NOT SURE THIS WILL WORK?! / APRIL 2023 / EMMA'S ALLOTMENT DIARIES

Good morning everyone, welcome back or welcome to my allotment diaries. My name is Emma, these are my allotment diaries, this is my allotment shed, that's my allotment plot out there, you'll see it any minute now. If you're new to these videos I'd love you to hit the subscribe button, you can also hit the little bell below, it will notify you every time I put up a new video so you'll never miss one, especially over the course of the spring and summer when everything is starting to grow, it's getting very exciting, I've got loads of new jobs to do, so hit that subscribe button and don't miss out. Back at the plot today, it is not cold, it's not cold, it's a little bit cloudy this morning, I think it's going to cheer up later, we're really getting into warmer temperatures now and I've got a few jobs that I think I want to do today. I didn't totally plan it, I have it written down in my little allotment planner, if you purchase one of my planners I hope it's useful to you, you can see the link below to one of my planners, I made them and put them on Amazon and you can go and purchase one now, why not, they're still useful halfway through the year and I've just, I've got loads of checklists in there and you can write down little things you're going to do and tick them off, I find it so helpful, so useful, I hope if you purchase one you're finding yours very useful too, I will be releasing a new one for next year so if you missed out this year and you want to get it from the beginning of the year, wait till I want to say October, September, October time and I'll be releasing another one so you'll be able to purchase that and have your own little allotment planner, so I really want to get on with stuff and get growing and get moving and grooving, I just want to show you the state of my shed, if you were around for the video where I cleared my shed out and I was like screaming at spiders and stuff, this is what it's like now, like I just, I don't know how this happens but as I get more busy during the season I do just tend to dump stuff in here and like my tabletop is just covered in just stuff, I'm just incapable of keeping it tidy, right let's go have a look around, just love the sound of birdsong at this time of year, like the birds are so noisy at this time, I just love it, so they all just wake up and then it just feels so springy doesn't it, so springy, right the first thing I wanted to do was check on the pond because I haven't looked at it for a little while, so this is my pond, I've had it for since I got the plot actually, it's one of the first things I did on the plot was dig this wildlife pond and then I redid it all at the beginning of this year because it just was looking really overgrown and horrendous, so I've got new pond plants in there, you can see some of them starting to grow now which is really good news, I thought some of these were goners but they're coming back and this one here, look who's growing as well, I think that is an iris, a water iris, that one probably needs to go deeper doesn't it, why does he, he doesn't look happy, do you know what I mean, the leaves look a little bit yellow, they look a bit yellow, they don't look as nice and green and vibrant, got any roots coming out, not really, maybe he needs to go deeper, the thing is there is no like deeper, do you know what I mean, ah okay, okay, okay, I don't know if he can live under the water, do you think he can, this is like a beetroot growing under the water, underwater beetroot, imagine, I don't know what he is but he looks really happy and this is my water lily and it's sort of died, which is a real shame, you can see there if I zoom in, that is a lily pad that has turned brown, pond plants really aren't my speciality, I mean nothing's my speciality to be honest, everything's just whacked in but they are particularly whacked in, they're like double whacked in, you know, just plonked in, that's what they are, they're not even whacked in, they're plonked in, but I just hope for the best, they actually, you know what, I think it's going to be all right, they just look like they're going to be all right and then around the edge I planted loads of wildflowers, the only ones I can see coming up are the Californian poppies, these are Californian poppies and I know that because of the specific shape of the leaf, they look a little bit like carrots but they're not, they're Californian poppies and then hopefully some more wildflowers will start to come up, these look like something I might planted, yeah hopefully they all come up and then the shrubs, I put shrubs in, they're all doing all right as well. Hi Rocky, hello, how are you? It's been a while since I last saw you, where have you been? Rocky's back, this is my allotment cat, I don't know where he came from, I don't even know if that's his name, but I named him because he keeps turning up and I just thought I can't like call him cat all the time, I need to name him, so I've named him Rocky and though people keep telling me he's a girl, but you don't mind being called Rocky do you? Oh gosh, he's like a wild animal on my allotment now, it's like a wild animal because I can't control him so he's wild, you know, that's what wild animal is, an animal that cannot be controlled, Rocky, typical huh? Right, I want to talk this bed here, so I want to talk about this bed here because obviously I had to remove all of my tulip bulbs and the tulip bulbs have been removed permanently, I've had to dig up the whole bulb to get rid of the fungus that was on them, it's called tulip fire, but I just want to tell you about this leaf, I've just, I found a leaf, oh I thought that was a real leaf and it's not, it's one of my fabric ones, I was going to say that it's really pretty for this time of year, what's going on? It's not, it's not real leaf, right anyway, where were we? Yeah, I need to decide what to do with this bed, now for a long time it's had tulips at the front and then like I've had to plant things at the, at this bit, like the back of it, and it meant that it's really hard to protect the whole bed, now I think what I'm going to do is build a structure that's like this, so I'm going to build that on that bed, but first of all I need to remove this blueberry plant because it's in my way, I've never had to hold it so when it comes out, I've got it, I've got it, I've got it, come to the next episode of how not to dig a hole, don't use a wonky spade, step two, give up with the spade and start using your hands, now that he's buggered off and out the way, what we'll do is we'll dig it over, make sure I've got all those contaminated bulbs out, so the reason I'm digging this bed over, because I know I've always gone about the benefits of no dig, and no dig is amazing, I stand by that, but the reason I'm digging it over is because there are some really invasive weeds in here, so this is the root system of one of the weeds that I found, and they've just been springing up in this bed for so long, so as I've got everything out of it and it's clear, it's a good time to really just dig it over and get out as many of these more invasive weeds as I can, in the hope it