Crocus are starting to make their presence known down the side of the driveway. Interesting that the orange ones seem to be the first to show!

Potatoes – Picasso were set out at the end of January 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.

They are starting to develop small shoots now. (Left)

Last time, I described how I had bought a couple of Acer’s from our local garden centre in late autumn. Two weeks ago, I had given them a massive root trim and repotted them into proper Bonsai pots. They had seemed to have survived this radical assault last week.

The Acer Palmitum Atropurpureum (right) is looking fine. The tiny little buds along its branches have enlarged some more over the last week and are now a bit more obvious. A good sign! It is still alive!!!!

Some Hardy Cyclamen are also putting in an appearance

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.

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). 🤞

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.

The Shallots (Longor) also arrived today. They have also been planted in the greenhouse.

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. 🤷‍♂️

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.

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 Leeks are still great. We are still getting nice tasty leeks from these. Again, have not gone woody………..yet 🤞

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.

Harvest of:

Broad Beans

Turnip

Broccoli

Our Cucumber (Mini Munch) have done very well, despite their dismal start. We have had a huge abundance of delicious wee cucumbers from the three plants.

Tomatoes – Gardeners Delight. Interestingly the two plants I bought from our local B&Q, due to late arrival of the on-line “fancy” plants, have done extremely well. They are huge and have produced loads of of delicious tasty fruit. The “fancy” grafted on-line plant, in the centre, however is a disaster. It’s still tiny and has hardly any tomatoes on it. Maybe 🤔 there’s a lesson in there somewhere!

Onions Rhumba have been harvested. They are now drying in the roof of the greenhouse. Although not a bad crop, it is not as good as the last couple of years when we had huge onions 🧅. Ok, I must admit, they were a different variety, which was not available this year for some reason.

Apples – “eaters” . Last year, we had a very poor crop of apples, particularly the “eaters”, reason unknown! Not so this year. A huge crop of apples. However they are a lot smaller than usual. Also quite a bit of insect damage. I suspect the “codling moth” is at fault. So will need to put sticky traps on the trunk and support poles before winter.

Apples – Three different varieties within the fruit cage. Looking delicious!😋

The Winter Cabbages – Tundra are looking great. They are starting to produce hearts. We will be munching on these shortly.

The Spring & Summer Cabbages have both been fully harvested and consumed. The spring cabbages were lovely as usual – they are one of my favourite cabbages. The summer cabbages were very disappointing this year. Very small and riddled with slugs and red worms. Yuck 🤮!

Kale is from my Christmas Advent seed calendar. It has grown well. We harvested it heavily six weeks ago and turned it into delicious crispy kale in the Airfryer 😋. Since then we have left it to bulk up a bit. It is now looking good and I think we will be able to get back at it again soon.

The Chard (right) plants have come on fine after their early decimation by an unknown predator. We have had a few harvests of delicious spinach from them.

The Courgettes – yellow (right) are looking good. They have been producing heavily and we have had quite a few lovely courgettes from them.

The Courgettes – green (left) and Butternuts (back of the bed) have both struggled with the cold weather and need some warmth and sun to get them going. They all continue to struggle. Only a couple of green courgettes so far, and, I suspect, probably no butternuts from these outdoor plants.

The Runner Beans – St George have done well. We have had quite a few lovely runner beans, but not in their usual immense numbers for whatever reason. They are coming towards the end of their time now.

The tomatoes, from the Advent Calendar, are looking good in the Veggie Garden / Allotment.

They have grown really well and we have had quite a few absolutely delicious tomatoes from them. As you can see there still huge numbers of green tomatoes on them. Hopefully they will ripen before the rapidly approaching winter gets here.

The Parsnips germinated well this year, after last year’s disaster. It all started so well!

They then started dying off in huge numbers. I loosened up the soil between the rows, which seemed to help. The remaining plants remained tiny and fragile-looking, and I began to fear that we would not have a crop again this year. Suddenly, a week or so ago, they took off and are now looking great. I hope they have not left it too late. All we can do is hope!

Only one Cucumber (Mini Munch) survived. We have had four or five cucumbers from it so far. The replacement plants, from the second sowing, are now starting to develop cucumbers themselves (yellow circles) and we will be into those in a day or so.

Apples – “eaters” . Last year, we had a very poor crop of apples, particularly the “eaters”, reason unknown! It’s looking a lot more promising this year. There are loads of eating apples on the tree. The summer fall is occurring at the moment, whereby smaller, overcrowded apples drop off the tree. This is good for the growth of the remaining apples and an entirely normal phenomenon. Hopefully they will not all fall off and we will be left with a good crop for this year.

