MEGA SWEETPEA HARVEST! / JULY 2021 / EMMA'S ALLOTMENT DIARIES

Well I can see that my butterfly defences has worked really well. Not. What's he doing in there? Oh god. I put this netting over my cauliflowers to stop the white cabbage butterflies from getting in and laying their eggs on my plants and I've got three in there I think. They've just sort of like taken it as a personal challenge I think to try and get in there. Let's get them out. Come on. Get out. Out we go. Go on. Come on. Out. Oh god. Oh good morning everyone. Welcome back to my allotment diaries. My name is Emma. These are my allotment diaries. Oh the thing that you are watching right now. It's that good. And yeah so I've got my first job of the day which is to check all of my cauliflower leaves and see if any of those butterflies have laid little eggs. And you can tell the eggs because they're kind of um they're like caviar which is really gross and they're sort of like little round circle things that are all clumped together so it's very easy to see. Obviously my defences didn't work and and my nets don't go down to the floor but there are plenty of nets around here that go down to the floor and I've seen numerous cabbage white butterflies fluttering about inside the nets so I know it's not just me and I think the best thing to do with cabbage white butterflies is just to keep checking. Keep checking your leaves. Keep removing the eggs if you can um and that's just always the best form of defence. Thank you for all your kind video um kind comments in my last video about killing the frog. I was just really upset. I know it's a weird thing to cry about isn't it but I was just really upset and gutted about it to be honest. I did just feel a bit emotional that day as well so I'm over it now and I'm not doing that again and we'll move on from it. Take it as a lesson learned but right now let's go check for our caterpillar eggs. I'm getting panicky about now. I'm checking underneath the leaves because in my previous experience because I have had them before and that is where they are laid and I'm assuming because it's a really good form of shelter being underneath the leaves and I'm checking um the ones that have been bitten by snails and also the good ones right in the middle because if I was um if I was a butterfly I would want my caterpillars to have the best quality leaves because that's the kind of mother I would be um butterfly mother I'd be and so I would lay it on the best leaves so I'm just checking underneath. So I'm looking on the front of the leaf there nothing there and then I'm looking on the back to see if there are any little clusters of eggs but I haven't seen any so I'm hoping I've sort of got away with it. I can't see any little clusters of eggs. I can see a lot of snail juice if that's what you call it but no eggs so I think we got away with it this time. So I had a sit down last night and a little bit of calm down about the whole frog situation. I did decide that the beer traps had been the best form of defense for these Brussels sprouts and so what I did was last night I came back and I put the beer traps back but I put pots over them so that bigger wildlife cannot go in it and I put rocks on the pots to keep them there and I was hoping it would work because I know that slugs can get through really small spaces and it has. So you can see I put the beer trap back and I've got this pot over it which has got really little holes and then what I did was I put a big old not that one a big old rock on the top like that exposing some of the holes so that frogs and things can't get into it but the slugs can still get in and I thought oh slugs never gonna get in that little hole that's insane they can't be that desperate for a good old drink but it turns out slugs love the pub as much as humans do and there's loads in there and my brassicas my brussels sprouts have remained largely untouched so I think this has been a really good lesson and I will keep that there and change it out later because changing it out is the job that is the most disgusting but it is working and because it's working I just think oh you know what I really want sprouts and those little buggers are just eating everything so yeah that's what I've done so I recollected myself yesterday and I just sorted out and came up with a solution and it's worked so far so I'm hoping I don't kill any more wildlife but slugs love the pub there we go slugs love beer. I wanted to show you quickly how amazingly amazing my climbing pumpkins are doing considering that they had such a slow start to life they've they're right up the archway now I can't believe it look at these absolute beauties amazing it's gone right up it's actually trying to reach up to the tree or something so I need to like bend it over but yeah look it's just growing so well and it's even spreading out on the floor a bit now as well really eager to grow them up because I don't have that much space in my plot and growing things vertically is a really great space saver and pumpkins obviously take up so much floor space even the baby ones because imagine this was on the floor you know it would take up half the plot just having literally a pumpkin patch would just be half the plot but this is just such a great space saver and I'm so pleased with how well it's doing it really is and it's really clinging on by its little tentacle things it's doing great well done pumpkin plant and then if you remember me saying that the other side wasn't doing as well even though I planted them at exactly the same time well it's still not doing as well as that side but we do have some growth you can see that it is actually starting to grow and to