A TINY LONDON GARDEN IN MAY 2023 / GARDENING FOR BEGINNERS

Is this a berry? Hello everyone, welcome to my little London garden. My name is Emma, this is my London garden. I'd love you to subscribe to my YouTube channel if you're new to my channel. Last time I did a video in my garden I called it tiny and I got a lot of comments from people saying, well if your garden is tiny then ours is a window box. I've got a tulip right in my face. So I think sometimes I forget that I'm really lucky to have a garden and have this outdoor space, particularly living in South London. I know that a lot of people don't have it. I think the reason why I think it's so tiny is because I'm always running out of space and if I had it my way I would have about 10 acres of land. So every single space in my garden seems really tiny to me just because I want more of it. I absolutely love being in the garden, I love gardening and yeah I want the biggest garden possible. But this is what I've got to work with and boy do I work with it. I make sure that I fill every single corner of my garden with as many plants and as much stuff as possible because I just love it. I just want to show you these. I picked these the other day from my garden, the most beautiful tulips and they've got all these petals. Never grown tulips like these before. So these are the Sarah Raven tulip bulbs. I brought myself a little pack way back in like October, November time and they bloomed and they look absolutely stunning. I have picked them now because I've got something else there which I'll show you later. I've actually put it in a vase and left it in the garden because they are absolutely covered in bugs and like little tiny beetles and bugs and spiders and things. So I'm just leaving it outside because I just don't want to bring all that into my house and I don't really know how to pick flowers and bring them into the house when they're covered in bugs. So if you know how to get the bugs off of flowers let me know. I'm going to start the vlog by showing you a few new things that I've done in my little garden which I think you'll like. So firstly as you can see we got swing ball for the kids which actually means that the lawn is completely destroyed. Am I angry? Little tiny bit but at the same time I'm really happy to see my kids using the garden more and being out here. So we've got a little ball patch there and a ball patch there just where they've been standing and playing it but how can I be mad? How can I be too mad when my kids are actually outside using the garden, being outdoors in the space? I mean that's what it's all about and like I said a few times before if I had it my way I wouldn't really have any lawn there at all. I would dig the whole thing over and just have plants and flowers and everything growing there and so I can't complain too much. In here I've got these I can't remember what they are called I think they're called alliums and I know that they are from the onion family actually which is quite funny. I have just come into flower and they are absolutely stunning. I had a lot more than three but for some reason only three have come up this year. Look how tall they are. I didn't realise they got this tall and so unusual because their leaves are gone now either they've been eaten or they've just died or they don't have leaves no they've been eaten I think but yeah look how tall it is. I'm not sure how good they look in this little bed here I think what they would work better in is a border a nice full border and then having these sort of sticking up through the border but I do love them and they've got so many flowers on them they're absolutely stunning and the bees love them and the bees also love this too which has gone a bit crazy in here I don't actually remember what this is but they love it and it's stunning so I'm leaving it. I have this beautiful prunus tree at the back of my garden and a lot of you always oh I'm walking right under it a lot of you always ask what it is it's a prunus adelaide and it has the most beautiful blossom in the springtime and then it goes green and then it gets berries in the summer which the birds absolutely love and it's just starting to get a couple of berries now so the tree is oh no I've just knocked it off oh my goodness okay so I went to show you a berry and I just completely knocked it off and killed it here's another one I'm starting to question if they're actually berries now or if they're just the end of the flower or something but I've got a few of these and I think the birds are always after them so is this a berry? I think it's a berry I have a feeling it's a berry but they're all over the tree and the birds seem to love them so whatever they are they're here and they're here to stay as long as I don't push them off and then I've got some pots down here that had tulips in now that the tulips are finished I stuffed in a couple I whacked in should I say a couple of dahlia tubers and they are starting to come up now you can see they're starting to grow and the slugs and snails don't seem to be getting to these because I don't think they know that they're here I have got strulch on it but then over here I have another one coming up in this pot here and then I've put another one in the middle of these tulips and I need to take these out today because like I can see we've got Mr Snail coming to have a look that one might have been a little bit munched on but yeah I think when I remove the tulips they seem to be leaving the ones in the pots alone unfortunately the same cannot be said for the ones that I put out in the garden which seem to just be munched like no tomorrow okay another thing that I've changed in the garden I'm very excited about this and if you follow me on my Instagram at Emma's Allotment Diaries you might already have seen this it is my sweet pea teepee oh yes the sweet pea teepee is back this year I didn't grow it last year because I was trying out other other things but this year I have this area free this is where my tulips were they're now gone here are the sweet peas they're in so the teepee very simple to make it's just bamboo canes and then at the top I've used these what they call cable ties just to hold them together and I've also dug them into the ground which keeps them even more secure and then to secure the structure I've just got this twine which I've wrapped all around and then all of my sweet peas are all out along the bottom some of them are getting tall so I've