EPIC KITCHEN GARDEN FAIL! / ALLOTMENT GARDENING FOR BEGINNERS

Good morning everyone, welcome back to my allotment diaries and welcome to my back garden. I'm going to do a video in my back garden today, I've been showing you my home garden throughout the spring and summer and showing you everything growing and looking really beautiful and then I've kind of neglected it for the last, I want to say like 1-2 months actually, which is since I got my new allotment plot, all of my effort and energy has gone into my new plot and the garden has just been completely neglected, I'm going to say completely I have done some jobs, so I have planted out a few spring bulbs, got some tulips going in, I've mulched over a lot of the garden beds, a lot of the flower beds have been mulched and I have cut down a few things, I have cut a few things back but there is just a lot that has just died basically and needs really sorting out before the winter comes, I mean we had a couple of really hard frosts which has killed all the dahlias off, they lasted so long, it's almost the end of November and they have been flowering so beautifully and then we had like 2 hard frosts and they've just died. I have my son home from school today which is why I can't go to the allotment plot, I'm also still not 100%, gosh noisy today, I'm also still not 100% I've actually had Covid, it wasn't tonsillitis it was Covid and now my son has it and it's just completely wiped me out, I've got a terrible cough, it's not been that bad, like I'm not dying or anything, everything is fine, it's just been like a really awful head cold, that's how it's felt, I've been stuck in bed all weekend just trying to recover from it as quickly as possible really because I haven't got time to have Covid again, I haven't got time for this. I am feeling a bit better today but like I said my son's at home so we're just going to stick to the garden. Right let me show you around a little bit and then we'll get on with some of the jobs that we desperately need to get on with and also don't even get me talking about my mini vegetable garden, it's horrendous, it's horrendous. Right you can see all looking very different now from what it was looking like a few months ago but yeah the tree has now lost all of its leaves, I didn't even get a chance to show you all the beautiful orange autumn leaves, this is one of the flower beds that I have actually already weeded and mulched over so it's had some nice new compost spot over the top, also all the leaves from the tree have fallen and I'm just going to leave them there to do their thing. Down here these are my buxus and they got absolutely savaged by the buxus caterpillar this year and I think they might all be dead but what I'm going to do is I'm going to leave them and see if they come back to life because I don't want to take them out if they're going to live again but if they don't I think I might pull them all out next year and have something else there. This little area here in front of my yellow shed could be so beautiful, you see all the ivy, god it has the potential to be so pretty but unfortunately it's just a bit of a dumping ground so I want to try and sort this out next year. In here this is where I've put in all of my spring bulbs so I've got alliums which are actually already coming up, we've only had a couple of casualties from the squirrels, they've left most of them and I've got loads of tulips in here and daffodils and things so that should be really beautiful. These are the nasturtiums which have finally snuffed it, they did so well as well, they lasted so long but look the frost has just got them all and then the dahlias scattered around the garden, the one that I've left, they need to come out now, they are dead, dead as a dodo. Right enough chit chat, I think what we'll do is just start getting on with some of the jobs because there's a couple more that I've just added to my list as is always the way whenever I come into a green space, a garden, an allotment I have a couple of jobs and then I look around and think, well actually I want to do a couple more so let's get on with it. I think if ever in doubt as to what to do to a plant, just chop its head off, always seems to work. Take your head off mate, I don't know what to do with you so I'm just going to chop your head off. There's not many situations in life where you can say if in doubt, chop the head off, Henry the 8th did it a lot and it seemed to work out alright for him but yeah if ever in doubt with a plant and you don't quite know what to do with it, chop its head off, chop it down to the ground or chop a bit of it off because they all seem to regrow and just be fine. Not always, not always but most of the time if you just chop its head off it'll be alright. Okay I don't want to get into a massive chopping everything down, is there any more, oh the clematis, let's do the clematis. And here is another fabulous Emma quick tip for gardening. If you are ever confused about what to do to your plants, so for example clematis, this is a clematis, it's a climbing plant that flowers, you can get different types, so you can get ones that flower in the summer and ones that flower in the autumn and both varieties need different cutting down. So one gets cut down earlier in the year, one gets cut down later, one I think you don't have to cut to the ground, the other one you do. I just