Gemsquash that have been potted up ready to be planted directly out into the Allotment.
Courgettes – “Gold Mine” (yellow) & “Zucchini” (green) – The green courgettes are looking good (right).
I had to replant the yellow courgettes as the first sowing did not germinate (for some reason). So they are a bit behind and will need another week or so before potting up. (left).
Along with one of the Gemsquash!!!
The Seed Potatoes (Picasso) which I had planted into grow-bags in January had sprouted in early February. They needed more compost added to the bags on two occasions as the plants grew.
The weather has improved dramatically over the last few weeks. So, the potatoes moved outside the greenhouse door (left) during the day and back into the greenhouse at night. They are now outside full-time!
Yesterday, the first flower buds have appeared (right) 😊
I have planted out the first three Broccoli plants into the garden. I have some 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 are coming along nicely (right) and are big enough now to go into the cold frame outside to acclimatise (left).
Leeks – Oarsman and Below Zero – Both have sprouted nicely. Looking good. In the cold frame now. Needs to get a bit bigger before planting out into the allotment.
Also sown in early April:
Summer Cabbage (Caraflex). – These have grown on well and have now been moved into the cold frame to acclimatise prior to being planted out into the Allotment.
Tomatos (Gardeners Delight) plants from our local Garden Centre have now been planted into their final position in a grow-bag in the greenhouse (left). They are now taking off and growing like Triffids!
They already have their first flowers (right)!
The two Acer Bonsais are looking great and in full leaf now. I put them on to the automatic watering system. This seems to have been too much water for them and they started getting unhappy, particularly the orange one (pale green leaves). I am hoping to get them outside for summer – see later.
The two Jacaranda Bonsais and the Ficus Bonsai have both started sprouting lots of new growth and are looking great. I have removed them from the mini-greenhouse they were in over-winter. They have been happy in the main greenhouse for over a week now (left) and I will move them outside soon – see later.
I had a wildflower bed, which was seriously overgrown and had more weeds than wildflowers! So it got a serious haircut and a layer of weed-proof fabric added.
Today, I spent quite some time putting together a frame which arrived in kit form.
My Bonsai’s are now displayed on the frame. Looks great 😊 !
I have just got to set up the watering system now.
Veggie garden / Allotment:
The allotment is starting to fill up a bit now. Quite a bit more green in evidence now.
The Broccoli Marathon which I planted out in the middle of April are looking great. They have more than doubled in size since the last posting.
Peas (Early Onward) have been sown directly into the soil.
A structure with a net has been erected for the peas to grow up.
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).
It failed!
The birds still got in, so I had to add some more netting on the other side. That’s working and the remaining peas (which have not been snaffled by the birds) are now growing well.
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.
These have all sprouted well and growing quickly. The protective netting is no longer needed and has been removed.
I have also sown some more Broad Beans (The Sutton) directly into the soil. Two weeks before this, I had 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.
The directly sown beans have sprouted.
The ones grown in the greenhouse have been planted out.
It is impossible to tell the difference between the two! So much for this successional planting nonsense!!!!
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.
They have now sprouted – if you look very closely, you can see the three rows of tiny seedlings.
I will put a carrot fly preventative netting across the top of them soon.
I have direct sown Beetroot (Boltardy and Golden) seeds directly into the raised-bed.
The **&%$”?! Birds snuck under the net and scoffed most of the tiny seedlings. I have blocked the edges of the net – too late I fear! But a few remain to grow.
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.
These have sprouted and escaped attack from the birds (so far!)
The Onions “Hercules” from the greenhouse were planted out into the allotment before we went away. They are coming along nicely and looking good.
The Shallots “Longor” were also planted out before we went away. They are also looking great and doing well. They have had their winter cover removed.
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 is coming along nicely (right).
Harvested our first few sticks today (left)
Magically turned into the most amazing crumble by someone very clever in the kitchen.
Someone else (no names mentioned, but might have been me!) scoffed it down for pudding!!
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. Forming hearts this week. Wont be long until we get delicious cabbages from these – they are the most tasty of our cabbages.
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!
The Seed Potatoes (Picasso) were chitted in the greenhouse from January. In my last posting, I described in great detail how they were planted out into two raised beds in the allotment using my fancy potato planting tool.
Over the last couple of days, the vast majority of them have sprouted and are looking really healthy (left).
Just after I posted the last update, I received a mail order supply of my winter cabbages (Tundra). I potted these up (right) and within a week, they were ready to head out into the cold-frame.
They have now been planted out into The Allotment in their final position (left).
A net has been erected over them to protect them from the birds initially, but, perhaps more importantly later on from the dreaded cabbage white butterfly larvae.
In the Fruit Garden:
The two Strawberry beds (foreground) are starting to “green” up nicely. There are even a few white flowers now. Another month or two until we are gorging on fabulous strawberries (hopefully 🤞!).
But we have a couple of sneaky wee strawberries ripening fast in the greenhouse. These will be mine tomorrow 😊
The Redcurrants are forming on the redcurrant bushes now (left)
The Gooseberries are forming on the bushes. These are the green gooseberries. We also have red gooseberries.
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 
All looking very good. Hopefully you have beaten the birds this year…..love the stand for your Bonsai.
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