OCTOBER PLANTING AND SEED SOWING / ALLOTMENT GARDENING UK

Good morning everyone, welcome back to my allotment diaries. My name is Emma, these are the allotment diaries. Join me on my allotment plot here in South London where I will just be sharing what I do day-to-day on my allotment plot with you. I'm absolutely full of cold today so please excuse the voice. I've been in bed for like three days and it's just not shifting so I thought getting outside, getting some fresh air might do me some good. So excuse all the sniffles and everything. Not much I can do about it to be honest, not sure why I'm apologising. Sorry for being ill. It's a bit grey and miserable today isn't it? I think it was quite sunny yesterday but I missed it. I missed it because I was sick. I'm wearing a nice bright colourful jumper to try and add some colour and life to the allotment today. My planner is now live, you can actually go and purchase it so the link will be below in these allotment diaries from now on. Thank you so much if you have already purchased a planner, it's amazing. I hope you really enjoy them. You're not obliged to buy one so please don't worry if you don't buy one it's absolutely fine and thank you for any positive criticism that I've had. It always helps because I always like to hear your views and work on it. Can you hear those birds? There is some kind of ruckus going on in that tree. Something's happening with the birds today. They're so noisy! What's going on? Anyway, not feeling too well so we're not going to plant out the spring bulbs today, we're going to do some other jobs. I've got some seeds to plant out which is exciting. I'm going to plant out some more onion sets and then we're going to clear a couple more areas. I can't get over it, I'm sorry, I'm so curious. What is happening? Any bird experts out there please let me know what is going on in that tree? So I've cleared a space in this bed here and this is where my next set of onions are going to go. I'm still planting these ones, I had some over. It's the sensu, sensu, sen, sensu, sensu, call it whatever you want, they're onions. Apparently they're very nice onions as well, which I didn't know, so I've never had much success with onions and so I'm just, I just keep whacking them in. Hopefully one year they will grow, it'll be the year of the onion, who knows? A couple of things about onions, firstly they don't like to sit in wet boggy conditions, so it's a good idea to top up your bed with some fresh compost or add lots of organic natural material to your bed which will help with the soil structure, it will help with the drainage because they just don't want to sit in anything wet and boggy and the second thing I know about onions is that they just don't work on my plot. I didn't know, I don't know what the second thing is, I don't know much about onions, that's all I do know. So I was going to top this bed up but actually I think the soil is okay, let me know what you think. I was gonna tip a bag over but you know what, it looks all right, it's a very nice colour, it's a very good texture, it's sort of breaking up in my hand and considering that we've actually had quite a lot of rain recently, that's done all right you know, so I think I'm going to put them straight into here in a row. I don't have that many left, is that you Einstein? I'm sure it's obvious but that's the roots, that goes down in the ground and that's the bit where the green will grow, so it goes that way. Somebody did tell me not to push them into the ground, you have to dig a hole but I will say in my defence, the soil is very loose so it's not like I'm really pushing them in, I'm very gently putting them in so the roots are not getting damaged at all I promise but that's a really good piece of advice someone left, not to push them in, don't damage the roots. Right I was just about to water them but we are due some rain in 26 minutes and if it was anything like the rain we just had, I think it watered them fine and I'm a little bit worried about them getting boggy so maybe I'll just leave them as they are. So this stick here that I just pulled out the ground, this was supporting my tomato plant, it's growing loads of mushrooms on it, look at that, that is so weird and so funny, I would love to grow mushrooms but I am a little bit scared of mushrooms, I'm just scared of all of the stuff that goes into it, like they're having to steam it and kind of keep it like sterilised and everything, I get really worried about all that thing but if you know a really easy way of growing mushrooms I'd love to give it a go, I mean that's a stick, I didn't mean to grow those, that's just a stick of mushrooms and that has excited me quite a lot you know, I find it fascinating, fascinating plant a fungi, now I know why they call it a fungi, they are fun, they are very fun, that is fun, sounds so weird, what am I saying, right anyway that was, that's cool, so the next thing I want to sow in is some beetroot, I might actually do it in the same bed because the soil is so good, let's whack it in. So this is the beetroot, it's from seed craft which is the subscription seed company that always send me lovely seeds, you can subscribe to them and they will send you seeds every month that you can sow that month and they didn't send these to me this month but I thought what the heck, let's just whack them in, it's only beetroot, it's called, oh no I cannot say that, anyway it's beetroot so we're going to put this in, I think the ground is still warm enough to be able to germinate these and also I think they'll still grow so for that reason we're going to plant it, I think we'll do two rows, so I'm just going to make drills in the ground which is basically making a line like that, do one, two, all right I'm going to get rid of my glove, it's a bit fiddly otherwise, right I'm going to pour the seeds onto my hand because it's always easier to sow out of your hand like this than it is out of a bag because you have more control and I'm just going to take a pinch, aren't they weird looking seeds, I've always thought that, these are some of the weirdest looking seeds, if I saw those in the wild I think they were rocks not seeds, they're very strange but they are seeds and then we just take a pinch and we're just going to lightly scatter like this and then we'll re-scatter because we just assume they'll die and then we'll do it here, you see the hand action I've got going on like this, that's very professional that is, I don't know why I do it but it makes me feel very professional when I do that, I don't know why I wouldn't just drop them like that, it just feels better doing it like that, right there we go, that's far too thickly but you know what, it doesn't matter because no one's here to judge, we're just going to cover them up and then pat them down and the reason I pat it is to make sure that the seed has really good contact with the soil, that's what it needs, same with the next row sorted that