buy the same type, so this one here when I brought it, it's a late flowering clematis and it needs chopping down to the ground every year and it regrows. Now I will never buy an early flowering clematis because I will forget which is which and what to do with each. So every clematis that I ever buy will have to be late flowering and then all I have to do at the end of the year is remember to chop all the clematis down to the ground regardless of what they are, don't have to think about it, don't have to remember it, it's a lazy gardening tip from me, but it works. If you are forgetful like me and you just have a lot going on, this is just a good plan. So what I'm going to do is because it's growing here, it's dead at the bottom, no we're going to chop it to the ground, we're going to chop it to the ground, because that's what you're supposed to do, that's what you're supposed to do, it makes it stronger, it's quite scary chopping this one because it's such a big plant. No let's just, we'll do it, now we've done it, to be fair when I planted this in I already thought it was dead, probably has now done that, yeah I thought it was dead and it actually did regrow. So all that can just come off then, oh god, ok. Right I've changed my mind with the leaves, I'm actually going to collect them up and make some leaf mulch, because I think it would be more useful for all my flower beds than it will on this one. This bed has already been mulched, so I'm going to collect up all the leaves I think. Oh it's a pencil, oh with a rubber, that's a good pencil that is, it's got rubber on the end, that's excellent, I'll keep that, always keep pencils with rubbers on the end. Right there we go, we've found a whole bucket full of leaves, so that will probably mulch down to about a handful of usable stuff, but there we go, I mean it's better than nothing. Yeah loads and loads of leaf mulch, I think it's actually called leaf mould, but I absolutely hate that expression, I hate the word mould, because it just feels like something horrible that you shouldn't have, so I call it leaf mulch, but I think the actual term is leaf mould. Right we're going to move on now to our vegetable garden, this should be interesting because I haven't really touched it, I'm turning into a cat choking on hairballs all the time now, so to be honest I have actually tidied it, because it's right outside my kitchen I did give it a good old sweep up and I have sort of kept it relatively under control, it's just that I haven't done anything to the vegetables that need doing, i.e. picked them, so everything's just a little bit, it's probably all no good now, but we'll see. You see what I mean by it's not the messiest space in the world, I have been keeping up with it, I have chopped things back, I have swept the floor and kept weeds at bay, because it's right outside my kitchen, so I just, you know, I don't want it to be a mess. This has also been kept quite nice I think, quite fairly good, I can see some spring onions in here, these are spring onions, doing really well, really really beautiful, next to that we planted some lettuce, but only a couple have germinated, haven't really done anything, and then we've got the leeks, leeks are still alive, not getting much bigger, but alive, so I'm just going to leave them until they turn into leeks. Next to the leeks we've got our chard, really really beautiful, such a nice vibrant colour, and next to that we've got parsnips, but I don't know how well the parsnips have done in here, so shall we pull one up? Yeah, come on, you know you want to pull one up, let's see what they're doing under the ground. They went in a little bit later than the ones I've got in my allotment, my allotment ones went in, they went into the ground in February, and these ones I think were more like April time, sort of normal time, normal time, so it'll be interesting to see what they're doing. You see now I would expect at this time of year for them to be quite biggish, and all I'm doing is waiting for the frost, and we've already had frost, so technically I would say you should be able to pick and eat them now, oh it's come up quite easy, I don't think that's a good sign. Oh okay, I tell you what, that's not bad for a container, for a container parsnip, that's not bad. Let's do another one, just because, you know, we are now, come up, are you together, are you together or are you not together, I don't know if you're together or not, you have to tell me guys. I'll do this one, the way to get them up is to push it down, and then pull them up, that's not the way to do it, hang on, I did just do it right, I did just do it right, I've lost him now, oh no, no, I've lost all of his spindles, I know I haven't, are you two part of the same parsnip then, right, the way to do it is to push him down, and then pull him up, there he is, okay, okay, again not terrible, quite small, but then I suppose I wasn't really expecting whoppers in a container, but they've not done too bad, okay, cool. I mean not bad, not bad, things tend to grow smaller in a container anyway, so I wasn't expecting massive ones, they're not terrible parsnips, they're not anywhere near the biggest I've ever grown, and I've also got bigger ones at my allotment, so I think if these were my only ones I'd be fuming. Moving on, moving on guys, I mean the potatoes should have been harvested absolutely ages ago, and