I’m pleased to report that the problems with my battery-powered watering system seems to have been fixed. There have been no more leaks from the tap after my adjustment and it seems to be working well now.

It managed to get my plants through the two weeks that we were away. However, the two days prior to us coming back were unseasonably hot and this roasted several of the tiny plants growing in the mini greenhouse. I have managed to resurrect them, but it was a close shave!

The salad lettuce seed tape and carrots which I planted at the same time are looking good. We will soon be able to start harvesting the lettuce 😊. There are also a few spring onions growing, but not as many as I would have liked.

My seed potatoes (Winston) have now started chitting very nicely. Little shoots are appearing. This will help them to grow away quickly when planted.

So, I have planted some of these seed potatoes into grow bags in the greenhouse. These will give us an early crop of potatoes. The others will get planted out into the garden when it’s a bit warmer. No signs of any growth in these grow bags yet.

It is time to get started with this year’s crops. So yesterday, I sowed some seeds and put them into the mini-greenhouse with-in the main greenhouse to germinate. The seeds planted include:

Summer Cabbage: I’m trying two varieties this year: Hispi and Caraflex. I have grown both before, but this will be a direct comparison.

Kale (Nero di Toscana): My wife has adopted an unhappy expression 🤢, whenever I have suggested growing Kale before. So I was delighted when I received a packet of kale seeds in my Christmas gardening advent calendar! This variety is described as a “large stately plant with striking deeply-wrinkled, near black leaves. Can be picked from autumn onwards”.

Winter Cabbage (Tundra): I have grown this many times before and it is a firm favourite.

Beetroot (Detroit Globe): Another seed packet from my garden advent calendar. Described as: “a crimson red beetroot, a high producing crop. Can be grown in clumps of four. A sweet beetroot, it’s leaves can be harvested early and used like spinach”

Two days ago, I started the summer planting with Leeks. I am trying 3 varieties this year as I have become increasingly disappointed with the quality of my old staple: Musselborough. So this year, I am trying:

Below Zero: I have grown this a couple of times now and get nice leeks which last well all the way through winter.

Oarsman: “A quality, early maturing vigorous and reliable variety! Long uniform crystal-white shanks with dark foliage which bulk up quickly. Stands well, shows good tolerance to rust and bolting.”

Autumn Mammoth: “early variety, is comparable to Goliath if left to mature to full size. It has a long shaft and erect leaves, with some rust resistance.”

Cucumber (Mini Munch): a delightful finger sized cucumber which we have grown in the greenhouse for many years.

Courgette (Zucchini): A green courgette

Courgette (Goldmine): a yellow / golden variety of courgette

Pumpkin (Wicked): We have grown these for a few years and had some good crops, both in the greenhouse and the veggie garden.

Pumpkin (Jack of all Trades): We have grown these for a few years and had some good crops, both in the greenhouse and the veggie garden.

Spring Cabbage (Spring Hero) – as the days lengthen, so these are starting to bulk up. Wont be long until they start to form hearts and we will be enjoying them 😋 – a very tasty cabbage, one of my favourites!

Shallot (Jermour): looking really good inside their protective tent!

Right: Broadbeans (Sutton) sown next to their support stakes

Left: Perpetual Spinach – sown direct into the soil using a seed tape.

The Daffodils have emerged more and more over the last week and the contrast today were amazing.

I’m pleased to report that the problems with my battery-powered watering system seems to have been fixed. There have been no more leaks from the tap after my adjustment and it seems to be working well now.

The salad lettuce seed tape which I planted at the same time has also sprouted, as have the carrot seeds this week. 😊

Both looking good.

My seed potatoes (Winston) have now started chitting very nicely. Little shoots are appearing. This will help them to grow away quickly when planted.

So, I have planted some of these seed potatoes into grow bags in the greenhouse. These will give us an early crop of potatoes. The others will get planted out into the garden when it’s a bit warmer.

The celery seeds I planted have now started sprouting. This is a first for me 😊. Looking forward to seeing how this goes!