Raspberries – delicious!😋

Gooseberry – white (top) & red (bottom). They taste very different. Both are delicious eaten fresh as fruit, but the magic in the kitchen will turn these into two of my favourite jams 😋

The Winter Cabbages – Tundra are growing well. I have given them a bit more spacing between plants this year. They seem to be appreciating it!

The Brussels Sprout are looking great. Again, I have increased the spacing between plants this year.

The Chard (right) plants really got hammered this year by either birds or slugs. I have still to determine who the culprit was. Some of the plants have now recovered somewhat. Again, they look a bit bedraggled because we harvested quite a number of the leaves for supper last night.

The same thing happening with my beetroot (left) despite them having a much sturdier cage. 🤷‍♂️. Some of them might be recovering. Time will tell. We would normally be eating beetroot by now! I have re sown further beetroot. This has germinated, but I suspect that they will not ripen in time before winter returns!

Pumpkins have taken off now. Loads of flowers as well. 🤞. I need to get them tied up onto their frames before they wander all over the entire Veggie Garden.

In the foreground of this bed, I have snuck a spare Cucumber – Mini Munch and Tomato – Gardeners Delight. I dont hold much hope for either of these as they are both usually grown inside the greenhouse, but I just couldn’t dump them on the compost heap. So we will see!

In the left background, the rhubarb has recovered and is now ready for another harvest. Ahh! More Rhubarb Crumble. Yessss!

The Courgettes – yellow (right) are looking good. We have had a few small courgettes from them so far.

The Courgettes – green (left) and Butternuts (back of the bed) have both struggled with the cold weather and need some warmth and sun to get them going.

The Leeks are looking fabulous. They obviously love this weather!

The outside Gemsquash are looking great. Lots of flowers and even one Gemsquash on the way already.

The first planting of Calabrese (Broccoli) has lovely heads on now. We had one last night. It was delicious.

The second planting is coming along nicely and will give us a second crop in a month or two.

Pea (Alderman)

Despite the attack by birds just after planting, these have now grown on well. Lots of flowers and pods beginning to form. It wont be long now until we are getting delicious sweet peas from them.

The second sowing behind them has sprouted well, having been prophylactically protected from the birds and hopefully will provide a longer cropping season for us.

The Parsnips have germinated well this year, after last year’s disaster. Looking good so far!

The Garlic (Solent White & Granny’s) have been in the ground since autumn last year. Their leaves are now starting to turn brown. It wont be long until they get lifted out of the soil to dry out.

Only one Cucumber (Mini Munch) survived. It was potted up into a grow bag last week. It does look a bit lonely in its grow-bag, but seems to be enjoying it as it has put on at least 6 inches of growth in the last week.

It also has started developing flowers with tiny cucumbers behind them. Won’t be long!

I had ordered a second set of Broccoli (Marathon) plants from my on-line garden centre. The aim of this was to give us a succession of broccoli instead of our usual glut. When I ordered the plants in January, they were described as “May plants”. However, looking at the receipt, I discovered that they were due for dispatch in the first week of June. This means that they would only arrive in the second week of June. This is the week that we head to the USA to collect our youngest son. He has had a wonderful year as an exchange student in Texas. By the time we get back, the wee plants would be dead.

I managed to find some nice looking plants in our local B&Q (right), so have cancelled the on-line order. It is a win-win situation, as these are more than quarter of the price of the on-line ones, and less likely to be dead when we return from the USA!!

The strawberry beds are looking good with lots of nice leafy growth. They have suddenly produced loads of white flowers over the last day or so. Hopefully, we will have our usual abundance of strawberries starting in a few weeks time.

The Cabbages were planted out into the Veggie Garden last week. They are growing nicely and clearly enjoying the manure!!!!

The Chard plants have been out in the veggie garden / allotment for over a week now. Within a day of planting them out, the tender little leaves had been munched, big time! I suspected the blackbirds, pigeons or pheasant. I hastily erected a cage over them to try to keep the scoundrels at bay.

My plan with the cage has not worked, and the poor wee plants continue to be savaged. Either the clever birds are sneaking in through gaps in my cage, or it’s something else, perhaps slugs. So, out with the slug bait as a last resort. I’m getting desperate now.

The same thing is happening with my beetroot despite them having a much sturdier cage. 🤷‍♂️

Pea (Alderman)

Last week, I noticed some compost lying on the path next to the raised bed in which I had planted the pea seeds the week before. Closer inspection showed that “someone” had been digging up exactly where I had planted the peas. I suspected blackbirds, pigeons, or perhaps, at a very outside chance, a red squirrel. I quickly erected a cage over the area into which I had sown the peas. I then held my breath to see if any of the pea seeds had survived.

I was very pleased to see them sprouting a couple of days later, and they are looking really good now (right).

