EMMA'S ALLOTMENT DIARIES / MARCH 2020 / MAKING A WILDLIFE POND

I'm in my shed. I'm in my shed. It's the wrong way Emma. What are you doing? Flipping heck. Oh god. Fucking floor. Is my hat on ok? Yeah, I think so. Oh god. Here we are. Why is it? Why do I make that noise every time I bend down? Jesus Christ. Hello everybody. Welcome back to Emma's Allotment Diaries. If you're not subscribed already, hit that subscribe button. You know you want to. My allotment diaries are the most real, honest, crazy diaries you will ever watch. If you want to know what gardening is really like, tune into my channel. I will show you. Right. What am I doing today then? Oh god. Right. Ok. Now. I'm not going to talk about the big scary outside world because it's bloody scary isn't it? So here is a safe place everybody. Let's join hands. It's a safe place. It's not that safe actually. Don't come to my plot because I will kill you with a hammer. Not intentionally. Just because I'm not very good at DIY. You guys get it. You guys get it. Right. Bloody mind. Right. It was just the most mental school drop off ever. And I've just lost my fricking mind. Oh my god. Right. So. You guys might know how much I love wildlife. So today I'm going to be making a wildlife area. Oh god. I'm attracting more of it. I don't know why I'm doing it but I do. I just feel like I should be encouraging wildlife even though, you know, me and wildlife don't really see eye to eye. But I just feel like I should be giving a little bit back to them. So I'm going to make a wildlife pond. Right. We're going to make a pond today. This is fun. I've also brought some of this. I've brought some calendula fruit twist super seeds by Mr Clever. Yep. So I've got some of those. And I've also got some California pop... What is going on? Oh it's gone ******* bonkers man. Jesus Christ. Sirens. What's happened now? What's happened now? I've also got some California poppies that I'm going to plant as well. But obviously they've started digging now so I can't bloody talk about them can I? So let's just go and dig the flipping pond. Oh god. When did I just throw them? Why did I do that? Let's just dig the flipping pond and get on with it. Right. Now I'm sort of thinking. Where should a wildlife area be? Right. I'm thinking. I'm thinking. I'm thinking. I'm walking around my plot. I think like here would be quite a nice wildlife area. Like here. Do you know what I mean? Because it's sort of somewhere where I can chill out, relax. And then the shed's sort of there and I can sort of sit and look at the ponds. But from a safe distance where frogs aren't going to jump in my arse. You know what I mean? You know what I mean. I'm going to set you up there. I did buy a tripod and I'm just not ******* using it. I'm just balancing you. I don't know. I can't bother to get it. I've lost one of my gloves. Bugger. Fox has got it. I know he has. I know he's got it because he's run off with my other hat. Fucking fox! Obviously this is going to be the gates for it to keep the wildlife away from me. Okay, so this is the general idea of it. This is the shape of the pond. What do you think? Looks a bit like a, I don't know, like a snowman. Um, yeah. So, oh god there's a lot of work going on. A lot of people are taking the opportunity of isolation to do DIY, aren't they? Right, so. I know it's windy now, sorry. This end here has got tree roots on it so this is going to be the shallow end because obviously I can't dig that deep. This end here is going to be the deeper end. I'm going to try and step it down. I've no idea how to do this but we'll give it a go. If the world descends into chaos, I'm digging a pond. Oh dear. What am I doing in here? I've lost my mind. Let's dig a pond. Well actually, I'm quite happy with it. Yeah, it's, you know, plot twist. Despite everything, it seems I'm quite good at digging a hole. So, that seems to be where my talent lies. I'm pretty proud of this. It's going quite well. I'm feeling quite confident about it so, who knew? There we go. I'm a hole digging expert. Maybe I'll start doing some tutorials on how to dig a hole. Oh God. Just thought I'd take a little break before everybody else descends on the plot because I know they're all going to be here again. My neighbour came yesterday. I haven't met her before. But she came. She didn't talk to me, which is fine by me. But she was here for like the best part of an hour. And when she left, I sort of thought, I wonder what you've been up to then? I wonder what you've been doing? This is what she did. As you can see through the trees, just bottles. Whole plot still covered. Bottles. So, I don't know. She was here for an hour doing that so, I think it's weird because, you know, I don't really know any different. I don't know about this stuff, but maybe she looks at my plot and she thinks that my plot's weird. Maybe she's looking at my plot thinking, where the **** are all her bottles? But, I don't know. Oh, God. Jesus. Oh, no, my hacksaw. Oh. You know, it feels like the whole world is