MY NEW ALLOTMENT LAYOUT / ALLOTMENT GARDENING UK

[Music] [Music] good morning guys welcome back to my allotment Diaries my name is Emma these are the allotment Diaries um I turned up today because at the end of this week um we are due storms and really horrendous weather um I think we've like an Arctic Blast coming from America is just pushing over a real cold front and it's going to end in loads of Storms and rain so I thought any time where it's not raining and it's fairly okay I'm just going to try and get here and do as much work as I can on the plot before spring that's what we're all kind of doing right now is just preparing everything for spring for the growing season um I made a mistake I don't think anyone is less surprised to hear that than me it's a stupid mistake but basically I covered over a lot of my beds this year weren't having anything growing in them so that any empty bed has been covered over with either cardboard or some kind of plastic ground sheet just as an experiment to see if I can hold in the nutrients see if anything does better next year this year even um but what I didn't realize was that in this bed here I've got tulips and daffodils coming up and I've covered it over at their Peak growing season so they've kind of done this I'll show you what happens to them if you cover them over sure you're all dying to know what happens if you make the mistake of covering them over they've gone yellow they've gone really really yellow and that is because they do not have the sun and the Sun is what makes them photosynthesis and the photosynthesis is what gives them that lovely green color and so if you deny them of the sun they turn yellow but having said that they have still grown so I feel like they can come back from this I feel like they can they can survive these are daffodils you can see how yellow they are that's hilarious hopefully they get a bit color now it's like they've been on well and now they've got to get their green back you know and all these here these are tulips this one's got a bit more sun so it's gone a bit Greener and the only good news is it's hidden them from the squirrel so we haven't had any squirrel damage here which has been quite good but obviously they do now need the Sun so I've just uncovered it fingers crossed definitely not the worst mistake I've ever made on the allotment but the thing is is I have planted so many tulips all around the place cuz I blooming love them I blooming love them I've now got a dedicated flower bed I've planted tulips under my broad beans I mean I planted the broad beans on top of the Tulips let's say so I don't know what's going to happen there it's going to be a bit of an experiment really not sure it's going to pick up on camera but there are some tets coming up around here so these are some like um salad crops that I've grown so mustard seeds mustard what's it mustard leaves and Mauna things like that rocket and I've got my tulips coming up right in the middle of them which is not an ideal situation guys it's it's not right you shouldn't do that and then you can see there's a few coming up in between the actual broad beans here so it's kind of like a little square of tulips and I've just sort of planted over the top of them forgetting they were here this is not ideal but you know what we will just see what happens broad beans are looking all right now actually I was very worried about them cuz I planted them over the winter I've never done that before and they sort of got a lot of frost and then I sort of knocked them over and then I crushed them with fleece I mean they've really been through it you know these poor Brad beins I mean really had I just completely left them alone put them in the ground and then just left them they would be fine right now they'd actually be a lot better um so I'm really sorry guys it's always the wave guys the less you do to your plants the happier they are now I've got these big sticks here um got these sticks um in the ground which are kind of like for support for them um but I'm a little bit worried about impaling myself so I'm just going to put some balls on the top just in case I accidentally fall over them and uh impale myself these are just kids balls you know from like a ball pit and my kids used to have them in the in the garden and play with them all the time but they stopped playing with them so I'm just repurposing them um I probably wouldn't go out and actually buy these you can use things like little bottles like Activia bottles or um yogurt bottles or like you can even use like little pots and stuff like that but anything that kind of goes over the stick would be fine but these are kids balls there a lot of people ask now you know [Music] um I'm going to do some hard work on this area now this is the back of the allotment plot if you don't know I'm going to have the greenhouse here a lot of you suggested the new area that I made should be a greenhouse the thing is I had the poly tunnel there it gets more sun here this is more of a Sunny Spot so I think it is probably worth putting the greenhouse in the sunniest place in the garden so that's why it's going to go here I do have a couple of ideas for that area but tell you about that another day we're just going to dig it out now try and clear as much as we can try and sort out the space let's go for it guys let's just get stuck in we can do this [Music] [Applause] [Music] if this is where you are at your allotment plot right now you're at the bit where you're just digging out and you just got bind weed and blackberry canes and all sorts coming out the ground you might be sort of thinking oh my God this is never going to turn into anything good I'm here to tell you that it will keep going don't stop I know it's back breaking work I know it's really hard I know it's just heartening I know it's difficult but I tell you what if every day you come and you just do a little bit and you just focus on that little area eventually that little area will become bigger and bigger you'll get through it it will start to clear you'll start to put in the structure you will start to physically see the changes if every day you turn up and you take out two or three Blackberry canes and you do a little bit of digging I just put dirt all over my nose yes that's fine it's okay we don't care yeah if you do a little bit every day you pull out two three Blackberry canes a day you do a little bit of digging the next day you come back you pull out another two three Blackberry canes you do a bit of digging maybe you take a day off then you come back you pull out three or four Blackberry canes