The area which had been the most attacked (top of the picture) is indeed a bit sparse, but there will be enough to cover the net well.

The Yellow Courgettes (Goldmine) were planted out at the beginning of this week.

A nice big hole is dug for each. It is filled liberally with fabulous garden compost / manure into which the wee plants are planted. A support stake is then added.

Three of the Gemsquash were planted out into their final places in the Veggie Garden / Allotment at the beginning of this week.

Again, a nice big hole is dug for each. It is filled liberally with fabulous garden compost / manure into which the wee plants are planted. A support cage is then firmly rooted in to the ground with stakes. These cages are great for the Gemsquash to grow up and around. They can save a lot of ground space, meaning that more of the plants can be grown within a smaller area.

The Onions (Rhumba) are looking great after being planted out a few weeks ago.

The minimal planting of Carrots between the rows has now sprouted. I dont think that you will be able to see them yet in the photo!

The Potatoes – Winston have sprouted and are looking great.

More good news! The Rhubarb is growing again. Quickly!

I might get some more crumble and jam at this rate! 😉

Last week (Two weeks after planting):

I reported that:

…….. there’s some green in there!

……… and moisture!!!!!!

Last week: All of these seeds had spouted very well. Last year, I had several failures, but this year, there was only one cell in each tray (Pumpkin Wicked and Butternut Walnut) which had not sprouted at that stage. I was very pleased with that result!

Many of the seedlings had already started developing their true leaves, which meant that I would be able to pot them up into larger pots very soon.

Gemsquash: A veggie well known to those of us from Southern Africa, which grows surpringly well in our cold, very northern climate. We usually get huge crops of delicious “gems”.

(Only six survivors!) ☠️ 😢

This might leave us one or two plants short, so, as it is one of our favourite vegetables, I have sown some more seeds.

Butternut (Walnut) and (Hunter): I grew these two varieties last year. After struggling with my butternut crop for several years, last year saw a nice crop of butternuts from within the greenhouse. So I am going to try these two varieties again and hope for the same result!

(Only four survivors!) ☠️ 😢

This will probably do us, as long as they all survive, as I have only been able to get decent butternut crops inside the greenhouse in previous years – I think the growing season outside is too short here.

Potatos (Winston)

I had planted some of these seed potatoes into grow bags in the greenhouse.

They have sprouted well and are growing so fast that I have now added some more compost to the grow bags to enhance the crop.

All I need to do with these from now on, is water and feed them until they are ready to harvest.

The wee plants, I mention, were sown three weeks ago. These have now all sprouted and are looking fantastic. Their true leaves have appeared (on the whole!) and I spent quite some time thinning them out to leave one plant per cell of the seed tray. 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): 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, its leaves can be harvested early and used like spinach”.

Brussels Sprout: Traditionally I have always grown Maximus and we have always liked them. But the sprouts have been getting smaller year-on-year, so, this year I am going to try another variety called Brodie. I am not brave enough to switch completely and will trial the two varieties side by side! If I don’t have Brussels sprout for Christmas dinner, well, ……… say no more! ☠️

Brodie is described as: “The ultimate Christmas Sprout! Exceptionally mild, no bitter taste”. It is apparently harvested between September and February, so would seem to be earlier than Maximus.

Turnip (Golden Ball): Again one of my gardening advent calendar seed packets, so will give it a go! Described as: “One of the best late cropping varieties. Excellent mild, nutty and firm texture. Patience is needed with this variety as it germinates and grows much slower than other varieties” – this does not bode well for the short growing season in the far north of Scotland!

Continuing with the planting in the greenhouse from three weeks ago:

Chard: Two varieties, again from my Christmas Advent Calendar: Rhubarb Leaf and Rainbow Mix. I am sure these will provide some colour in the Allotment together with some great eating!

Both of these have sprouted well and are coming on nicely 😊! They have been thinned out to one plant per cell.

Again three weeks ago, I started the summer planting of Leeks. They have all sprouted and are already looking really good.

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.”

It looks like the Autumn Mammoth (top left) is way ahead of the other two, but, to be fair, it’s packet of seeds had 3 times the number of seeds in it than the other two. So probably an unfair advantage!

These have also moved over to the new step-down mini-greenhouse

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

Today, the first of the broad beans have peeped through the soil 🥳

Potatos – Winston

The seed potatoes have chitted (is that even a word?) well in the greenhouse, and now need to be planted out into their bed in the “Allotment” to grow.

So out I go into the garden to prepare the beds for them to be planted in.

Oh no 😟! The designated raised beds are full of weeds! Where did they all come from? Do they not know that it is seemingly still winter here in Northern Scotland. Maybe I should take this as an encouraging sign! Perhaps the weeds know something that I do not. Perhaps spring is indeed on the way!

