HAVE YOU SEEN ANY BEES? / ALLOTMENT GARDENING UK

[Music] hi everyone welcome back to my lot daries my name's Emma these are the allotment Diaries this is the allotment plot here in mid July gosh how are we in mid July guys but we are we've made it to Mid July and um once again weather is sort of not doing very much it's it's um I woke up this morning morning and it was sunny with blue skies and it's just this big band of cloud once again has just come over and um it's still quite humid and quite sticky but no sun it's like the cloud just comes over and just covers all the Sun for the for the rest of the day so there's the Blue Sky there's the last of it that's what we had this morning all that lovely blue sky and then over it look just a big band of cloud just covering everywhere it's definitely not my favorite kind of weather do you know what I mean it's a little bit miserable um luckily it's still quite warm which is nice actually but it it's just that cloud is just like is anyone else feeling it like just depression you know it's like a depression Cloud sitting over us all I mean the plot is still looking quite beautiful I suppose in this weird kind of light I mean the lighting right now I can see on the camera this feels like Autumn um and I've actually seen quite a few spider webs about and lots of spiders as if we're kind of in spider season already it's like it's fast forwarded or something which is very odd this definitely feels more like a September day but I mean I don't know what to say about it the only other thing I was going to ask actually on these Vlogs cuz I am getting quite a few comments about it is where are the bees how many bees and butterflies have you seen this year be absolutely honest so when we get like a nice sunny day they are out I have seen I have seen them about not as many as I normally would and the thing is is we're having more days like this and we're having a lot of rain and wind and really bad weather that they just don't like so they're not coming out that much and on the days where we are having in the sun I don't see that many of them so it's a little bit of a concern I have to admit this is the first year that I have physically noticed a decline in the bees and butterflies normally at this time of year my Vlogs would be full of them I'd be chasing them about and filming them um and also I'd hear them there'd be like a gentle buzzing in the background of all my Vlogs or the bees and I'd see the butterflies you know fluttering about in the background but this is the first year in about 5 years of gardening that I have that I have actually noticed a decline in the amount of bees and butterflies about I don't know what that means I don't know what it means for our crops I don't know what it means on a larger scale cuz I'm just a domestic kind of gardener and I've noticed it but like when I think about farms and like production lines I don't know what it means for that probably not anything good to be honest honest but yeah it's just interesting that quite a few of you have commented about that and said have you seen as many bees this year and I'm like no if I really think about it I haven't so wondering if you're the same have you seen the bees and butterflies this year where are they and uh what's it going to mean right I'm looking for my pumpkins that I planted out this is why I don't show you an update too quickly this one's gone it's been absolutely eaten absolutely eaten by slugs and snails so that one's gone this one's also gone there he is that's all that's left of him we have a little bit of the one on the end but I have a feeling he's probably going to be gone soon cuz they've really had him as well so that one's gone oh dear we've had a lot of rain um especially yesterday it was like a tsunami um tsunami what's it called Monsoon it was like a monsoon of rain so I wasn't really expecting them to live but you know what I was expecting to die that has actually lived and I actually can't believe this bleming cucumbers are still alive aren't they guys what is this is actually insane because not only are they alive they've been totally untouched I actually cannot believe that they're fine they're absolutely alive how brilliant is that and this has been like 4 days since I've been here uh and I cannot believe they're still alive they obviously went for the pumpkin which is a bit of a shame but you know the cucumbers are alive um so that's a little bit of good news this morning everything's looking very nice actually and I have to show you over here because you also won't quite believe this as well and I don't quite believe it but I've grown a sweet pee on my teepee just one mind just one but better than none one sweetp plant has decided no stuff this I'm going to grow I'm going to do it and it has and it's produced me my first sweet pee flow I'm probably one of my only ones got a couple more coming but it's one plant one plant survived on this teepee but how gorgeous is it how stunning so there we go we did grow a sweet pee right it is actually starting to rain a little bit so typical I think we're actually do some nice weather by the end of this week so I'm hoping that I can get here and do quite a lot of work and get a nice few shots and stuff and some pictures of my plot because it's nice just to have a memory of it in the sun being quite nice do you know what I mean as opposed to it always being rainy and gray and miserable so hopefully that will happen but I'm going to wait in my shed for a little bit until it starts raining and then we're going to tackle the peas today so it's all about peas okay I feel like the rain has stopped enough for me to get out is it stopped yes yes it has it still feels