FIGHTING BACK! / JUNE 2021 / EMMA'S ALLOTMENT DIARIES

Hi everyone, welcome back to my allotment diaries. My name is Emma, these are my allotment diaries. I would love for you to subscribe to my channel if you are new, just hit the subscribe button, hit the little bell as well, and then it will notify you every time I put up a video, because they are a little bit sporadic at the moment, it's half term, which is why I've just been a bit on and off with the vlogs. But I've come here today to try and rescue my plot. I'm not giving up guys, I kicked myself up the butt when I got home last time, because I just cried about it, but I think it's important to show the bad days as well as the good days, because a lot of you are always saying how inspirational it is to see my plot, and now wow you're doing so good, you're doing so great, and actually behind the scenes it doesn't always go right, and sometimes I get really upset with it, and peed off with it. So I think it's important to sort of show that bit as well, it's okay, as long as you pull yourself back together again like I have. I'm going for it. I've had enough of the slugs and snails, and I will not be defeated by them. I've made myself a garlic spray, I've made a little reel on my Instagram which I'll put up soon showing you how I made this, but it's basically boiled garlic water, and I'm going to spray it on everything. I will not be beaten by those slugs and snails, and I will continue to. I have battled foxes, I have battled cats, I've battled squirrels, pigeons, mice, all kinds of things, even humans on this plot. Slugs and snails will not get the better of me. Those little things are going down, so that's what's happening. Do you know what, after all the panic, all these slugs and snails, they actually seem to have let off a little bit at the moment, because they haven't gone for any more pumpkins, and the sunflowers are actually doing all right. So like I know they've sort of been eaten, that's from before, but like they're actually, they're quite big now, and they're sort of doing all right. It's almost like slugs and snails are leaving them alone a bit now, and letting them grow. So I think the hot weather has come along and saved us to be honest, which is excellent news, because it's really getting me down. But just patience is what I needed, I just needed a bit of patience. Right, I'm going to get planting out then, this is exciting. Look at this poor sunflower being absolutely strangled by a piece of bindweed. This is why you have to pull bindweed out. Can you see the way it's wrapped its way around this sunflower? It's basically trying to use it as a stick to get up really high, and it will completely kill this, so let's kill the bindweed before it gets it, and try and unravel it. There we are, there you are, poor thing. It's not the slugs and snails, it's the blooming bindweed. Right, I hope you can see me here, basically I've brought with me today my leeks. Now don't laugh at them, because they've not done very well, but I'm still going to plant them out, because what the heck. Sometimes things that don't do well in a pot, when I put them in the plot, they actually do do really well, that's what I tell myself anyway. But here they are, they look like they've just died. I did carry them in a carrier bag, so they sort of flattened a bit, but there they are. I've sort of sown a little handful in each of these, so I'm just going to plant them out, I think I'm going to plant them near my sunflowers, because I think it might deter the slugs and snails, because leeks are like an oniony thing aren't they, so I'm going to do that. I've never sown leeks before, I've never grown them before actually, they've never germinated for me, but I have seen other people grow leeks, so they're like an onion, like a long thin onion. You've eaten it like a hundred times, don't worry. So I'm going to put them in rows here, and hope that there's enough room for them. Do I like leeks? Yeah, I'm not expecting them to get very big, and I've got these ones here which will grow up, and then that will grow up, and then they will grow up, and then hopefully I'll have some room here for the leeks. I'm just going to whack them in anyway. I'm already running out of space, and I've barely got anything growing, so I'm just going to whack them in. Oh my god, I just broke my shovel thing. This is where I have a chard, and I'm just trying to get all the roots of it out. Look at that. That came from a seed, it's been in there for two years. It's a beast. A beetroot? No, a beast. It's still a chard. It's still chard. It's not a child, it's chard. It doesn't bury children. From what I've seen from other people growing leeks, they tend to grow them in lines, in rows. I'm sort of going to do that, but at the same time I don't really have like a row here, if you know what I mean. So it's going to be more of like a group of leeks, a gaggle of leeks. I'm hesitating now because I've also got tomatoes to plant. I'm wondering if tomatoes would be better here, and leeks somewhere