the carrots don't look like they've done anything, do you remember I sieved all this compost for them, I sieved it so it's like literally the finest compost, but I just don't think they've liked the pot. Let's pull a couple up and see what's going on in here, I'll say you've been having a nice munch of them though, at least someone's been enjoying them eh, you can stay, you can stay. Right, let's see what we've got in the carrot pot then, is there any, anything worth raving about, or should we just pretend we've never done it, we never did it, right, oh, ok, well it's orange, it's orange, not a great start carrots, you're going to have to really up your game, no that's not upping your game, oh my god, they're the teeniest, tiniest little, no, no, no, no, no, no, it's moved you a bit nearer, I think you need to see the full effect of these, he's coming up, oh my god, I don't think I'm going to find a carrot in here, oh hang on, hang on, is this one, this one might be, nope, that's probably about the biggest we're going to find in here, ok, there's another one, at least they're orange, they were carrots, you know, for sure, oh look how fine and lovely the compost is as well, why didn't you grow, they just don't like being contained in a pot I think, ok so the carrots were a little bit of a fail, a little bit more than a little bit of a fail, I mean a total fail, a total blooming fail, but my rabbit will like these, so I'll get them washed up, he can't have them all in one go because they're not good for him, carrots, but I think the greens are a bit better for them, so we'll put those in the kitchen, fantastic, now I think down here we've got some main crop potatoes and some sweet potatoes, so we're going to bring those up to the grass, tip them out, see what we've got, that's it, 3, 4, 5, 6, alright, fine, so that's it, that was it from that one, I mean to be honest I wasn't expecting much, but maybe a little bit more than 6 teeny ones, but there we go, there we go, and that's all I got from that massive bag that's been growing for months and months, grow potatoes guys, am I inspiring you to grow your own food now, to be honest guys I just neglected this, I just neglected them for ages, so we'll stick these in the kitchen and then we will do the same with the sweet potatoes, which I have a little bit more high hopes for because they did grow a lot bigger than the ones at the allotment, so fingers crossed, we've got some sweet potatoes, what we'll do is we'll use all that compost and mulch over one of the flower beds, so I'm just going to pull it, sweet potato, confused as to what I'm looking at, I think, I think they're very very skinny sweet potatoes, very very skinny, my little worms, I wonder if I can still eat those, oh that one's quite big, look at the shape of it, it's so weird, well this is what we got from the sweet potatoes then, so a lot of them are kind of folded round each other, they kind of remind me of like newborn mice, you know how they sort of all like sit over each other like that, and then some of them look a little bit like little worms or little snakes, I think they've just not got big enough, I don't see why I couldn't eat that, I mean it looks very much like a potato, just a skinny one, and I don't know enough about sweet potatoes to know if they're bad or not, I might try and cook a few and just see what they're like, but I don't know what I could do with them when they're this thin, but anyway I mean that's the sweet potato harvest, so there we go, we got, we grew a few, we've harvested a few, I mean in my eyes that's a success, you know, that'll do, right have I inspired you to grow potatoes yet? No? Maybe next year eh? Collect them all up, give them a wash, do I have to take the top off of it? Yeah I expect I do, oh I don't know about these, they look so weird, I know you're going to tell me they're just sweet potatoes, the little ones, but I don't know, I don't know about these, there's not much that I won't eat in my allotment, I think if you watch this channel a while you'll see me put all sorts in my mouth, but that's just weird. I hope you enjoyed my little Monday vlog today, I just didn't want to leave you hanging on another Monday without posting a video, these are just some gardening jobs that I have been meaning to do for the longest time and just been putting off, because like I said I've got my new allotment plot, but if you're new here and this is the first video that you've stumbled upon, do subscribe, look back over my other videos, I'm going to be doing lots more work at my new allotment plot, so I brought some spring bulbs that I'm going to be planting out, which I need to do pretty sharpish, probably tomorrow actually, I've also got a lot of clearing to do and yeah it's all going to be like full steam ahead now I'm feeling better, just to get that plot completely ready for the springtime, but we will get there, we will get there, there's a lot of work to do but we will definitely get there, I will see you again on Wednesday fingers crossed, and then again on Friday, I'm going to go to the plot twice this week, so I should have two more videos for you, until then stay safe, keep washing your hands and stuff because Covid is still about, as I learnt the hard way, and yeah have a lovely gardening week, I will see you again on Wednesday, see you Wednesday guys, thanks for watching, bye.