FREE PLANTS FOR YOUR ALLOTMENT! / ALLOTMENT GARDENING FOR BEGINNERS

[Music] good morning everyone welcome back to my my allotment Vlogs what a gorgeous beautiful day blue skies sun it's feeling like July today in my last Vlog it felt like the end of September today it feels like July that is just how up and down the weather is in the UK at the moment it's just all over the place it doesn't know what it's doing from day to day but all I know is that this morning it's stunning it might not stay like that it might not stay like that it's it tends to be like this in the morning blue skies and sun and then by the afternoon there's like a thick layer of cloud and it just becomes quite cold sometimes it rains and it's just like very gloomy and miserable but in the mornings we seem to be getting more of this blue sky and sun which I'm very very happy about because it is such a mood lifter isn't it and and the plot it just looks stunning I mean this is what I was really waiting for when I was doing my plot up and sort of clearing it all and doing all that hard work this is what I was waiting for just this beautiful sun Blue Sky for everything to be sort of In Bloom half eaten but still okay you know what I mean yeah and now we're finally getting it and and when we finally get it on days like this it just it just makes me feel so happy I feel very calm and peaceful at the moment actually I very I very much went home and relaxed and stuff and and took things down down a tone really and um I do feel much better now so that's all good right I will start today with a pumpkin update because I did move those pumpkins didn't I and I I won't fail to show you what they're doing this time I'll actually give you the update straight away so where are they that's not a good start if you're saying where are they and they're pumpkins that's not a good start no actually right so we got one here little bit of slug damage I can see but he tends is sort of all right for now I don't know I reckon they're probably going to get to him to be honest don't really know what to do about that um and then this one here again a little bit of slug damage but I mean he's still alive and he's got some leaves so I just don't know I think it's just going to be the Slugs slugs just going to get him I think I'm stuck under the net um I do have one more that I moved as well and I put him right on the end here which was a bit of a risk the ones on the end tend to do the worst so I don't even know if he's alive what's happening to you then mate he's sort of alive I don't know yeah he's sort of been eating a little bit but he's sort of alive as well some of it snapped I really don't know this side of the archway is just very difficult oh look we do have a flower that's bloomed on that little pumpkin plant there which is good yeah I mean still a lot of green on it and you can see the runner beans even though they've been eating at the bottom they are starting to climb the arch now and they look absolutely fantastic I mean that is that's looking great great I think this side of the archway again is looking good don't seem to have had the kind of Slug and snail problem that I've had on the other side and that one there he going right up the archway so this side of the archway is doing a lot better [Music] [Music] yeah [Music] worms you're the only danger in [Music] here right so I got a few Little J to do today nothing too major but kind of just like nice little pottering around the garden jobs um I did bring two of my cucumber plants with me the thing is is I've got five at home I've got five and um these are the smallest two out of the five and I thought I'd plant these out onto that um palette today just to see what happens and see how attracted the slugs are to them like how quickly they disappear and then I'll sort of the other ones I'm going to grow on for longer I might change up the palette just because I think it's a bit of a slug and snail hotel and I don't really want them sitting there do you know what I mean so um it's not for them it's the Cucumbers so I brought out two they're sort of like tester cucumbers just to see what happens just to watch them get eaten to death really and then I've also got this sunflower which is a teddy bear sunflower um which I'm was hiding at the back of my little Greenhouse I thought I'd bring it here it's one of these ones I don't if that's going to focus so it's like a teddy bear one it's got like all different little petals around I've never grown one of these before but I thought how exciting and it's doing quite well in the pot so I thought I'd whack that out somewhere somewhere on the plot um and also I brought some of these woo little balls um I've seen a lot of people around the allotment plot using these on the end of their canes and I've got loads because my kids love using the paddling pool so I brought a few with me this don't say I don't entertain you so I thought we'd sort of try and stick them on top of some of the uh canes to stop me from poking my eyes out I don't know how to do it though where are my scissors where's my [Music] scissors I think if I can just sort of put a hole in it with the scissors it's supposed to sort of just fit snug over the cane not sure how I would oh it's reallyy easy that's