There is nothing to do, but start weeding!

Unfortunately, once I get started, it is hard to stop, and I complete the weeding of the entire “Allotment” area. It looks wonderful now, but with my man-flu 🤒, I am now unable to breath and have to retire inside for a rest and a cup of tea!

For the last couple of years, I have been planting my potatoes through weed-suppressing fabric. The potatoes grow really well, but the weeds dont. That’s my idea of gardening!!!!!

So the weed fabric is stapled to the edges of the raised bed and then pinned down into the soil with multiple long garden pins (right).

Why, you ask? Well, this is the North of Scotland – the wind here really knows how to blow. If the fabric is not stapled and pegged down, it will very soon be heading off on a holiday across the North Sea!

Calabrese (Broccoli) – Marathon

I have ordered these over the internet for the last couple of years. They usually arrive as plug-plants which need to be re-potted and grown on in the greenhouse before planting out. This year, I ordered them from a different company, who offered the option of fewer, but larger, plants in 10cm pots. I thought that I might give this a try and ordered two separate deliveries of six plants each, about six weeks apart, with the aim of reducing our usual glut of broccoli. This might allow us to enjoy our broccoli more, without the panic of eating it every meal, twice a day and then freezing the excess 😉!

The larger plants arrived in beautiful condition. All ready to plant.

So out they went, into raised beds (left), prepared in a similar manner those for the onions described above.

A cage is also erected over these (right). Initially, this serves to stop the birds eating and digging up my lovely plants. But later on this netting will keep away the dreaded cabbage white butterflies. More about those later in the year…….

The battery powered watering system continues to function well and does what it says on the tin: water the plants!!!!

I will replace it with the full watering system which will connected to the mains water supply within the next week or so. Just waiting to see what the weather will do! Cant have the pipes freezing!

The salad lettuce seed tape and carrots which I planted at the same time are looking good. The lettuce is ready to start harvesting 😊. The carrots are getting quite big, but no signs of bulking up at the roots yet. There are also a few spring onions growing (hidden by the carrots), but not as many as I would have liked.

My seed potatoes (Winston) have chitted very nicely. Little shoots have appeared. They are now ready to be planted out into the garden next week.

I have planted some of these seed potatoes into grow bags in the greenhouse. They have sprouted well and are growing so fast that I will soon have to add some more compost to the grow bags to enhance the crop.

Two weeks ago, I sowed the seeds of several of our allotment crops. These have now sprouted and are looking fantastic. 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.

So far, the Caraflex looks much stronger than the Hispi.

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”.

This Kale was a bit later in sprouting than the other brassicas, but it’s happened now and all looking good!

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

Looking great.

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, its leaves can be harvested early and used like spinach”.

This has also been a bit slow in sprouting and remains a bit sparse 🤔😕

Continuing with the planting in the greenhouse from two weeks ago:

Chard: Two varieties, again from my Christmas Advent Calendar: Rhubarb Leaf and Rainbow Mix. I am sure these will provide some colour in the Allotment together with some great eating!

Both of these have sprouted well and are coming on nicely 😊!

Again two weeks ago, I started the summer planting of Leeks. They have all sprouted and are already looking really good.

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.”

It looks like the Autumn Mammoth (in the centre) is way ahead of the other two, but, to be fair, it’s packet of seeds had 3 times the number of seeds in it than the other two. So probably an unfair advantage!

Juniper Bonsai: This has overwintered very well and is looking fabulous.

I am debating whether to:

1) remove the main branch on the left and convert it into a “wind-blown” (“Fukinagashi”) classic style,

2) leaving it as is

What do you think? Let me know in the comments section.

Two weeks later:

…….. and there’s some green in there!

……… and moisture!!!!!!

All of these have spouted very well. Last year, I had several failures, but this year, there is only one cell (Butternut Walnut) which has not yet sprouted. Very pleased with that result!

Gemsquash: A veggie well known to those of us from Southern Africa, which grows surpringly well in our cold, very northern climate. We usually get huge crops of delicious “gems”.

Butternut (Walnut) and (Hunter): I grew these two varieties last year. After struggling with my butternut crop for several years, last year saw a nice crop of butternuts from within the greenhouse. So I am going to try these two varieties again and hope for the same result!

Many of the seedlings are already developing their true leaves. This means that I will be able to pot them up into larger pots very soon, probably within the next week.

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.

No signs of any growth yet!

Rhubarb: Growing really nicely now. I will soon be harvesting some of these stalks. Oh, I just love a rhubarb crumble 😋!

Note the flower stalk appearing at the back on the right. This will need to be removed soon, or the plant will think it has done its evolutionary duty!

The Snakes-head Fritillary are now looking brilliant.