THE FIRST PUMPKIN HARVEST / SEPTEMBER 2022/ EMMA'S ALLOTMENT DIARIES

Just pour our milk. Why isn't that spraying? Hey there we go. That's a little bit strange spraying a plant with milk but there we go. I'm used to strange things in the world of gardening now. Definitely not the weirdest thing I've ever done but it's up there. Right so it's been adequately sprayed with milk which should neutralize basically what you want to do is neutralize the pH levels on the leaves which will stop the fungus from being able to keep growing. You can see here I've got a little mini one. Why does that look like a patty pan? Is this a patty pan plant? I don't know. These ones up here they look a little bit more. I don't know if that will turn into one actually. I did see another one. Oh where's it gone? Find the pumpkin, find the pumpkin. Right at the top up there. So I've got these ones growing which are really good. That really looks like a patty pan doesn't it? I don't know. Anyway they will be what they will be and I really hope that I've sort of helped this to survive but the new leaves are unaffected at the moment. So my little courtyard vegetable garden is such a success this year. Everything's grown really really well and my first big tomato is ready. Somebody told me the name of it on Instagram and I can't remember it now but it's this one basically. This great big knobbly shaped one. I think someone called it heart. It's known as like a heart one because when you chop it in half it is like the shape of a heart but look he's starting to go red. Oh my goodness look at this. Look at this little chancer trying to get his little teeth on my tomato plant. Do they have teeth? I don't know. Right you can go down the drain. Bye bye. Absolute beauty. I'll leave them a little bit longer I was gonna say because I can protect them well out here because they're just outside my kitchen but there we go. Proven wrong immediately. On here on this tomato plant I've got more. Look there's another one. Little newborn snails. There's been a little snail baby boom. Another little one. Unbelievable. Right you can go down there too. Goodbye. Yeah anyway as I was saying these ones doing really well and then I've got loads absolutely loads on this plant. It's insane. In fact the whole plant is just toppling over and I don't know how to secure it anymore because on the bottom down here I have got the mother of all tomatoes. This tomato is actually bigger than like an apple and it's so heavy. I don't know how to save this plant. Have you ever seen a tomato this big before because I haven't. He's he's an absolute whopper and the thing is is he is starting to snap and I'm not at all surprised because he's massive and really heavy. I could take him off and try and develop him on the windowsill but I kind of want to keep him on the plant as long as possible in the hope that he might start going red but what an absolute crazy tomato and it's not even coming from the actual plant. This stem here is actually one of those um one of these things one of the suckers that I've let grow and that's what it produced so we all go on about like removing the suckers from tomato plants but it just kind of goes to show that not every gardening rule you know is like the be all and end all. I allowed the sucker to grow and it's given me one of the biggest tomatoes I've ever seen in my entire life. So there we go take what you will from that. My little asters have come into flower they always come into flower around this time of year. I actually cut it back quite a lot this year and tried to sort of really look after it because it was my nan's favourite flower. I just think they are such beautiful beautiful flowers beautiful plants they are so gorgeous and they are like the picture book flower with the yellow middle and all the petals. I can see why my nan loved them so much and also you get so many flowers on a plant with buds everywhere and they are just beautiful. I've kind of killed the shape a bit this year haven't I? It was a bit more of a like a circle like a sphere a ball and then where I've sort of like prodded it and stuff and tried to keep it alive I've actually ruined the shape a bit which is a shame but I think it will come back stronger I think it's all right and then next to that is a dahlia that I sort of uncovered and this big buddleia plant was covering it so I might try and stake that actually. I've just come in to show you something that's just come out the oven I'm very excited about it so it's a pumpkin and I wanted to make a little mini pumpkin to eat for my lunch and also show you a way that you can cook them. I actually brought this one it's a munchkin pumpkin it's not a jack belittle but I was so eager to get cooking and I'm really excited because this is a sweet way of eating a pumpkin. So here he is in all his glory he's been baked and he's a munchkin pumpkin like I said what I did was I took off the top like that I took out all the seeds and then inside him I put a spoonful of butter a spoonful of brown sugar and a bit of cinnamon then I put his lip back on like that I put him in this little baking dish and I filled it with water there was more water than that at the bottom just a little bit of water so he's sitting in it and that's just so that his outer skin doesn't burn and it helps to steam the pumpkin and make it nice and soft. I baked him for 35 minutes and this basically is the result so what you do is you eat the middle just like you would a normal pumpkin there he is you can get a little bit of the sweet sauce so easy so yummy and such a great way of using up any of your munchkin pumpkins you could also use a jack belittle for this not the baby boos though the baby boos unfortunately are not edible so they can just be for decoration while you're