BREAK IN AT THE ALLOTMENTS / EMMA'S ALLOTMENT DIARIES

Such a shame. Oh my God. Oh my God. Hello everyone. Welcome back to my allotment diaries. My name's Emma. These are my allotment diaries just walking up to the allotment plots now. And unfortunately there have been a group of kids who have broken in and smashed quite a few people's sheds. So I'm coming today super early in the morning. It's like eight o'clock in the morning. So I know there's not going to be trouble at this time. Um, because everybody knows that bad people get up late. But yeah, I've come here to check that my shed is not one of the victims. I really hope it's not. But luckily, you know, my shed is quite far away. My shed is quite far away from like the front of the allotment plots. Um, it's sort of hidden right at the back. So I really hope it's okay. I can see there's a shed here that's been smashed in and she's had to board her windows up. Such a shame. This is one of the sheds that they've attacked. Oh, it's the Fox. Yeah. Where was he when we needed him, eh? So this is one of the sheds that they were throwing stones at and smashed all the windows out, which is such a shame. And her lovely little elephant statue has been sort of destroyed as well by a bunch of kids. Apparently he just took it into the forest and started pulling all of the stuff off of him. It's just one of the hardest things about having an allotment plot is that they're not very safe really. I know they're sort of gated and stuff, but they're not safe. A lot of people always break in and vandalize stuff and steal your stuff out sheds and smash everything up just for the fun of it. It's such a shame, but it is part of life of an allotment plot. You know, it's not your back garden, so you can't always be here to protect it. Um, and even putting a lock on the shed doesn't always deter them. So just one of those things. Oh my gosh, there's a spider on my leg. No, I'm good. And of course you've got to contend with all the bugs as well. There's a lot of abandoned plots this year or people who just haven't been able to keep up with their, their allotments. Um, I remember this one, this one has always been very good. It looks like they've just, um, they've left it now. Definitely noticed an increase of people just leaving their plots this year and just not coming back. Um, I don't know if maybe it's because the rush of getting an allotment plot during the pandemic has gone and now they're sort of left with them and they don't have time for them anymore. Now we've gone back to work full time and all the rest of it. I don't know what I do know is that there are more abandoned plots than ever before. There's another one. You're not going to be able to cut that down this time. No, that one knows that's been abandoned and that was really nice. It had all the fruit trees on it. This is our little tiny rickety path through to our allotment. So you can say we've got all these lovely, lovely allotment plots around us and the mine is right, right at the back. So we're really, really hidden out the way. I'm really hoping I haven't seen any further damage in anyone else's plots. So fingers crossed. It's quite a trek to mine. We're quite hidden. Aren't we Tom? I actually chose this plot on purpose. Um, so that it would be quiet and empty and sort of hidden out the way. Firstly, cause I knew about vandalism and stuff. I didn't want people breaking into my plot, but secondly cause I wanted to film here and do my Instagram and stuff. So I wanted somewhere out the way. Um, the only thing is it gets quite shady. So you just saw everyone else's plots all nice in the sun and mine's quite shady first thing because we've got all of the, not just the tree on my plot, but all the trees surrounding it. I do get sun and I can grow stuff. So it's all good. So hello guys. How are you all doing? I hope you're doing really, really well. I hope your plots are growing really well at this time of year. Um, like I said in my last couple of videos, my plot is looking a little bit shabby at this time of year. I think that's just what happens in the autumn months, but I've come down today to do a couple of jobs. I brought my boy with me because it is the summer holidays still. So it's been difficult to get down here. That's the Robin. I think that's the Robin. It's that time of year where all the birds are starting to get really noisy again as well, which is really nice because you can actually hear them. So one of the jobs that we're going to do is water all of our new seedlings because the weather in the UK has got warmer and we are due some sun over the next few days. So just in case I can't get here, I'm going to give them a good water. I'm also going to have a little look at my tomato plants and see if I can still, if I can get some of them turning red because they are all still green. And I've got a couple of tricks up my sleeve for that. And then what else are we going to do Tom? Slug hunt, I think. Here on the side. He's massive. I think we're going to just pick off some of the slugs again because that is just an ongoing job at the moment. Thanks to all the rain that we've had. That one's massive. Let's