you do a little bit of digging by the end of the week you're going have pulled out like and I'm not a mathematician here but about 50 Blackberry canes slow and steady guys you can do it keep doing it just look back at my videos from last year and you will see how easy it is to if you go slow and steady to get through a big space like this and you probably do not have half the bind weed that I have here look at this it's like spaghetti my [Music] God sticks all sticks please report to the pot oh now in the [Music] pot any good sticks we have oh what's this it's an excellent stick that's an excellent stick what a stick oh I love you actually will I have you though I don't I don't know what you'll do let's not have you some good sticks here guys gosh there is a rather excellent collection of sticks here oh my goodness you are a wonderful stick this one's good that's good I love that one oh gosh where you come from [Music] SK I'll tell you why this isn't a very good stick it's too bendy and Wiggly and it's also snapped this is not a good stick I won't keep this one but even if that was off or that that's not a good stick cuz it's just I what could I do with that I build a little house actually maybe it would be good if you wanted to build a house it's like the side of a house you could build a house with I don't want to though so I'm not keeping that one you have to be selective of the sticks some of them break as well that's not really very good actually we will keep this one though this is it's not it's not the worst stick so we will keep it actually I changed my mind instantly think I've got a bit of an obsession with sticks this stick here that I found this is a very excellent stick and I'll tell you why it's got this thing at the top this vshape which means you can put a branch across it so it s goes like that and you can put a branch across it um this is an ex excellent stick the only thing is you'd need another one um so if you can't find another one you're going to have to sort of make one and anyway but it's an excellent stick I just thought I'd show you it [Music] [Music] [Music] good morning yes so noisy you're so [Music] loud the face yeah great all right [Music] turning up this thing back [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] all right okay gosh I'm being surrounded by birds surrounded by them [Music] [Music] [Music] okay this stop B [Music] [Music] [Music] what [Music] I think when you start to trip over stuff it's Nature's way of saying slow down a little bit let's take a bit of a break eh we've made really good progress though so what I've been doing is laying out the space where I want things to go it's just temporary at the moment so I'm just putting sticks down another use of sticks another great use of sticks um honestly there's so many uses for them but it's a good idea just to lay things out temporarily see where they are see how you feel about it so this little area here under the tree I've changed so I want a bed around my Archway so I can grow something I'm thinking a Cletus or maybe even a honeysuckle or something over that and then under the tree it just becomes a weedy mess nothing can grow there because it's so shady so I'm just wood chipping it around the tree so that makes a lot of sense that big Square there that's where I'm thinking for the green house it's at the end of the archway so the archway is here you go straight into the greenhouse next to the greenhouse I want some space for like a water thing so I can collect water next to my Greenhouse so I think that would be a good idea and then here I kind of want some raised beds but I don't know if that's going to work now because we've got this so this is sort of to be confirmed on the other side of the greenhouse I really want a wildlife Pond here I want to make it another Wildlife Area cuz I absolutely love them and I'm obsessed of wildlife so that is the sort of to be confirmed sort of layout of the back um it may have to have a bit of a re jiggle cuz I've got those raised beds what I might need to do is put those raised beds up and then move them about a bit and see where I think they sort of work oh God falling over everything but this is really the best way to sort of like sort out your layout um it's all very well planning it you can sit on a piece of paper and plan it out and I did plan it out but as I'm doing it I'm realizing I don't have as much space as I thought I had so you can always just lay out sticks I find that the best thing to do move them about walk around them you know have a walk have a walk around go into my Greenhouse I'm out my greenhous around my green house around here b b physically walk around it see how you feel see how big the pathway feels to you and stuff and how enclosed you feel and then just it about a bit that's that's the best advice I can give you for doing the layout um but we're getting there we're getting there right I'm going to leave that bit today at my knees at [Music] that hair's back down now um the hard work is over Emma the hard work is over it's my little reward to myself taking my hair out yeah I'm feeling good about it now I do feel like it is looking a bit neater all of a sudden I don't know if it's cuz the sun's come out and there blue skies just making it look nicer and all the bulbs are coming up as well which is really nice just to reply to one of the some of the comments in my last videos um I said that I thought the onions and leaks have got white rot and a lot of people are saying it's something different and it could be good for the soil so just to let you know I'm not taking any of them out so we will find out together what it is um and just have to deal with it but I'm not taking anything out yet so if it's good for the soil that's amazing and that's just a bonus um if it is white rot it'll all just come out and it will just be a disaster but there we go that is just uh allotment life isn't it thank you so much for watching today and another big thank you if you have purchased my allotment handbook I hope you're enjoying them um thank you for leaving the reviews on Amazon as well they are they're making me laugh so much lot of people just sticking it to Trevor I think there's a hashtag on Instagram going around at the moment saying stick it to Trevor on my book which is amazing so thank you Trevor for your lovely comment and um for helping me sell more copies of my book the birds are flocking here now absolutely flocking here I will love you and leave you guys I will see you again on Wednesday have a wonderful rest of your gardening week see you Wednesday thanks for watching bye