why everyone does it cuz it's really easy oh that's fantastic easy [Music] yes love it I love it what a clever Nifty little idea I always see people at the plot doing this I thought it was very clever it fits so snug as well it's not going to fall off like a pot or an actoral bottle cuz that's what I used to use the little yogurt pots and stuff that is fantastic right let's do it over the whole thing I can't actually describe how happy this has made me I am absolutely thrilled with it I'm over the moon it will fill your heart with joy absolutely stunning I mean I don't know if I should have gone with like just one color or something but I actually quite like all the all the different colors how cool does that look now I absolutely love it right let's find some more spikes to um ball up that's a new phrase I've just invented ball up ball up your spikes come on [Music] [Music] just noticed that my gladioli are actually starting to get flowers I can't believe it because I've been growing gladioli for quite a few years now but the ones that I've had in over there they only flowered one year and then every year they just grew all the foliage and they never flowered but these are brand new bulbs and they are literally on the cusp on the cusp of flowering they're so thin I don't think the camera will sort of focus on them but look look almost every single one has now got the flower buds and they're going to be so beautiful they're so tall they're so lovely and and just Majestic they're just gorgeous gorgeous flowers I'm very excited but I will have to stake them soon cuz I don't want them falling over or anything so staking my gladiolas will be the job for the weekend um because I need to go to some kind of shop and get some more bamboo canes I think um I'm running out of like thin sticks and um because of the amount of rain we've had this year and all the sticks have been exposed to the Rain they're very bendy and snappy and stuff so they're just not working for me so I need to go get some proper bamboo canes and stake them before they all fall over but how incredible is this flower bed going to look oh my goodness great things are coming guys oh look who it is look who it is it's our favorite allotment cat are you looking at har sry that's not me he's not a real person hello Rocky hello Rocky hello oh God hello Rocky where are you where are you hello hello what are you up to today what are you up to so many questions about Rocky like whose cat is he who does he belong to where does he live I have none of the answers to these questions guys I I have no idea he's always about on the allotment plots and he just turns up and I've named him Rocky I don't know what his actual name is if he has an actual cat name [Music] Rocky find anything I need Rocky does that surprise you at all no doesn't really surprise me either mate right we're going to plant out cucumber Rocky you just g under the Cucumber thing why have you g under the Cucumber thing Rocky yeah I know you're going to get lost in there of course you are what do you think's going to be in there right well Rocky's on my cucumber struer now is is this going to be a regular thing rocky rocky okay now he's on me oh now he's on me oh Rocky is this going to be a regular thing just going to be a regular thing if you just like gosh your claws are so sharp his nails are so sharp is that normal I'm a little bit scared of you Rocky I'm not going to lie okay off we go off we go I'm a little bit scared of you sorry Rocky thinks I've made him a little climbing frame I guess if it can caught you Rocky then it's probably strong enough at least what are you going to do now what are you going to do now Rocky you can't park there Rocky you can't park there right we're going to plant out the Cucumbers the cucumbers are going to go here so just going to whack them in and see what happens and if we can protect them or not so we don't know yet so have one there one there [Music] right so what do we think guys yep I think you're right no chance absolutely no chance whatsoever all the corett here got eaten all the pumpkins are still getting eaten all the beans have been eaten why wouldn't the Cucumbers get eaten I think they are just like a meal I've just fed the slugs and snails basically I've just given them a little snack there's no way there's just I just don't think there's any way I mean I'm not trying to be negative about it I'm just trying to be realistic that the next time I come down here these will not be here I will eat my hat if they're still here I will eat my hat um they're definitely going to be nibbled to death I think perhaps what I'm going to do I was thinking that the pallette might be a bit of a slug and snail Hotel like I said so I might change up the structure and then I've still got some cucumbers growing at home and and I'm going to wait for them to get really really big before I put them out then I think I have a bit of a chance I'm looking over there cuz I've just noticed I've just noticed one of our friends sitting on a leaf there he is so we've been he's been eating all night and now he's having a little nap in the sun unbelievable mate unbelievable we're not even trying to hide anymore oh slingy Rook [Music] right so the job that I set aside to do today