get him. Just the worst slugs. These over here, these are cabbages. I have no idea when these are done or not because you know how cabbages are like balls. Well, I never know how big the ball is supposed to get. So I just don't know when they're done. Um, this is a different type. This might be a Savoy cabbage. Actually, you see how the leaves are different Tom? Like crinkly. This look, Oh, that's so, that feels so nice. And then these ones are smooth. I don't know what they are. Oh, and there's a purple, purple broccoli in there. It's literally like an alien. It is like an alien. Look at him in there. Literally alien. Little purple, purple cauliflower. That's alien. Yeah. It's amazing, isn't it? So if you grow cabbages, could you let me know if my cabbages are ready to pick? Because it's just the one brassica that I just don't know when it's ready to pick is the cabbage. I just don't know when the opportune time is to pick it and eat it. These ones don't look ready cause these aren't sort of in a bowl. That's not in a bowl, but that one is. So does that mean that that's ready? Let me know in the comments. I don't think I've shown you my sprouts yet. Um, so I put in some Brussels sprouts and I actually put them in in the wrong place because the way that I made this contraption here, the way that I made this contraption or this, this butterfly net brassica protector, that's what we're going to call it now is I put two smaller ones at the end and one bigger tube in the middle with the understanding that I was going to sow all of my Brussels sprouts in the middle. However, obviously when I went to plant them out, I mixed up all the brassicas and they've all just ended up everywhere. I don't know how it's happened. I mean me muck something up. I mean, that's just not like me, is it? But a lot of my Brussels sprouts are now in the corners and stuff. So they're getting really big. So I will have to take the netting off at some point. So for example, this one here, he's actually supposed to be in the middle over there, but in the middle here, I've got a lovely broccoli growing. So I don't know where they all think they're going, but I will just show you because for the first, when I grew sprouts for the first time, I didn't actually know where the sprouts appeared. Like I had no idea. So you see where the stems meet. So these little branches meet the stem. That's the Brussels sprout in there. That's the tiny, teeny, tiny, so they're the size of like peas. That's the Brussels sprouts and they grow in the stem like that. Oh look, they're bigger down there. Yeah. They grow in, in, in the middle of the stem. This little point here, this is a Brussels sprout and you just pick them off when they're ripe. Or what you can do is when they start to all grow a bit bigger, you can cut the entire top of the plant off and then all the sprouts will develop at the same time and get to the same size. Or you can just pick them off individually when you think they're ready. So you've got choice. You've got a choice. You can also eat the top and all these lovely leaves. Now I don't really like the bigger leaves cause I don't know what to do with them, but these little ones on the top are like a giant Brussels sprout. That is like a giant Brussels sprout and it's really, really delicious. So yeah, great plants, great plants just all planted in the wrong bleeding place. Right Tom, are you ready to do some jobs? The problem in the polytunnel that I'm having this year is that none of my tomatoes are going red. Uh, and they really, I really should have some red ones now. It's almost the end of August. I should start getting some at least orange or yellow or any color other than green. But they all look like this, which is fine because they're healthy and stuff. So they still got time to go red. It's just the problem with tomatoes is the longer that they take to go red, the more chance they've got of getting all those horrible diseases. They can get like blossom end rot, which is where the bottom of the tomato starts to rot because it's, it's too rainy and it gets too wet. They can also get blight, which is one of the worst things they can get. And the longer that they're here not turning red, the more chance they've got of catching these horrible diseases and stuff and these things happening to them. You just want them to go red as quickly as possible, pick them and then get rid of the plant. If anything goes wrong. The only thing I can think to do is to cut some of the leaves away from the plant and encourage all of the energy of the plant to go into the tomatoes and also help the sunlight to hit the tomatoes more. That's the only thing that I can think to do to help my tomatoes. That's what I'm going to do. There's a bee in here and he seems very confused as to the way out and how to get out. Even though the way out is there, that is the way out, but he's obviously very confused. I'm just going to get him out. Right. Let me see. Oh my goodness. Oh, hello. I wondered where you were. Have you got any worms for him Tom or slugs or anything? Maybe you could find a little worm. He's never been so close to me. I think you might. Oh my gosh. Did he just poo? Yep. He just pooed on that. He's got a problem with pooing in public. That's the second time that you've pooed in front of me. All right, let's rescue this silly old bee. Mr. Bee. Mr. Bee, can I help you? Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. That way. Can't believe you didn't find a way out when I literally showed it to you. There. I did it. It's gone. Honestly. Did you see that? I know. That bee was awful, wasn't he? Just couldn't find his way out at all. Right. Where were we before we were really interrupted by nature? Right. What we're going to do is we're going to start randomly snipping off a load of these leaves. Basically, what I want to say to this plant, if this plant could speak human, is there a carrot there? It's like a random carrot and it's really big. Goodness. Why is there a random carrot there? Anyway, if I could, if this plant could speak human, I would say to it, stop worrying about your leaves and start focusing on the tomatoes. That's what I would say to it. I'd say, come on, mate, you don't need this many leaves. You're being greedy. And I'd also say, please don't die. And just stuff like that, really. Just probably, I'd probably just say over and over again, just please don't die. But right. Can you now turn red? Is that okay? Right. Here's another tomato plant with way too many leaves. I don't know what you were thinking, mate, growing this many leaves, but look, nobody needs this many leaves. I'm going to take the bottom ones off. Where the actual tomatoes are, what we'll do is we'll snip around them in an attempt to, did I just cut the, Oh no, I just cut the, I just cut the support. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh no. Oh gosh. Oh, I can't believe that. Why did I do that? As I was cutting it, I thought, I hope I don't cut the support. Just cut the bleeding support, haven't I? Oh, absolute woolly, woolly behaviour that was. Oh my goodness. I said to myself, don't do that. And I just went and did it, didn't I? Right, we'll have to stick this in the ground. That's not even deep enough. Ground is so hard. I can't believe this is happening. No, it does nothing. You can have it back. It does nothing. It won't go in. Can I try pushing it in? I don't think you'll be able to, Tom, if I can't. I'll be able to. Okay. Okay. Hang on, Tom. Let me take over. Oh no, it's not going in. Are you both up? Are you both okay? I'm very sorry for the inconvenience that I caused you this morning by turning up and being here. I feel like now the fact that they're still green is the least of my worries. Now it's just about keeping them alive, you know? Right. Okay. Where were we? What I will quickly do is just remove the leaves around the actual tomatoes without killing them this time. Come on. I think that one there, that can go. Oh God, please don't fall down again. Please, please, please don't fall down. Please. Just some of these just can't go. Right. So now they've got no leaves around them. Hopefully you'll turn red now. But to be honest, all I want you to do now is stay alive. Okay. New plan. Forget turning red. Just don't die. I need the ones that... Which one? That one? Turning yellow? Sort of turning yellow? Yes. The more dead that they look, the better they are. This one here, that'd be perfect. And if they feel big and full as well, that'd be good. So just pick them and put them in the basket. There's a brown one back here. Oh yeah, perfect. You can see them. So Tom and I are picking sweet pea seeds. I've been wanting to do this for a little while, but I've been waiting for them to go browny yellowy like this. And basically when you open them up, you want them to be like that brown in the middle. You see that? And that means that they are seeds now. They're sweet pea seeds and we can use them and grow them for next year, which is really good. So a couple of reasons to collect your own seeds are firstly, it's free. You can just let them turn seed and then pick them and you've got free seeds for the next year. I mean I've probably got enough free seeds here to start a small sweet pea business, to be honest. Secondly, they're going to be perfectly adapted to your garden. So if it's grown there already and produce seeds, the chances are when you grow the seeds in your garden, the plant will do really, really well. So there's lots of reasons why you should pick your own seeds. I always try and do it a little bit each year. Sometimes I just forget or run out of time or I can't store them properly because I don't have enough room or I have done it wrong and loads of the seeds have died. Anyway, I've got a million excuses, but the point is try and collect your own seeds if you can. And I'm going to be working really hard this year to collect as many of my own seeds as I can. How many have we got there Tom? 10? Like 25? Okay. Might need to wait a little bit longer for some of them to turn a little bit more brown. Well, I hope you've enjoyed our little blog today. I hope you've enjoyed my little visit to the allotment plot and keep looking after your plots and I'll see you again in my next video. Thanks so much for watching guys. See you next time. Bye.