else. Where should I plant tomatoes then? I'm wondering if tomatoes would be better here. Oh, this is so hard. Where else could I put leeks? There's no room in there. That's the flower bed, that's broad beans, that's parsnip, sunflowers, pumpkins, spinach, pumpkins, garlic, brassicas. I can't remember what they are. Oh, I could do a line here, couldn't I, of leeks? Maybe I'll do a line here of leeks. I'm going to put the tomatoes over there, I'm going to put leeks over there. So I've just completely changed my mind. That was all pointless, wasn't it? Right, because soil is quite dry here because it's been so hot recently, I'm going to water the soil before I plant in, and then water the leeks again once they've been planted. That's the plan. So if I just sort of pull them out, they've got roots, that's a good sign, they've got roots. Always a good sign. Right, I'm just going to sort of prise them apart. There we are, right, there's a leek. It looks quite good, you know. Oh, there might be hope for the leeks yet. In goes the first leek. Wind! Move the space, in you go. Oh, stand up straight, stand up straight, Mr. Leek. Yes, they look, they look right, you know. I feel quietly confident about these leeks. This is the fourth time I've actually sown them because they kept dying on me, like most things to be honest, but they look really good and they're all in and they've all got actual roots. I didn't even think they had roots, they're just like little flimsy pieces of grass, and I know they won't grow that big because I didn't sow them early enough, but yeah, they look good. The other thing I've brought with me, which I did mention, is tomato plants. I'm actually really ashamed to say, because I sowed these ones from seed, they are Tomato Delight, Gardener's Delight and Cherry Red Tomatoes, and I sowed them from seed and I thought I'd killed them, so I actually went to the shop and brought two more tomato plants, which are planted at home, and then these ones lived, so I've brought these ones to the plot because I think anything that fights that hard to live deserves to be in this plot. It's earned its place because it needs to be a fighter to live here. Look at these, I think they look great. I'm so super happy with them. I've only got three from about 15, but that's all you need. You get so many tomatoes from just a couple of plants, so last year I sort tomatoed out by the end of the year, but yeah, this is great. So I'm going to whack these in, and I've also brought just a couple more sunflowers which I found that Tommy sowed at home, which I didn't know anything about, so I brought those and I'll whack those in too. So let's go whack those in. We're whacking it all in today. It's a whack it in day. All right, coming in. My zinnias have just all been eaten and I can't get my hands on any more seeds, and it's a little bit late now anyway for zinnia seeds, so I'm going to put them in this bed. Just falling over. I'm going to put them in this bed because it gets a lot of sun, so I think they're going to do really, really well here. This bed is always full of sun and that's what sunflowers need, and there's no fancy structure this year. I'm just going to stake them and be done with it. It does feel a bit of a shame to be just like digging over all the bed. I know a few zinnias might have come up, but because I'm quite pressed for space at this allotment plot, I want to utilise as much as I can. I just can't afford to have all this space with like full zinnia plants. That's what I'm telling myself. When you plant a tomato plant, you should plant it down to the first leaves because it will root the tomato better because the tomato plant will grow roots out of its stem up to the first leaves if it's underground basically. That's where roots are formed. We're going right back to basics there, but it will root the tomato better because they're quite big plants and the fruit is quite heavy, so that's what you want to do. That's what I'm going to try and do. Look at those roots! To think I thought it was dead! What an idiot! Another quick tip that I've learned that I want to share with you is it's always best to stake your plants before they start to grow, so when you first put them in, even if they don't look like they need staking, because then you're not going to impale the roots, which I actually think I just did to this little fellow here actually. So even though this is my advice, sometimes it doesn't work anyway. I'm pretty sure I've just impaled him, but hopefully not. Hopefully not, little guy. But yeah, all their supports are in, quite strong. Yeah, good. Well, I was just being hard on myself last time. The plot is looking absolutely beautiful and now that I've weeded it a little bit and just started planting some more things out, I can see that I was just being in a bad mood and being a grump. So I hope you enjoyed the vlog today, because I did. I enjoyed being here a lot more. And I'll see you in my next vlog guys, which hopefully won't be too far away. So see you next time. Thanks for watching. Bye!