BACK TO THE ALLOTMENT PLOT! / ALLOTMENT GARDENING UK

[Music] good morning everyone welcome back to my allotment Diaries my name is Emma these are the allotment Diaries I hope you had a lovely Christmas and a really happy New Year Welcome to the New Year 2025 here we go a brand new year a brand new growing season um lots to do and lots to be excited about so I hope you're feeling as energized and excited as I am about the new year but if you're not this might be the channel for you so if you don't know anything about me my name is Emma this is my allotment channel so it's basically like allotment Diaries I try to give out um gardening advice where I can but I'm not an expert I'm just an allotment Gardener muddling through i' like to just show you the ins and outs and the realistic side of having an allotment plot now a lot of people have got new allotment plots now and you might have one yourself and and you're going into this year for the first time on your new allotment plot this is the perfect Channel for you because I just get stuck in I show you all behind the scenes of allotment life the realities of it the tough times the good times all the times in between so if you are not subscribed to my channel and you think you've got a new allotment plot or you want to know more about allotment life this is a channel for you so please subscribe I am obviously starting in my home Garden today but we are going to head down to the allotment plot and um I haven't been there for about a week which is quite long enough for me to be away to be honest I think it's nice to have the braak over the winter time I think over winter as well not much is happening not much is growing so I feel a bit safer kind of having a break from it but at the same time I'm itching to get back I can't stand being away from my allotment plot for too long so I just cannot wait to get back today and see the damage let's just be honest about it we're going to start we're going to kick off 2025 with a bang of realism let's go and see the damage on the allotment plot because that is what you always go back to when you're away from it for however long even just a few days there's going to going be some damage I'm excited to see what's going to happen down there so let's go and have a look but first first I just want to show you I just want to show you some little signs of spring that might just sort of perk you up a little bit if you're not feeling quite gardeny gardening yet that's not word but it is now gardening right let me show you these here are all my little pots that I put in loads and loads of spring bulbs and some of them are starting to come up now which is very very exciting I sort of got my inspiration from as world you know montoon he always has that table full of all the the bulbs all the spring bulbs that come up in the pots that's where I got my inspiration from it's just so nice to see some little signs of spring like popping up here and there it just reminds you that spring is on the way it's coming so what we do now in our Gardens will really impact on how well they do over the spring and summertime and that's why the winter is so important it's not dead months in the garden it's actually some of the most important months to get things ready and get get the soil prepared right let's head down to the [Music] alotment wow talk about dank miserable my goodness it is just like a cloud has fallen down I think it's quite foggy here today it's hard to tell if it's foggy or if it's just literally just like this all the time um I think it's been foggy for quite a long time and um I think I've sort got used to it do you know what I mean I've got used to this like falling cloud effect everywhere so it's like living in um what's that film the others have you seen the others with Nicole Nicole Kidman in it and it's like um every time she goes out the house it's like all foggy and then it sort of doesn't exist anymore that's what it's like here at the moment it's very foggy everywhere it's very creepy but you know what it's January and this is just what January is like I think bit miserable around the edges we're going to change that today because we're going to check on some things and see how it's all growing I can see a lot of greenery and a lot of stuff growing which is excellent news I can actually see some flowers um my Prim roses are blooming like no tomorrow best purchase I ever made was putting in some was that woodpecker I think that might have been a woodpecker I think I just heard a woodpecker that's crazy yeah let me show you the Prim roses these will cheer you [Music] up look at these my lovely Prim roses I've got one two three four five six of them and they are blooming now I'm actually getting a bit munched which is a little bit annoying such lovely little pops of color they're all yellow I wasn't expecting them to all be yellow I thought I brought different colors but um yeah they are a nice little pop color at this time of year [Music] oh yes we got more Pops of life down here we got all the daffodils coming up which are looking so stunning um they are coming up in clumps which is how I planted them so it's how I'd expect them to come up basically I did it on purpose because growing daffodils in little clumps makes it look more natural and you kind of get that little effect of like a little bouquet of daffodils coming up which is I just think just looks so beautiful little pops of color so these are coming up so nicely this is lovely to see you see what I mean about the little clumps i' sort clumped them together oh they're looking fantastic this is really exciting to see especially in January such a gloomy month this is just making me so happy oh I can hear chirping I can hear a familiar chirp that could be the bird the legend that is Einstein is that you Einstein is it you Ein this s gets a little bit mad when I haven't seen him for a while it's only been a week since I've been here it's been one week I just took Christmas off I suppose he doesn't really understand what Christmas is even though he's a big part of it he doesn't even know that he's famous at Christmas like the robin he on all Christmas cards and stuff he has no idea how weird is that here in hear you can't see you so I'm going to put this down here come in oh well this didn't work did it I'm not entirely sure why this didn't work but it didn't work they've really come out maybe I don't need it then cuz they they've not died this is annoying that this didn't work cuz I thought it was a really good idea but it's um it's all snapped yeah it's all snapped I can't use this that's a shame that is I mean obviously they didn't seem to need any protection anyway cuz look they're all coming up absolutely fine and these are salad crops so these are like Mauna rocket um and lots of different mustard salads and stuff so these can cope with the cold yeah they've just not needed any protection and the broad beans are looking absolutely Fantastical they're honestly looking great yeah they're just looking great somebody said to me that these are a shorter bushier varieties they don't need supporting I