tied them in just to help them out some of them are still little so they're just sort of balancing like that until they get big enough to tie in and then the entire thing has been covered with strulch which so far seems to be keeping all of the slugs and snails away fingers crossed it still does and I actually found their home so over here I had two sunflowers which have been completely eaten which is such a shame because I was really excited about those they're really big ones here are the snails they hide under this trellis because it's wooden I think they really like it oh look there's a ladybird that's the first ladybird I've seen of the year the first ladybird how exciting you can stay mate he's a happy pest these are not happy pests these are slugs and snails so what I'm doing is I'm coming out at night time and removing them and then just chucking them over the back of the fence and just doing that and removing them every night seems to be helping massively with the sweet peas because none of them have been munched yet so I'm guessing that's what's helping but who knows I mean they are just... they're just relentless these slugs and snails this year aren't they? I think we've just had really good weather for them so rain, sun, rain, sun like over and over again and that's just what brings them out so what can we do? right I've changed one of the borders basically what was happening down here is I bunged too many plants in one area and they were all struggling to survive so I moved a couple of these foxgloves last year so I had them over there and you can see some of them are still there but I've moved some of them around the garden I didn't realise how tall they get look at this foxglove he's right up isn't that unbelievable? so apparently they're biannual which means that they live for two years so at the end of this year it'll die and hopefully I'll let it sort of set seed so they can come up again but this is what they do on the second year they get really tall but as you can see there is an apple tree in the way so what I was hoping to do with this apple tree because it's just like two branches is train it to go sort of along the fence like that so it's sort of like a fenced apple tree I can't remember what they're called is it cordial? cordy something? cord... cordial apple tree or something? I don't know but it's the one where you train it along the fence and it kind of spreads and grows a bit like a rose like a rambling rose or something and you just push it against it and then I think this area here will look better because I don't think that tree is going to get any bushier or any better not anytime soon anyway so push that against the fence then I've got my lovely foxglove here I've got my clematis which has sort of grown over the top of this like where it should go now I might have to go sort of on my neighbour's trellis I don't really know what to do with that but it's doing really well and this is one that I thought was dead and it's definitely not dead so when I planted it it looked dead and I thought oh no that's a goner now look at it insane never give up on your plants you see never give up because they don't give up I've moved the rosebush because he needed some more space he's doing really well this year he's brand new I don't know what that is but I really like it here's some more foxgloves as you can see there's a peony behind it now I thought this was dead there are a lot of plants in my garden that I assume are dead and then are not dead and they just come back to life and then I don't know what to do because I've put something else in the way this peony is a prime example so I thought it was dead because it didn't do anything last year so I thought okay I killed it decided but I wanted this area filled so I put the foxglove in front which is now doing amazing and really really tall and now this has decided to grow isn't it you've decided to grow this year so hopefully I mean hopefully they'll be okay together this year because this this won't last again this is biannual that'll be dead at the end of the year sorry mate and then hopefully that will keep going and surviving but I don't know I mean they look quite nice together so far hopefully they don't fight too much over here this is my last remaining sunflower the last one the only one that has survived and he's been a little bit munched but his leaves in the middle are okay so hopefully he grows and then here I've got more sweet peas more sweet peas oh there's a little dahlia behind him seems to be surviving quite well yeah more sweet peas that are going to go over this archway that I put the front of the garden showing you the whole archway why not and then on this side these are my big daisies you know those plants that get really really tall the only thing with these is that you can see already they're like a hotel for slugs and snails but I really like them they get really big and really really tall I've just realised that I'm wearing my good jeans no grass stain is just the hardest thing to get out of jeans and these are my best pair why did I wear these? why? I'm clearing a lot of the tulips and daffodils because I've got other things to come up so there's some rebecchia in here somewhere somewhere there is a rebecchia plant in there and I need it to have more light to be able to grow I don't know if this is even going to grow is it dead? it might be dead but if it's not it'll be there and then I think I've got a dahlia over here somewhere but it all needs more light so you can see now how I've got these patches and I'm going to start planting new things in these patches that I'm making I'm going to leave the forget-me-nots a bit longer because the pollinators really love it and I think it's really pretty so in a couple of these spots I've got my dahlias and they're going to be quite big but in this one here I don't have anything growing in it now that I've taken my tulips out so I'm going to stick in some zinnias I found some zinnia seeds sitting in my bedroom just on the side casually as you do also there seems to be a rogue it's either a tooth or a sweet corn sweet corn seed in there as you do so I'm going to top it up with some more compost in it goes we better take the rogue sweet corn out just in case he grows can you imagine? give it a bit of water I'd absolutely love to plant some of these in my borders but I really think the slugs and snails will just go mad and eat them all what we're going to do is we're going