looks so alive, you know what I've actually got so much growing at my allotment at this time I've got the onions and garlic, we've got spring onions, these might be leeks actually, looking at them now I think they might be leeks, I don't even know what they are but they're growing and we've got kale, brassicas, radishes, turnips, spinach, I've got so much growing and I don't normally have this much growing at this time of year so it's really it's really cool actually I think these are leeks, yeah I do, I think they're leeks, I think these are leeks, I do not think these are spring onions anymore, what should I do, should I thin these out, I feel like I should thin them or maybe replant, I don't want to do it now because I'm too scared of doing that, I think these need to be thinned out but can you please let me know in the comments what I need to do because I really don't want to do it and kill them, they're sort of falling over a bit, I think they need replanting, oh gosh let me know okay there are my scissors, you know what please don't be mad everyone but I have lost my scissors again but it's just I mean what is a vlog without me losing my scissors, it would feel weird right but it's gonna have to improvise without them this is not the best way to do that, I don't know what I'm doing I must look like such a wally when I do this stuff, someone was watching me right now honestly what would they think, they think why has she not got a pair of bleeding scissors is what they think, where are my scissors, oh we're gonna have to use shears which is a ridiculous thing to use but we're gonna have to do it, am I gonna hurt myself, come on just cut, just we'll just undo the knots, undo the bleeding knots, is that what you want us to do, fine we'll undo the knots okay, guys I am just such a disorganized person like I've always been disorganized and I just never sort of learn how to stay organized, I don't know why, I try really hard and it works for a little bit and then I slip back into my old ways, I don't know how I've managed to keep these two allotment plots and to keep coming back and to keep growing every year there must be something, I always think this, there's something about growing my own food, gardening, being out in nature that keeps me coming back no matter how disorganized I am, no matter how frustrating I find it when I lose things or I just can't seem to do things properly when everyone else can, I keep coming back, there's just something about it here that just just makes it feel worth it you know, like I know it must be so frustrating for you to sit there watching me lose things and stuff and you're probably just yelling at the screen every time but like I'm also so proud of myself for managing to achieve what I've achieved with my chaotic crazy brain and also do remember that you get to turn these off and go and live your organized life I have to live with me, I have to live with this every day so just you know sometimes just remember that it's very hard being disorganized Oh there they are, scissors, where were you a minute ago eh? Look guys the rainbow is back again, so beautiful Right so obviously a couple of vlogs back I did tell you that my potatoes got the dreaded blight and they all have died, a lot of you are saying dig them up because the tubers underneath the potatoes that are growing under the ground might be okay, I don't think they will be, I don't think they've been in long enough, they've been in about a month and a half so maybe we'll get some very teeny tiny potatoes but they might have blight on them because blight affects the entire plant, the leaves, the stems, whatever vegetable it is so like the fruit so the potatoes or the tomatoes, it kills all of it and it also makes anything you harvest from it taste really bad so I'm not holding out much hope but a lot of you did say to me just dig them up just have a look see what's going on so I will oblige, is that you Einstein? He doesn't like me anymore I don't know what I've done, I've done something, he doesn't like me, he's making that clicking sound can you hear it? That's a robin warning sign, that's like the sound that they make to warn everyone that there's danger about, am I danger? Is that me? Right I've never pulled up potatoes that have blight before and these are obviously way too early as well so this should be interesting let's see what we get okay you know what not bad it's definitely a potato that's always a good start isn't it when it's a potato looks all right to me you know yeah okay okay okay this one's a bit green you see here it's gone a bit green on the top you cannot eat that that's really bad so that's a no-go that's a dead potato bye bye it's definitely interesting as an experiment so let's get this one up see what we have under here no teeny tiny that's what I thought you've got anything else under here teeny teeny tiny oh hang on a second what the heck actual potatoes I'm so shocked I'm so shocked this is crazy why are there so many bleeding potatoes under here really good sizes as well I am absolutely flabbergasted do you know what I'm so shocked I'm so shocked that I got anything from it but you know what these are a really good size they're like new potato size they look really good they don't look damaged at all but I don't know if maybe the blight's just not got to them yet these are when did these go in end of August these went in we're now in the first week of October that's like a month they've been in the ground for a freaking month and I got this many at this size that's actually amazing I can't believe it all right what do I do what do I do do I cut my losses and pull them all up and then try planting some new ones or do I just leave them in the ground will they rot in the ground I don't know they don't have much like leaf to keep them going do you know what I mean I don't know if they're going to grow anymore I mean amongst the weeds you can kind of see them this is what they look like so what do I do do I leave them in the ground and see or do I cut my losses and pull them all up please let me know I'm honestly shocked I was not expecting these to come out the ground this is amazing so I'll take this home and cook them I'll let you know what they taste like I expect they will taste okay because they look okay so maybe it's not too late for the potatoes who knew right I hope you've enjoyed my little vlog today from my allotment plot here in south London um do let me know if you do purchase an allotment planner and let me know your thoughts on it I hope you enjoy it I put a lot of effort and work into it I'm very proud of this year's one so do let me know if you do get your hands on one and also give me your advice on the potatoes do I leave them or do I pull them please let me know in the comments below I will see you again on Friday thank you so much for watching today sorry I keep clapping I don't know why I'm doing that I will see you on Friday thanks for watching guys bye