think they do still need supporting I mean some of them were really flip-flopping everywhere better to be safe and sorry I say whoa don't fall into them I need crushed them then oh they're looking so healthy though never sewn broad beans this early in the year before but honestly they're doing amazing they look so healthy I have very very high hopes for these guys honestly the highest hopes of any plants I've ever planted and now that I've said that we'll see what happens my plants have a habit of rebelling against me whenever I say they're going to do well but we will see [Music] oh my [Music] God right got to check on the compost a lot of people be yelling at me for this but um I just love to check on it and see how it's doing because it's my best friend at the moment this looks like it's growing it is growing this is rooted are these potatoes is that potato that's grown yeah it is no it's a par that's a parsnip what's that doing in there how' that get in yeah the potatoes are growing under here which is inconvenient really I mean is it inconvenient or is that extra convenient cuz I have like three potatoes under here I don't know what I'm going to do is um chop it a little bit I don't really want anything to grow in the compost it's not growing area it's a dying area you know it's a dying and make the compost area so don't really want you to grow weird thought I'm going to get in a lot of trouble of a lot of you now but I am actually going to turn it as well just cuz I want to see what's what's going on in it it's a lot of different methods to compost some people say you know leave it alone put cover over it and leave it don't touch it other people believe that the more you play around with it and touch it the quicker it turns to compost so there's a lot of different methods to it really just going to you know fiddle about with it I'm a fiddler when it comes to compost I'm a total Fiddler I just can't turn it though bloody oh God more past n I'm digging stuff up in here I tell you what if you want to save on gym membership for 2025 and you want to get fit just go and turn your compost just go and turn your compost I tell you what that's all you need it's all you need in life is a a compost Bay yeah it's this is growing over here too what's this what's this growing what are you it's got new lits potato I think why is there so many bleeding potatoes GR in my compost someone put potatoes in here did I put potatoes in here oh God that's a good turn that is that's a good one okay so looks like that now there worms in it there loads of worms in it hi guys welcome welcome welcome wormies right I'm going to be honest with you guys this is as far as I've ever got with any compost heap ever and I sort of give up um I don't actually know what the next step is so I've I've obviously put stuff in it chopped it turned it I'm putting the right stuff in it but when does it how does it turn into compost and how do I get to it and what do I do with it and what is the next step like please explain it to me I do not understand how do I get to the bottom of the compost which is where I'm assuming the compost is what happens now where does it go why do I need another Bay there are so many questions that I now need to answer so I need to uh I need to look up the next step I wasn't thinking that far ahead you know I'm more of a sort of what am I doing tomorrow sort of thinker as opposed to like the next year so anyway um what I do have is loads of more cardboard so I'm going to put some cardboard over it I think that's good for it really right I'd say it's looking quite good though I mean I don't know what to do with it now but hopefully I'll figure that bit out okay these would be very useful for covering some kind of bed I think it's always good to cover stuff so going to cover not you got hold in this one [Music] why I need to look over it you don't really need to do that don't think how am I going to keep it down oh sticks sticks sticks sticks another use of sticks this can go in the book as well book of sticks I'm writing sticks and then many many uses anyway it's good to uh keep beds covered over at this time of year it's especially like when you go into January February because as the soil slowly starts to warm up all the weeds are going to come up so if you can cover your beds now if you haven't done it already cover them now and um hopefully it will stop the amount of weeds coming up which is always really useful in the springtime I'm actually going to take that plastic covering off and put cardboard down I like cardboard better than plastic I don't like plastic just makes me feel better you know [Music] all right there we go crap that's camera full2 not the last right there we go so nice thick layer of cardboard you're probably wondering where I got the cardboard from these are from like chest of drawers that we had delivered to our house um I just saved all the cardboard but someone gave me a really good tip so if you go to a bicycle shop if you go to a bicycle shop they've got like um loads of cardboard there cuz they sometimes ship their bikes out like in like hole they've got masses of cardboard so just go into a cycling shop a bicycle shop and ask them for some some cboard but that's just a great tip um because they always have lots of boxes but anywhere that has boxes they'll probably just give you the boxes like if you just ask anyone have you got a spare carbal box they'll probably have a caral box it's not hard to get a carbal box you know but anyway that's good tip right this has now been covered with cardboard which is very good okay let's find some more sticks [Music] [Music] look who's turned up look who's turned up at last right the biggest job this year on my allotment plot will be to put in my new Greenhouse my Greenhouse has arrived it is massive it's a lot bigger than I thought it'd be so did measure it it does fit in the space I need to finish clearing it level it out um layer it up with something and then basically build and put up the greenhouse it's a very exciting project it's the biggest project of the year I imagine um how can I say that it's only going to be January I don't know if it' be the biggest project of the year but it's a bloing big project I'm very excited about it all this needs to be dug out this is a great time of year to do it because um nothing's in active growth so this is going to be my main point of focus at the allotment plot the problem is that this is so overgrown it's crazy I mean even where I've already weeded it there's weed there's like more there's more in there I didn't realize it is just such a horrendous area and it just needs fully digging out and I can't do no dig on it because I'm putting a greenhouse here so I need it to be cleared pretty sharpish so this will be the job for the next couple of weeks so if you want to follow my journey this year please subscribe to my YouTube channel I will share everything and um hopefully we can help each other not to completely muck it up this year I'll see you again in my next video guys thank you so much for watching see you next time bye you L the DI