Oh! And we have been on holiday to the Isle of Arran and saw this magnificent lad!

Garlic (“Granny’s” and Solent Wight) have appeared through the soil during this last week. They were planted, using cloves from lasts year’s crop, in October last year.

In my last blog, I described my new battery-powered irrigation system which I had installed in the greenhouse. This was designed to last through short holidays and work trips, to keep the few plants in the greenhouse watered without connecting to the mains water supply (which would freeze at this time of year). All seemed to be working well last weekend, and I went away for a week’s work.

On my return, I noticed some bubbles in the pipes going to the plants. 🧐 🤔. Lifting the lid, I discovered the water butt was completely empty! 😠 It should theoretically last for several weeks at the rate set on the automatic watering system. I discovered that the tap at the base of it was leaking. I have tried putting the tap into a different position, and overnight, it seems to have done the trick and remains full this morning. We will see how it goes during the week this week – I may have to get another “reservoir” – yes, I do admit that this one was a very cheap “bargain”!!!

The salad lettuce seed tape which I planted at the same time has also sprouted this week. 😊

My seed potatoes (Winston) have arrived. Every year, I place them onto trays to chit. This is process where the seed potato is encouraged to form small shoots prior to planting them. This produces quicker growth once planted out.

Snowdrops are, however, now out in full force down the driveway. One of clumps is getting quite impressive and has even started seeding naturally around itself, with snowdrops appearing in the middle of the path 😊. They are gorgeous!

The apple trees are similarly poised to spring into flower as soon as conditions allow. The buds are all formed and waiting…..

…….. for just the right moment.

We are well into the throws of winter in the North of Scotland.

The weather continues to be awful. We have had more named-storms battering us this year, so far, than ever before.

The second to last one, Storm Isha was indeed Eish (for those non-Southern Africans, this is a very descriptive word for amazingly painful / dreadful / awful). We had very heavy rains and winds of over 100mph. These winds decided that my roof should no longer remain intact and very kindly removed a tile.

Storm Isha was followed after only a couple of days by Storm Jocelyn. Fortunately, she had not visited the North Atlantic gym quite as much as Isha, and left our newly repaired roof intact.

In summer, I have a full irrigation system installed in the greenhouse which is connected to the mains water supply. This ensures that watering is maintained even when we are away. In winter, however, this is not possible as the pipes would freeze and burst.

We are going on holiday in the next few months and it will still be way too cold to connect up the mains irrigation system. So I have put in a new battery powered watering system which gets its water from a 100 litre water butt inside the greenhouse. This should not freeze as it is inside the greenhouse – as long as my greenhouse heater doesn’t pack up 😬! It seemed to work OK at the first attempt, and I’m now running it under daily observation to get the settings right before we go on holiday.

In amoungst the Daffodils, Snowdrops, which appeared last week, have opened fully. They are the first of the bulbs to flower. They are one of my very favourite.

The hardy Cyclemen have now emerged from under the snow.

Beautiful 😍!

I took advantage of the thaw to check if I could get a fork into the ground. Often after a period of such low temperatures, the ground is frozen solid and the fork bounces off, sometimes quite dangerously. However, the snow seems to have acted as an insulating layer and to my surprise, the ground is not frozen underneath it.

Potatoes (Casablanca) – I am able to harvest some potatoes. Looking forward to having some of those with my Sunday Roast tomorrow! 😋

Mixed Lettuce: Was sown a few weeks ago and has germinated now. It will still be several weeks before it ready to start cropping.

– Celery – Self Blanching – Dwarf variety with a good harvest of string-free, solid hearts with a crisp, crunchy texture and mild flavour. No need to earth up.

Bonsai – I resurrected an interest in Bonsai cultivation last year and now have four wee plants in my collection.

Juniper This was a Juniper bush from a nursery which I shaped and trimmed into a bonsai last year. My most recent endeavour! It has overwintered extremely well and being hardy, did not need to go into the additional greenhouse.

