MY BIGGEST ALLOTMENT HARVEST EVER! / ALLOTMENT GARDENING FOR BEGINNERS

They just snap off sitting on my cauliflower like that. It's absolutely huge, no. This is literally the biggest harvest I've ever got for my allotment plot in four years. Hey guys, morning, how you doing? I hope you're doing really well. My name's Emma, these are my allotment diaries and I'm currently just walking down towards my allotment plot. It's really nice weather today so we've had some really awful rain and like storms in the UK but today we woke up lovely and sunny. I thought we'd just take a walk down to the allotment plot, make sure everything's okay. Obviously when it's been really raining like that it can really damage a lot of your crops. I'm really hoping that everything's still standing but we'll go and see, shall we? This is my lovely walk to my allotment by the way. I get to come through this sort of little forest which is quite nice when you're in the middle of London and you're used to kind of seeing traffic and houses and buildings so it just helps me to relax when I get on my way to my allotment and I just love it. It's also a little bit creepy sometimes but not today. How lovely is everyone's plots looking at this time of year? So gorgeous, I love this time of year. Wow, look at those calendulas. I didn't even have any coming up yet. Wow, look at all of these calendulas. Oh my goodness, I think it might have been a good year for calendulas. I mean mine is starting to come up but they're not flowering yet, but this plot is absolutely thriving with them. Are they calendulas? I think they are. I'm pretty sure they're calendulas. They look like they've self-seeded, don't they? Absolutely stunning. Okay, I definitely think it's been a good year for calendulas. Look at these over here, absolutely insane. If you grow calendulas, have your calendulas done really well this year? Maybe we've just had perfect weather for them, I don't know. Let me know how your calendulas are doing because at this plot, at this allotment site, they're doing so good. Hi guys, so because of all the rain that we've had, it seems that the slugs are out in full force. They seem to have collectively all come together and decided to eat most of my crops, which is just great, isn't it? It's lovely. So at least they're enjoying them. The rain has also damaged a couple of things. Let's go around, I'll show you just what the rain has done, but everything should pop back up. I mean as long as we get some sun and stuff and the weather calms down a little bit, it should all just come back to life again, but I'll show you the damage. So it's mainly a lot of the flowers, like this borage here, which has sort of been weighed down by the rain. I was going to say the wane then, by the wane. Yeah, the flowers have sort of been battered a little bit. I mean luckily I didn't have any calendulas growing or anything, but you can see that this... No, he's survived, he's all right. So the cosmos is okay, but it's normally more daintier flowers that seem to suffer in heavy rain. Sorry, no, come on. Why do the wasps hate me this year? Like seriously, they just hate me. So this is the bed down here that has suffered the most, and it's my blooming carrots, isn't it? It's always my carrots that suffers. So there used to be a lovely row of carrots here, and as you can see, all of the heads have been decapitated by a ravenous group of slugs. I've got a few left, and then this row here, I've got a few left, but unfortunately the slugs really, really went for them in the rain. But yes, so annoying that most of my carrots are gone. And then look, it looks like... I don't know if these have been eaten or if they've just stopped growing, but these look a little bit on the small side. And then over here, it looks like something's been digging, and I'm really worried this is rocky. This looks like rocky business. Has he done a big poo there? Maybe we should investigate actually. Right, this better not be rocky business, because honestly, if I find poo here, I'm going to be really cross. I've fed him so many cat treats. No, okay, I think it's... Oh wait, is that rocky poo? No, it's not, it's not. I don't think he's done a poo. I was going to say, all of those cat treats I've been giving him, and then that's how he'd repay me, by doing a big poo. I'm pretty sure he has done a poo somewhere, because I can smell it. I can smell some kind of pungent poop smell, but well, I don't know, hopefully I won't come across it. That's annoying about my carrots. What I might do really quickly, is just pretend that didn't happen, and just re-sow a row. Let's do that. I think I've got more seeds here. That's borage, that's lettuce, beetroot, no, onion. I thought I had like more carrot seeds left. Did I sow all the carrot seeds? No, I don't think I did. Did I? I've got the empty pack here. I must have sown all the seeds. I wonder if I've got any in my bag. What I tend to do with a situation where everything's just