is to sort out the strawberry bed and to sort out all the runners on it and I find this job a little bit boring and tedious so I have to be in the right mood to do this otherwise I get bored halfway through and give up but it needs to be done so this is my strawberry bed this year it's the first year the strawberries have been here and they're brand new plants which is excellent you can see I'm starting to get a second harvest of strawberries which is very exciting I might actually get some of these you know cuz I don't think the birds realize there's another there's another lot coming or do they they probably do I don't know what I'm saying um but it's giving off a lot of Runners now so the runners are these long things coming off with little plants and you can see this plant here look he's already started to send out some roots on the bottom and these are the Runners what I'm going to do is create new plants out of these Runners um but I'm not going to separate them from their parents yet so I'll show you what I'm going to do actually having said that this Runner here has actually already rooted himself to the ground so he's already like tucked up in the ground so what I'll do with him is I'll snip him away from his parent plant to stop his parent from using all his energy on him and he can now be his own plant on his own so now his parent will be happy that makes sense but this one here he's just hanging like this he's got some Roots which he's trying to set down but what I'm going to do is I'm going to help him out a little bit so going to get myself another pot and I'm going to fill my pot up with some compost I'm just using the compost from the bed nothing fancy for them they don't deserve that you know don't go crazy for them right I'll pop it down where he is and I'm going to pop the runner where it naturally Falls like that put him there like that and then on top of him I'm going to put a rock to hold him down hold him down in there and now he will now root into that pot when I pull him and he's rooted I'll snip him away from his parents plant and I've got myself a new strawberry plant which I can plant somewhere else and I'm only going to allow each plant to have one Runner and I'm going to snip off any at the end CU they like to produce maybe two or three new plants but I don't want them to do that I just want them to focus on one new plant each snip off the rest that's the job that's what I'm going to be doing so let's get on with it because there's quite a few Runners here that's why everyone says if you grow a you know just a couple of strawberry plants you'll never run out strawberries in your life cuz they just keep producing more and more [Music] [Applause] [Music] can you see how it's going all like cloudy again and starting to like the wind's picking up and stuff this is what happens every single day at the moment um we start with beautiful blue skies and it just ends up like this here comes all the cloud all the cloud coming over it just get more and more until the entire sky is just a big block of cloud so before I leave today I have noticed that um my main crop potatoes have started to produce those little balls of fruit on the top so they had the flowers now they're doing this they're giving me these things now I know that these things are poisonous and you cannot eat them but I also know that when it starts to produce these it's a good sign that your potatoes may be ready to harvest so what I'm actually going to do is I'm going to pull up one of the plants and have a look what's going on under there they probably are ready to harvest but I just want to make sure and also I don't really want them yet like I don't need them yet um so we're just going to pull one up as a test a plant see what's going on under the ground that's the best thing to do if you don't know what's going on with your potatoes just pull one up pull one up right we've selected our Vic him we're going to go for this one so we're just going to yank him up really let's do it wow I wasn't expecting that oh my goodness they are fantastic look at the size of these I wasn't expecting that at all whatsoever oh my goodness there's loads of them I wasn't expecting all of these oh wow there's loads of them oh gosh they just they just keep coming this is just one plant this is crazy this is honestly amazing this is just from one potato plant I mean they're quite a good size I reckon they could get a bit bigger than that so I think the test is successful because we know we've got potatoes now go that one's just absolutely stunning yeah so we know we got potatoes I think we should leave them a few more weeks so happy with these though oh they smell so like earthy do you know what I mean oh just beautiful beautiful so I'm going to take these home use them in my cooking tonight and now we know to pull them up in a few weeks time so it's a successful test and um thank goodness we've actually got some potatoes under there I do hope you've enjoyed my allotment Vlog today if you have do subscribe to my channel and I will see you again on Friday have a lovely rest of your gardening week guys and fingers crossed for some more sunshine and blue skies cuz it really does just lift you up doesn't it see you next time thanks for watching bye