saves me some effort in the future really, because they seem to come up, it doesn't matter how many layers of mulch I put on this bed, those invasive weeds, the roots are so deep and the root system is so big, that they just keep coming up, so the only thing to really do is to get every single bit of root out if you can, which is what I'm trying to do, so normally I wouldn't bother, that's why I like no dig, because it's just no effort, no dig, no bother, you know. I'm going to make my blue water piping protection now, because I think I'm going to put more brassicas in there, I think this side of the plot is sort of half shady, half sunny, so it's quite a good area to put brassicas in, I'm not sure whether to make the hoops over the whole thing, or over like, do like two rows, I just don't want it to look weird, so be honest with me, is that going to look weird being that big, and am I even going to have enough cloche to be able to cover it, that looks weird doesn't it, it's that weird, it's too big isn't it, I think I'm going to be sensible, and I think I'm going to leave it at just one, and then think about it, and also get your opinion on this video as well, as to whether that, as to whether that is too big, because obviously it's still standing, and obviously I can make it that big, but like there's a lot, it's a big bed, do you know what I mean, Rocky what do you think actually, yeah it'd be good to get your opinion on things, so yeah it's quite big Rocky isn't it, yeah okay, do you think it's too big though, is it too big, maybe, I think that's maybe, no, taking allotment advice from a cat, taking allotment advice from a cat now Rocky aren't I, it's not, it's not normal, keeps looking at it funny, I think, I feel like the cat knows the allotment better than me, because obviously it slinks off everywhere, so if Rocky thinks that's weird, then maybe it is weird, do you think it's weird, do you think it's weird, do you think, oh he's purring, do you think it's weird, do you think it's weird, put your butt in my face, let me grow you some catnip, I don't know what catnip is, I don't know what catnip is, but I can grow some, oh he's chasing that bee, he doesn't like the bee, scared of bees, Rocky this is not the place to be hanging around if you are scared of bees, oh my god, this isn't the place to be if you don't like bees Rocky, they're everywhere here, right Rocky come on you need to leave now, get away, go home now, quick get in the get everything in quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, your cat's coming, it's only because they'll dig in here and this is like my little, you know, I just don't want them in here to be honest, so what we're going to do in the polytunnel is, I've brought some cucumbers with me that I've been growing, these are the crystal lemon cucumbers, so they kind of look like lemons, but you can eat the whole thing and they're like yellow round cucumbers, they're so delicious, my neighbor gave them to me last year and I loved them so much, but I wanted to grow them this year so I have, and that is them, and we're going to whack them out now in the polytunnel because I think it is warm enough, and I'm just going to clear a little section over here, oh I stung myself, I knew I would, I knew I would, I knew I would, I really don't like you, I know you're good for the environment, I know I get it, I just hate you, I hate you so much, oh there's snails everywhere, having baby snails, it's like a, it's like a nursery for snails in here, snails are just going to eat anything I plant in here in like 20 seconds, collect them all up in a pot and just fling them, somebody said in the comments like, oh you know, I don't like it when I fling the snails because they're like, I feel sorry for them, like what do you want me to do with them, I'm not going to eat them, I'm not French, so if you'd like to come to my plot and collect them and give them a little home, feel free, otherwise they can get stuffed, I'm sorry, they're eating everything, they're eating everything, I'm just not going to advocate for snail rights, you know, it's not who I am, the soil is so good in here, she'll move you, sorry Radish, Radish is a really nice name, is anybody out there called Radish? I just think that's such a nice name, like if I had another baby right now I'd probably call it Radish, which is exactly why I shouldn't have another baby, that root system, oh look at those roots, absolutely glorious, right, I know they get quite tall but you know, it's got to survive first, we won't, we won't give it any structure yet, I've got my trusty strulch, this is, I just swear by this stuff, so good, it's the strulch, it also stinks, I wonder if the smell puts them off as well, because tell you what, it put me off my dinner, what we'll do is we'll lay it all on, a little bit of slug and snail, a thing I can find, is going onto these, even getting a little space helmet too, space helmet and everything mate, right cucumbers out, the most protected crops that my allotment plot now, they've got strulch, they've got shells, they've got natural slug pellets and they've got the little space helmets as well, hopefully that keeps them pretty much safe, but who knows, also these will keep them warm as well, because they are warm loving crops and it's not quite warm yet, like as warm as it needs to be, so I was hoping these would sort of keep them, keep them warm and toasty, always the way that the crops that you protect the most and that you really want to survive are the ones that usually die, so I don't have much hope for them to be honest, I'm just going to be realistic here, I don't have much hope for them, I think there's too many snails in here and I think they're just going to eat them overnight somehow, they're just going to manage to get over it all, last year I was desperate for my pumpkins to grow, I protected them with everything and then they just got stunted and didn't grow anyway, so like I said it's just always the way, it's always the way of the allotment, but they're in, so and they're off my table at home, so I've got some more space now, but I've just walked out of there, that blue thing it looks even weirder, I just haven't seen anyone else with one that big, it just didn't feel right making it that big, even though it felt pretty sturdy, I don't know, I'm just not sure, it's a loud bird isn't it, anyway let me know in the comments what you think and what you think I should do, should I carry on and make the whole bed protected or should I halve and halve it, let me know, well to sum up everything's growing pretty well, plot looks pretty happy, everything's looking great, it's looking very beautiful, it's looking very tulipy, I don't think anyone else on the plot has got as many tulips as I've got, so I'm winning there, I hope you enjoyed the video today, if you did please subscribe to my channel, I hope it's motivated you to get outside to your allotment or to your garden, whack something in the ground and the weather's definitely warming up now, even if it rains the weather is still warming up, yeah it's time to get growing everyone, so I hope you enjoyed it today, see you next time, have a lovely gardening week, bye!