been eaten, is really quickly re-sow the row, and just pretend it didn't happen. No, I don't have any. I normally have like an empty seed pack somewhere. We might whack something else in then, because I just think, yeah, I might whack something else in. Oh, I tell you what, this is a really good thing to sow right now. Mibuna here. Mibuna is a really good thing to sow in August. There's not that many things you can sow in August that will grow and be harvested this year, but Mibuna is one. Mizuna, radishes, fast-growing lettuce, rocket seeds are really good as well. So there are a few things. I might do a video on what to sow in August actually, in a few days time. So look out for that video. But yeah, I'm going to whack some of this in. It's just basically like a leaf that you eat. Worst explanation ever. But I mean, isn't everything a leaf you can eat? That's pretty much what every crop is, isn't it? It's a leaf you can eat. Mum, do you want to sow these seeds? Do you want to sow these seeds? Yes. Right, if I make a line along there. You need to crouch down. Try not to step on the carrots that are still alive. You can sort of put your foot in there if you want to, to lean over. There's a carrot there. Is that a weed? That's a weed. The weeds are killing all the carrots. Right, hold out your hands. Okay, so scatter them very, very thinly. Let's see how thinly you can do it compared to how I do it. Yep, okay, a few more than that. Lovely. This is called Mibuna. Not Mizpuna. I lost Mibuna. Nothing. Terrible mum jokes. Fantastic. And now what we need to do is close up the row because you don't have any gloves. Do you want to use the spade to do that? Yeah. Perfect. That's it. That's it all the way along to the... What if you just got a giant bag of them and just threw them all over the plot? Well, that's called seed scattering, and I do do that sometimes, Tom, and it still grows. You just got a giant bag of manure and plopped it all over there. Get a giant bag of soil and plopped it over there. Get some compost and plopped it over there. Tom, Tom, that is exactly what I do. What do you think happens there? There's no logic to any of it. Right. Excellent, Ali. Well done. I really need to come up with a solution of this with this because basically the straps are broken so snap... Look at that. I just snapped in my hand. Watch this. It just snapped off. What's the point? But this keeps falling down, and then what's happening is it's just pushing everything in here with the wind. It's just not doing very good, so I need to come up with a solution. I think I've got one. Right. I've got some of this netting stuff, which is sort of made out of plasticky wire stuff. It probably won't snap as easily, and what I'm going to do... I'll figure out where to put the hole. Oh, I'll put the hole there. Right. Okay. Here's what we're going to do. Hang on. What I'm going to do is get a pair of scissors and put a hole on purpose. Oh my gosh, that just looks like butter. What are you trying to do? Fix it. Fix it? Watch this out. This is a tutorial of how to fix your polytunnel. Be fixed. Fixed it with Emma. What's that saying called? Bosh it. Bosh it with Emma. That should technically stop that from falling down now, unless it unties, and then we'll have exactly the same problem as before. But fingers crossed, it'll work. I know. He absolutely loves the camera. Hello. I think... What name do you reckon we should give him? What do you think? Bobby. Bobby? Bobbin? No, let's call him Toboggan. Toboggan? What if we call him Boodle? Boodles? No. I think maybe Bobbin? Toboggan. Toboggan. Red lorry, yellow lorry, green lorry. No, because you can't even say that. How could that be his name? No, let's call him Apples. Apples? Right, we'll have to have a think on that one. Let's go in and have a look. Right, you can see what's been happening as the door's been swinging. It's basically pushed everything towards it. Huh? What's that thing? What's what thing? That thing that looks like an octopus. Oh, the octopus thing? Yeah. This is a kohlrabi. See in there? Kohlrabi. Oh, look at all the whitefly on it. It's quite pretty. It's like it's snowing. Dandruff. You're like dandruffed. Okay. Slightly less romantic view on it. It's okay, Ali. That's fine. And then these are my tomato plants. Got teeny tiny ones there. And look over here, kids. Big tomatoes. Fat tomatoes. Fat tomatoes. That's what we want, fat tomatoes. An apple just fell into my hand, so I'm going to keep this one. I was just touching it to show the kids, I promise, and then it just fell into my hand. Um, anyway, uh, let's, let's give the tomatoes a little bit of a feed, I think, today, because they are looking a little bit sad. Right, this is, oh, it's perfect, Tom. Thank you. This is tomato, right? No, they've gone. That's it. They've had enough now. Yeah, don't touch him, because he might, if you kill him, that'd be very sad. Right, so we're going to put some tomato right in here. Anybody want to give