grow up which is really good so I might get one on this side that one over there is still a little bit slow to grow and the one in the middle it's just died like literally just died it hasn't even been eaten or anything I'm wondering if there was some sort of problem with the soil on this side but having said that the spinach is amazing so I don't really know I don't really know what's happened maybe it's the sun we don't get as much sun here or something but look that side compared to this side such a stark contrast and I really just can't tell you why it's just one of those things I'm just going to pick a few of my courgettes because as with anything I think the more you pick the more that grows maybe not pumpkins because I think pumpkins growing and that's it but squashes and other squashes and things the more you pick the more that grows so I'm going to pick some more of my courgettes and the one that I picked the other day was absolutely delicious by the way it was just gorgeous so fresh so lovely and I really liked how small it was I think it was a lot more tender and it had a lot more flavor I think but I don't know I might just be imagining that and I'm going to pick some now I got two and one's a bit bigger these are a good size I think for cooking with and stuff and like I said the more you pick the more that will grow apparently so they smell so fresh and lovely and I can't wait to cook with them these are just brilliant lovely really nice solid vegetables I think well done plants I'm proud of them I think I might need to tidy up my tomato plants a little bit again because they're getting a little bit bushy again and like I said it's really difficult to do it because mine sort grew horizontally so it's really difficult to know where to cut and what to do with them now I mean they look like really happy healthy plants they're nice and bushy and they're very very green so you can see immediately you know these are really healthy happy happy plants I'm not too worried about them I think I'll get some tomatoes from them for sure as long as the sluggies don't get them all but it's just about how do I maximize the crop that I'm going to get by keeping them trimmed down it's this one in the middle that I'm a little bit worried about because he's got quite bushy um now you can see stem here goes horizontal and I think this is the main stem there he goes up he goes up he goes up he goes this is the main tomato plant right tied him in this one is another one coming out which I think is like a bushy one maybe I should take him off but having said that he's got some flowers on him so maybe I should leave him and get more tomatoes from him I really don't know what to do there's times like this where I wish I just had someone here just to sort of ask but no one's here and no one really grows tomatoes at their plots which is quite odd isn't it I think most people must grow their tomatoes at home or something or in greenhouses and I can't see them what I might do is take off the lower leaves and reassess I've got some mini tomatoes on it I've got mini tomatoes in here just in here there's mini ones or tiny little tomatoes oh my goodness these are my first tomatoes of the season amazing oh look and I've got little flowers up there I've got little flowers up the top here oh this is so exciting I don't want any leaves to touch the ground now a very very very important lesson that I learned last year with my tomato plants is do not let the leaves touch the soil because you are setting yourself up for blight and blight is the worst thing your tomato plants can get and potato plants and things because it will just completely wipe them out and you'll have to burn them all unfortunately and you can get early blight and you can get late blight late blight is more common and it happens at the end of the season after you've had tomatoes and early blight that's the horrible one because that's the one that gets in before you've got any fruit on them so you don't want your leaves to touch the ground and it's good to mulch around it so I'm going to bring some straw next time I come I'm going to mulch the bottom of my tomato plants and just do a little bit of blight pre-protection basically because it's evil and it got my tomato plants last year about mid-season so I'll do that I'm going to pick a load of my sweet peas now because they are absolutely since I tied them up and made them look like a great big knot of hair they are loving it they are just loving it look at these sweet peas you can smell these as I walk onto my plot all the way over there I come down here and you can smell them they are just gorgeous so I'm going to pick as many as I can I have never had a sweet pea harvest as big as this before this I've never managed to pick this many flowers before those sweet peas are utterly thriving the ones in my back garden at home aren't doing half as well as these even though I think they're doing quite well these are just so so happy the happiest plants I think at my plot so far certainly happier than the sunflowers which are looking a little bit worse for wear not sure if we'll get any this year but hey I can make up with it because I've got loads and loads of sweet peas and they are just beautiful absolutely beautiful the absolute smell of summer these are I hope you enjoyed my vlog today if you did do subscribe to my channel sorry it's a bit shorter than the usual ones I'm trying to make them longer but there's not always that much to do we are doing a massive heat wave in the UK so I'll probably be here watering quite a lot over the weekend and I hope you enjoy your gardens too and I'll see you next time thanks for watching bye