eating your other pumpkins is this one that you wanted me to hold? yeah do you love it? I've been saving that one for you Tom this is big it's very big right hello again um I've just dropped Tommy at karate and um we popped in here so that he could pick his jack belittle he's been he's had his eye on one of the jack belittles for the longest time so um he was desperate to pick it and unfortunately I seem to have the mildew problem powdery mildew that's what it's called with this pumpkin plant as well so again exactly the same scenario that it's got this white powdery fungus all over it which we call powdery mildew this is so common in pumpkin plants because they grow so big and so close together and that's sort of how it spreads when they're all the leaves too close together and it gets humid and hot and it just spreads and sometimes it sorts itself out obviously in this case it's not and it started to spread up the vine um it will eventually kill the pumpkin so it is time to start picking some of these lovely orange ones which are just looking so lovely and healthy and then at the top of the vine here I still have some yellow yellowy ones which I'll leave for now oh look who it is did you see that did I get that on camera it's been a while since I've seen a fox at the plot um they don't seem to be around here as much anymore at least not when I'm here but I guess this is later so maybe this is when they will come out he looked a lot healthier than the old fox who used to be around here but there we go right I need to water these strawberries I'm not doing any of that today don't even ask people often say like slugs and snails they eat everything oh they just eat all my crops they don't eat everything they don't eat weeds and they don't eat plants when they've gone to seed and they don't eat anything that you don't like as well so if you've got child and you don't like it like me they don't eat that they don't touch it they only eat what you like that's the problem with them hey look prime example eating my cauliflower right hey you go on the lettuce now you can eat that don't mind about that I'll even put your kid with you as well you can have your little your little child with you too all right you can both sit there and eat the lettuce oh he's gone oh never mind I have another one I still cannot believe how well tomato oh my god it's that spider web oh my god why why still can't believe how well tomato jungle is doing in here I was thinking like soon I'm gonna have to pull them all out and put in potatoes and other things but at the moment they're just all doing so well like some of them are still turning red so I don't want to pick all the green ones yet and yeah look over there there's just a whole whole new ones and then look here these are starting to go red now my whoppers my plot whoppers I actually might pick one of these today and eat it I'm so hungry oh yeah he's been eating he's been proper eating I can't eat that I'm not sharing him with bugs right he's just gonna go to the floor where there's just a load of discarded tomatoes that I just haven't got to in time um maybe this one oh no has he been eating too oh I don't know if he's all right or not it's so annoying is he okay is he not okay I think we should just try him anyway I think we should just eat him he's very nice really really delicious all right we won't eat any more of it because I'm worried about the bugs these are my belotti beans and I planted these out donkey's years ago have I said that already today donkey's years don't know where that's come from but I'm finally starting to get teeny teeny teeny tiny beans growing on them hallelujah it has been months since I sowed these months this is about the size we're working with at the moment guys that's it my camera won't even focus because it's so small there I don't know if you can see it wouldn't it be nice to grow more than one thing like do you know what I mean if I grow a bean plant I get one bean if I grow a pumpkin plant I usually get about one pumpkin how do people get more like multiple things the tomatoes are just a complete miracle that's why I go on about them all the time but normally I do all this effort plant out thousands of plants thousands and I just get like one or two things from them but I still love it it's addictive isn't it I just can't stop just to quickly let you know as well these gloves here these are from I've got the links below for the amazon pages where you can get a discount on them as well and tomorrow on my community tabs on youtube I'm going to be putting a competition live where you can win a couple of pairs of these gloves so if you're around tomorrow and you happen to find yourself on youtube have a look at my community tab my community tab and you'll find all the details of the competition I'm just going to do it as you just leave your name below if you want to win a little pair of gloves and you could get your hands on some of these they really are great gloves they're so breathable they mold to your hand so you don't feel like they're really bulky and yeah I just think they're really great really really great gloves so stay tuned for that tomorrow and right now we're going to pick some of these jappy littles exciting blooming love this time of year and the lighting is just insane everything looks so good and healthy and I could just literally sit here all day and stare at it but unfortunately I've got to go and get my boy and I've got to get back home I hope you enjoyed the vlog today stay tuned for the competition to win a pair or two of gloves which will be going up live tomorrow morning and yeah I hope you enjoyed the vlog the vlog I hope you enjoyed it today and if you did subscribe to my youtube channel I will see you in my vlog on Friday see you Friday guys bye