going ******* mental out there. And I'm just in my plot digging a hole. Like just digging a pond. It's like I can hear sirens. I'm scared to turn on the news app. And I'm just here digging a wildlife pond like nothing's happening. It's just weird, isn't it? I'm pretty pleased with this. It's one of the few jobs that I've actually set out to do and done. And it's actually bloody worked. Right, this is the sort of thing I was after, so. Oh, God. This end here's quite deep. And then it gets quite shallow there. I'm also going to put a brick in as well. Just like there. If you know what I mean, so animals can kind of come. Right, I need to put some ground sheet in it now. And then fill it up with water. I know what you're thinking. How the bloody hell am I going to fill it up with water? And yes, you are correct. I'm going to have to make about a thousand trips to the water. The water place of my little watering can. Yes, that's going to happen, people. Oh, let me just have a bag of crisps. I've actually been here for about three hours. And I didn't realise, I didn't realise it had been that long. Because it's just one of those jobs that I just got well involved in. And I just literally haven't stopped. And I've just really enjoyed it. So it just hasn't felt like a lot of time has passed. I'm going to have a bag of crisps. And I'm going to put the ground sheet in. And fill it with water and see what it looks like. So this is great. If you're feeling anxious, guys, dig a pond. Right, time to fill it with water now. Look at me. Look at my leggings. I said I'm not going to get that muddy today. Because I've got to go to the shops. For emergency supplies and learn. Look at me. Right, so it's like this now. I know you're not supposed to have as many crinkles in it as you can. But I literally don't know how to stop the crinkles. So we'll just fill it with water. And see what happens. Right, I've got all these rocks. That I've been collecting. Every time I dig up and find rocks. I collect them up. So I've got all these. These are going to go around my pond. Which is now full up. Look, it is the snowman shape. This is the shallow end. That's the deep end. So I'm going to put some rocks around it. And also a few in the shallow end as well. Right, here it is. The finished wildlife pond. Ta-da! I'm pretty damn proud of that. So obviously I've made it underneath this big bush here. In this tree. So I'm probably going to get some netting. To put over it. To stop the leaves going in. But I think that's a good idea as well. Just because I've got kids as well. And I don't want them falling into it. So I'm going to get some netting to go across it. Like that. But I think it's a good start. So I just need to get some planting for it. I'm really keen to grow irises. And that's why I wanted. That's another reason why I wanted the wildlife pond. Because I know they like to grow near water. So I'm going to get some irises. And I don't know. I don't know. I'll do some research into it. I definitely want to get that plant. I know there's a couple of plants that go into the water. And help to oxygenate the water or something. If that's a word. I don't know. But I want to get some of those as well. So I'm going to do some research into it. And actually figure out. Lily pads might be quite nice. Like the little mini lily pads. But yeah it's a good start. This is going to be the wildlife area now. So this area here. Is going to be the wildlife area. So I'm going to have a bug hotel. And you know. Stuff for wildlife to chill out in. And bagger off. And leave me alone. Really while I'm over there. It will be over here. Contained. So yeah I'm really really proud of it. That's amazing. That's a good feeling. Let's go in the shed. Felt amazing. You know what. It's just so nice. It's so nice to like. Set out to do something. And then go and do it. And then it sort of goes to plan. It's so nice. I know I'm probably going to get a load of comments. Saying I did it all wrong. But it just felt so good. To like do something. And it actually goes bloody right. Like how I wanted it to go. That's made me feel so much less anxious. I woke up this morning. My heart was racing. I felt awful. I don't know if you're feeling the same. But coming here. Jesus Christ has saved my life today. I feel amazing. Digging a pond was great. If you're feeling anxious. Go and dig a pond. It will help you I promise. So I do hope you enjoyed this vlog. God am I even in focus. I'm so sorry. I hope that you enjoyed this vlog. If you did subscribe to my channel if you're not already. I don't mind if you share it with your friends. Maybe someone's feeling a bit down. Share it on Facebook. I do have a Facebook page. I also have an Instagram account. I will link both of them below. If I can't do vlogs then I'll be on touch on there. I hope you're all keeping well. Keep smiling. Keep tuning into my channel. It will be fun. It will be crazy. There will be lots of swearing. That's the way we like it. I will see you next time. Stay safe. Goodbye.