this a smell? No, thank you. Me. Yep. Come on in. Come give it a smell. Is it oil? No, it's tomato, right? It tastes like nothing. Smells like nothing. Want to give it a smell? No, I don't smell anything. No, it's actually got quite a subtle smell. I was hoping for a bit more of a reaction there. Oh, God. Okay, that was too much. If robins eat slugs, this could be the breakthrough I've been waiting for, my allotment plot for ages. Look at this guy. Look at this guy sitting on my cauliflower like that. No, don't. Not cool. That is the biggest slug in the world. I don't think the robin will be able to digest that. Okay, we'll try and find a smaller one. Stuck to my stage. He's stuck to my stage. He's going to slither. It's stuck. He's literally not coming off. I I'm going to just have a dig in here. I'll see if I can find a worm. Why can you never find a worm when you want a worm? Where's all the worms gone? Oh, the things I do for my kids. Oh, there's a potato. There's a wasp that's lying on its back with a thing around it. It's stuck there, I think. Oh, right. Well, that's a good thing. Oh, look, I'm finding potatoes. Oh, don't eat those. Yeah, you can eat them. They're red. They're supposed to be red. Oh, but mum, have you ever seen a green potato thrown away? It produces gas that can actually kill you straight away. Oh, right. Like somebody had green potatoes in their basement. They went in there and they all died one by one. They all died one by one? Yeah, because of how deadly the green potato gas is. It's really dangerous. Potato gas? Robin? I've got a worm. I don't know where the bird's gone. That's him. I think he's just thinking about it. If I put it down here, maybe. Right, they're waiting for the robin to eat their worm. So while they're doing that, what I'm going to do is get a basket out ready to start harvesting some stuff. Oh, no, you might have to move them back onto it. Oh, no, I'm not touching it. Get a stick, get a stick and some scissors. That's it. Oh, there you go. They don't want to touch a worm. Who do they take after, eh? Honestly, where did they learn this behaviour from? Did he get it? Yes. Did he take it? He just got it. He just swooped down so fast. Wow. He wants another one. It's a bit big for him, isn't it? Yeah. Oh, no, he lost it. Oh, you silly thing. So this was the most exciting thing. This is all I really wanted to do today when I came down here was harvest as much as I could. This is literally the biggest harvest I've ever got for my allotment plot in four years. And so much stuff here is still not even ready to harvest, like the tomatoes aren't ready to pick, still got potatoes to come up, still got my sweet corn to be ready and stuff carrots if any of them grow. But yeah, like this is without a doubt the biggest harvest I've ever got. So I've got some rainbow chard in here. I've got some kale, which looks amazing. So fresh and lovely. I found a couple of little potatoes when I was digging for a worm for the robin. So there we go. Thank you, Mr. Robin. Still yet to be named. I apologise. We'll come up with one soon. I've harvested some of the runner beans and I actually picked the bigger ones and I'm going to cook the beans inside because I don't want to waste them. And I also picked quite a few of the French beans, which are about that size and they look really delicious as well. So I'm so excited to try all of this and I'm going to cook all of it today. The last thing I want to harvest is with my kids. I want to pick one of the cauliflowers with them because I think they're going to be blown away by it. They are so impressive, aren't they? Oh, and I almost forgot. I've also got an apple, which accidentally fell into my hand, but it's just one. It's just one, guys. OK, so we're going to add that to our pile as well. We're going to go pick cauliflower because I think they are so impressive and exciting to pick, even if they're covered in slugs. So let's go do that. Look at the size of it. Look at the water droplets. Is it water phobic? Water phobic? You know, when all the drops won't go onto the leaves and make it wet. Because I saw the leaves like drops rolling down. Oh yeah, they are. Yeah, they sit on leaves. You're right. The water droplets sit on the top of the leaves. So there he is, my second cauliflower of the plot. My kids are definitely not as excited as I thought they'd be, but I'm pretty excited. I'm going to take all this home now and give it a cook, give it a wash, give it a cook, see how it all tastes. I hope you've enjoyed my little vlog today. It's a little bit chaotic. I've got my kids here, but it's the summer holidays. It's nice to get the kids down here actually and just out in nature and seeing what I do, you know, because this is sort of what I do for a living and this is what I do with my day. So it's really nice to have them here. I hope you've enjoyed it anyway. I'll see you in my next vlog. Have a lovely gardening week. See you later. Thanks for watching. Bye.