to strulch strulch it up a nice thick layer of strulch on the top there now because this is a pot slugs and snails love to hide around the edges even though we did an experiment and found out that they don't really care I'm still going to use some copper tape around my pot in the hope it just deters them again like I said you've always got to use like more than one approach and tackle slugs and snails like one is not enough you've got to do like 10 so we'll copper tape it up as well I don't want it to look horrible it's not straight at all that's a bit better hopefully that just gives a little bit of extra protection but we'll find out let's go take a look at the little vegetable plot at the bottom here despite the fact it looks a little bit messy today probably my favourite part of the garden and now I've got this little one here too look how well this one is doing this is my zest vegetable planter and it's just doing incredible so I've got one, two, three, four, five, six rows in here of different things and everything is growing it's had very little damage if any at all and then round here this is my herb planter from Zest Outdoor Living and look how incredible this is doing I mean the mint has gone a little bit crazy I'm not entirely sure what to do with that I might have to chop it back a little bit today but everything in here is just doing swimmingly I've got my potatoes down here look at those doing so good I've got a blueberry plant which has been a little bit damaged but I think I might get some blueberries from him and I need to clear a lot of these tulips just a quick note don't forget that I've got a discount code for these so if you follow the link below you can get the Think Green Recycled Plastic Bottle Gloves I think they're made from recycled plastic bottles you can get them below for a discount if you click my link and also a lot of people ask about my shoes see if I can do a little shoe tap dance these are from a brand called Flit Flop and I'll link these below as well they sent me these just as a bit of a freebie to try out I think they're quite snazzy um they're very useful gardening shoes a bit like Crocs but not Crocs you know like sturdier a bit like wellies I don't know I mean they are what they are they're that so that's me modelling shoes I'll never be a shoe model I know right we need to get rid of some of these tulips here because they just become houses for slugs and snails and they just eat everything so I need to go in my little greenhouse here I've got loads of stuff growing just like tons of stuff my leeks are going a little bit funny they look like they're sort of dying a little bit they're turning a little bit yellowy and they're just looking a little bit sad and I don't know whether you have to repot leeks or not but I think I'm going to I've never heard anyone potting on leeks you will now because I'm going to do it I don't know if you should do this but I'm going to do it anyway right not entirely sure how to do this I'm just going to go for it I've sown these into coir and I'm wondering if there's just not enough nutrients to sustain them now like maybe they need more food so I'm going to sow them into multi-purpose compost I've just snapped him I know he might live I'll whack him in oh he's got some big roots maybe they're just hungry maybe he just needs some compost oh how do I get him in there then the roots are going everywhere mate put him in the hole come on you've got to get in my hole that's it the only thing I really know about leeks and this is just from what somebody else has told me look at that one how am I supposed to get that in a bleeding hole the only thing I know is that you're not supposed to plant them out until they're the size of pencils and that's all I know so I'm not putting them outside yet because they're not I mean that's not a pencil to me I guess it depends on the size of the pencil but I assume you mean a bog standard HD sort of pencil not like an arty one or something they look all right I don't know I think this is right I just feel like it's right so we'll just keep going I think the way I'm just like pushing these roots into the hole I've never done this with a plant before it's so strange it's like they're all spindly everywhere and I'm trying to force them into a little hole I don't feel like they'll be happy with that but I think you know they just have to make do very weird plants leeks they sort of look like little octopuses do you know what I mean look at that it's like an octopus and I'm trying to force the octopus to be a pencil that's what it is that's what you do with leeks you're forcing octopuses to be octopuses or octopi or is it just octopus you're forcing an octopus to be a pencil that's what you're doing when you grow a leek that is the definition of leeks octopuses that need to be pencils I don't know if it's octopus octopi octopuses oh I killed that one sorry mate next better luck next time or not because you're already dead if these all grow really well I'm going to be eating leeks for the rest of my life I think and I like leeks but I don't like love leeks like I wouldn't eat leeks for breakfast you know it's always the crop that I sort of think is all right that grows really well and I end up with a million of them why is that right we have I assume successfully potted on a load of leeks there they are in a new pot and then with this stuff I don't really know what to do with it so what I'm going to do is actually keep it in the old greenhouse I know a lot of it will die because I've uprooted it and stuff but you know just in case a few of them survive or whatever I'm just going to keep that and the thing is right what's really funny is whenever I say like I'm just going to throw that in the compost heap someone will always comment don't throw it in there because you'll get a million of them just growing really are you serious because I struggle to grow leeks or anything like when I'm actually intentionally doing it but if you're telling me that if I just throw stuff in a compost heap and it'll just start growing like wildfire why don't I just do that turn my whole allotment plot into one big compost heap just chuck everything in it and everything will grow because whenever I chuck something in a compost heap someone says don't throw that in there it'll start growing I hope you enjoyed my little garden vlog today if you did do subscribe to my channel and I will see you next week have a lovely gardening weekend bye