Jacaranda – in very early stages of development. To my great surprise, they survived winter last year in my additional mini-greenhouse. This year they have taken a bit more of a hit, but are still alive and will hopefully grow away when winter is over.

Rose – I was given a rose plant for our Silver Wedding Anniversary last year. Having been mailed to us, it was in a very poor condition on arrival, with all the leaves dead or dying. I have managed to resurrect it in the greenhouse and it is is now looking really good. 😊

In amoungst the Daffodils, Snowdrops are starting to appear. They are the first of the bulbs to flower. They are one of my very favourite.

Spring Cabbage (right back) are developing hearts now. We harvested our first one yesterday evening and had it as coleslaw – soooo green and delicious 😋.

Summer Cabbage (Caraflex) (left & right front) is coming on nicely.

Brussels Sprout (left back) – looking great!

Broadbeans – successional planting used here. At the back are those started in the greenhouse early in March. They already have loads of flowers and thereby promises of nice crops. In front are the plants which were sown directly as seeds into the soil. They have all germinated well and will hopefully give us a slightly later harvest.

Shallots are coming along nicely. They have been in the ground since February and are now starting to split into individual shallots. It wont be long until harvest time!

Leeks – Musselburgh and Below Zero (a later harvesting variety) are looking great. They have now started growing on quite strongly.

First bed – foreground: Beetroot – Red and Golden. Successional sowings. On the right is the first sowing started in the greenhouse in March. They are maturing nicely and it wont be long until we are harvesting these. On the left, are those sown directly into the soil in late April. They have germinated nicely and need thinning out now to one (the strongest) plant per station.

Second bed – behind: Peas. On the left are 5 plants I started in the greenhouse in March. The rest of the row are plants which have germinated after sowing the seeds directly into the soil towards the end of April. There will be another successional sowing on the near side of the bed within the next couple of weeks.

Garlic. Looking really strong. Wont be long until harvest now.

Leeks: (foreground) were planted at the same time as the other bed, but for some reason, these are stronger and much further ahead than the others in the other bed which were planted out at the same time 🤷🏻‍♂️.

Broccoli (back) This is the first planting of broccoli. They have grown well. If I look closely, and use a bit of imagination, they are starting to form hearts which will develop into lovely broccoli. Not long now!

Courgette – yellow and green. Looking good after being planted out a week ago. We have already harvested 3 green courgettes 😋

Cucumbers (Mini-Munch): Growing beautifully. Lots of mini cucumbers already in place – see the bottom of the two plants on the left and the close-up. We have a had a few already. They are delicious – full of flavour!

Tomato plants coming along well. I have already been removing side shoots to promote growth as a cordon (single straight plant) and thereby improve the harvest. I have also removed some of the lower leaves to allow light and air to circulate. This reduces disease and accelerates ripening.

Pumpkin growing like a triphid

Bonsai – I am resurrecting a interest in Bonsai cultivation this year and now have four wee plants in my collection.

Front left: Juniper This was a Juniper bush from a nursery which I have shaped and trimmed into a bonsai. My most recent endeavour!

Front right: Ficus This is Alexander’s bonsai. It almost died. I managed to resurrect it and have been extensively redesigning the shape. Looking really good!

Back right & left: Jacaranda both in very early stages of development. To be honest, I didn’t expect them to survive winter, but still looking good. Branches are very brittle and difficult to shape!

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

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.

Planting leeks: Firstly, create holes using a dibber in nice neat rows, correctly spaced. (right)

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 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.

The apple trees are now in full blossom and the bumblebees 🐝 are having a ball.

The redcurrants are starting to form. We always have a huge crop of these and it looks like this year will be no different!

The potato’s have sprouted 😁

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 Pea (Aldermore) have sprouted as well – together with weeds and rogue potatoes – also now removed!

The Spinach and Chard which were planted out last week have taken off well and are looking great.

The Veggie Garden is looking great now. Starting to fill up nicely and lots of nice yummy veg on the way!

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!