like it's going to rain more but we do have some more Blue Sky coming over there apologies for just talking weather but to be fair at the moment at the allotment plot the weather is like the biggest kind of thing like the problem I'm having there's nothing we can do to control it but we can just complain about it and then maybe it will just brighten up a little bit if we complain enough that's what we we tend to sink in the UK so let's sort out the peas right [Music] right I've gone with netting on it because I already had the netting and a lot of you said that netting would work quite well with peas to climb up and I can actually imagine them climbing up quite nicely so the whole thing's covered in netting [Music] now look the sun has come out how lovely is that I wasn't expecting this today at all um absolutely lovely right here are my peas so these are a summer flowering variety a summer Harvest variety I just ordered them online if I remember the name I'll put it on the screen now but yeah they've grown really well in these modules so I'm just going to plant them out just along the bottom of the structure it' be easier just to make a drill like this and plant them in my [Music] [Laughter] I have a sneaking suspicion that my peas might be done they're looking um very yellow and just sort of like flip-flopping all over the place I think it might be time to um get rid of them now I think I'm going to get quite a big Harvest from them so I'm not too disappointed and of course I've just succession sewn a load of peas and I've also got snap peas growing down there and I've also got snap peas at home which are going to replace the broadbean plants as soon as they're sort of finished and I pull them up so I've got loads of peas I mean this is a plot of peas this year this is the Pea plot that's what we're going to call it this year the Pea plot there's always something I grow that I seem to grow in excess every year and then just sort of becomes that's my thing that I grew and I think this year it's peas surprising but I'm happy so I think I'm going to harvest the rest of them and then pull it down I know it's a very sad day but it has to go at some point [Music] [Music] right I don't know how I feel about this to be honest not as sad as I thought I would cuz I do have other peas growing but I'm not sure how to get it down either so it's going to be quite violent right now so you got kids in the room Maybe cover their eyes a little bit he violence it's a warning [Music] [Music] oh my God I didn't expect to bring the whole blooming structure down [Music] [Music] look how the weather's changed when I did that job it's like the weather itself did not want me to do that it's sort of like matching the mood the vibe of the plot um it's a little bit Bittersweet but I feel good that it's down it's a bit like um taking your Christmas decorations down you kind of feel a bit sad about it but then you're quite happy cuz like it's like a fresh start do you know what I mean yeah it's like the Christmas decorations are down I think the tomatoes will get more sunlight now and it's just a little bit more open here which is quite good and also I've gained all these poles and supports which I really needed for lots of different things can't think of anything right now to use them for I mean I think they're useful it's always useful I'm always looking for a stick now I've got loads of sticks so that's quite good um oh actually I know what I could use some of the sticks for supporting my gladioli let's do that let's make something good come out of this absolute Carnage [Music] [Laughter] okay what are you waiting for hey waiting for some food all right poor Einstein did I forget to feed you I forget to feed you did I there yeah [Music] [Music] come on toine oh God [Music] [Music] [Music] that work [Music] question [Music] yeah [Music] together there we go going anywhere see this is one of the reasons why I planted them in a row because I thought it'd be easier to support them as a row so I've essentially just tied some twine along the whole thing so they're all kind of sitting in it so if they try and fall over they won't be able to um because they do get quite heavy gladioli but they're going to be absolutely stunning so all of this here opens out as a flower and they're just like the most beautiful craziest weird looking flowers I just love them I love how big they are I always say every year I'm going to pick them and take them home but I never do cuz I just hate picking flowers I just as soon as flowers start to bloom I just I want them to stay there I don't know if you're the same um I always say I'm going to cut them but I don't know how can you when they're so beautiful and hopefully it'll attract some more bees as well cuz that's what we need right now more bees [Music] well I think we've had pretty much every single weather that you could possibly have in one day um it was lovely and sunny a minute ago and now it's been all cloudy again and it looks like it's going to rain so I'm going to call it a day there and leave it I think we are do some really nice weather over the next few days so we'll try and get here as much as I can just for me really just just to be able to see my plot in the sunshine you know it just feels like such a um a rarity these days to see some sun on the plot and it really does change it I mean it really does I look at it now look literally as I'm talking the sun is coming out and everything just looks absolutely just beautiful in the Sun so I can't wait for that hope you've enjoyed my Vlogs this week if you have do subscrib to my channel I'll be back again on Monday have a lovely gardening weekend see you Monday guys thanks for watching bye