HAVE YOU TRIED BEER TRAPS? / ALLOTMENT GARDENING UK

Good morning, guys. Welcome back to my a lotment diaries. My name's Emma. These are the a lotment diaries. I'm at my a lotment plot right now. A lot of people often ask me why I start these vlogs with saying good morning because I upload them in the afternoon and pretty much everywhere around the world where they go, it's not the morning, but I always start with good morning. It's because right now as I am physically filming this, it is the morning. And it just feels so weird to say anything other than good morning. Do you know what I mean? If I was saying like good afternoon now, it would just feel really weird because it's like 8:00 in the morning. Why would I say good afternoon? It's just one of those mysteries of YouTube that we're all just going to have to accept and suspend our belief for. And so I will continue to say good morning. Good morning. It's a lovely day today. It's sort of overcast, but the sun is poking through and it's warm, but it's not too warm and it's not raining. And for me, that is absolutely perfect weather. Do you know what I mean? When I arrived here this morning, I looked around. It looks like the last time I was here, I kind of gave up and I just threw everything on the floor and just went home. Is that what happened? I don't remember my last vlog cuz I film so many now. Um, I film a lot in a row to make sure that I stay on schedule and get them all up for you cuz I know you guys love them. Um, and I don't want to let anyone down. So, I'm filming so much that I sort of forget what I've done last time. But, it I feel like it was a bad day. Was it a bad day or something? Because honestly, everything's just been thrown. Like, I've sort of given up mid job. I know I'm not known for being like the tidiest of people and I will be the first to admit that. But I mean that's just been thrown there. This isn't on right. All this has been thrown all over the floor. I mean what was going on last time? Did I have some kind of some kind of breakdown or something and just leave? I sort of feel like I did. Anyway, let's go and check on the greenhouse cuz I am slightly concerned that everything in there has died. I don't know why. I just had a bit of an epiphany, a gardener's epiphany that everything's died. So let's go and see if that's the case. That is so frustrating. So, I actually came here a few days ago. I didn't film anything, but I just repotted my sunflowers because they were looking really yellow and just not looking very healthy. So, I thought, okay, maybe they need like a bigger pot, more nutrients. It was only a couple of days ago, but I guess I know actually I guess they are starting to look a little bit better. Um, but they're still looking a bit weedy and not not the happiest of plants. Should I just plant these out today? I think maybe I might just plant them outside. Technically, we're in May. I'm filming this like on the last week of April. Um, is that too early for it to go? I don't know. I really don't know. I feel like I feel like they really need to go outside. They're not doing great. Um, and the cucumbers, I mean, we won't be surprised to hear this, but the cucumbers do not look great either. Like I said, not surprised. Planted these out very, very early. Um, I mean, the one with the tape on it, this one here has got duct tape on it. He has, he's actually still alive and still actively growing, but they're looking very yellow, weedy, not very happy. As is this tomato here. You don't look like you've enjoyed this weather, but at the top, you know, still alive. So, I still have hope. We have some germination on the runner beans. That is excellent news, though. I'm not surprised. These just germinate really easily. Um, we got the melons. The melons are on the go. The melons are a go, people. Oh, look. The dia are starting to sprout. These are terrible, these dies. These are from um Pound Stretcher, and they they looked awful when I brought them, but you know what? Growing. So, what do I know? Basically. And then the cosmos over there, that does need repotting today, so I will be doing that at some point. Oh, um, what's in there? Is that um, snapdragons? Yeah, these are my snapd dragons, and they are starting to germinate as well. Excellent. Good news. I've had to go onto the chair because I'm running out of room on the table. Right, I'm going to repot my cosmos. Now, this is Cosmos. And a reason why I know it's ready to repot is because it's got its true leaves. So, you see how it's got the first two leaves, which are these long ones. It's now got those little leaves at the top which are its true leaves. The true leaves of the plant, the leaves that the plant will have when the plant is established and growing. And that is how I know it's time to pop them on. So that's what we're going to do here. Now, I don't know about you, but at this time of year, it can feel a little bit chaotic in the garden, and I don't always quite know what to do. I feel like I'm running around like a headless chicken sometimes just trying to figure out all the jobs to do. And um I wanted to share something that I use that really helps me and that is actually the Reedly app which I have spoken about on this channel many many times. So Reedley is a magazine subscription app. Um you subscribe and then you get access to over 7,000 different magazines and newspapers. There are tons of categories to pick from. So there's something for everyone. Whatever your interest is, you will find something. These two are very close together. Oh gosh. Come on guys, you can do it. So, a few things that I really like about the Read app is firstly, you can read um offline. So, you can download your favorite magazine. So, if you're going to be somewhere Oh, how did I do that? If you're going to be somewhere where you don't have internet access, you can download your favorite magazines beforehand and still get access to them and read them. I find it really useful to read the gardening magazines and figure out jobs to do in the garden. So, for example, Grow Your Own Magazine always puts in at the beginning of their magazine jobs to do for the following month. So, at the moment, it's jobs to do in the month of May. And then what you can do with the Reedly app is you can bookmark um that page so that you don't have to go looking for it all the time. It's just there. It's just there sitting there for you. So, whenever you want to click on it and uh look at the jobs to do and stuff, it's there. And you can do that with any article that you find. You can bookmark it. So, recipes are quite useful to do that with. Um, so yeah, and that there's just there's so many features of Reedley that I really enjoy, but that is one of the ones at the moment that I'm finding most useful. And if you would like to try Reedley, I have a link below in my description and a pinned comment as well. It'll give you two months free. So, you can give it a go. Let me know what you think of it. I know a lot of you out there use Reedley. It is a fantastic app and it's definitely worth checking out. So, I will leave that with you guys and I'm going to carry on potting these on God, the thing with sticks is there's always one that has to be really complicated and just won't do what his mates will do. Why won't you go in? It's just ground, mate. Will you just go in the ground? Why not? Fine. You're being replaced with it. Oh, you snapped. What's up with these sticks today? Not being obedient. Right. You're just going to have to sit there then, mate. All right. They're my strawberries, not yours. Flying at me. He's flying at me. The bird is flying at me. They're my strawberries. I'm entitled to to net them if I want to. Actually, I don't want you to do it. Sorry, I've changed my mind immediately. I'm scared. I'm just scared, Einstein. I'm scared of your claws. There you are. Right, I'm doing it, guys. I'm planting out my giant sunflowers. These are the giant ones, so they should get really big. And I'm putting them here, just behind where the pumpkins will be, which is where I wanted to have them last year, but when I planted them out, they all got eaten because last year was like the year of the slug, wasn't it? Every time I put something out, the slugs just came and got it all. They didn't give me a chance. So, this year, I'm going to give them another go in this spot cuz I think they'll look really nice in a row here. Can you see me? Okay. Probably not. You don't need to see me. You need to see the plant. Right, the sunflowers are out in a little row. They look beautiful already, but then they did last year before they got eaten. So, I don't think the slugs are going to leave them alone. I think they love sunflowers. So, I've come armed. I've come armed today with something I have tried once, but I didn't do it properly and I killed a frog. This time, I'm going to do it properly and just kill the slugs, I think. And that is to try some beer traps. Um, I brought this beer the other day. I think it's lagger. Does that make a difference? Do they care about beer versus laga? Is there a difference? Anyway, I don't drink, so I sort of saw this and thought, "Okay, well, that's a bottle of beer, right?" It's alcohol. It says beer on it, and it also says laga on it. So, what is it? Is it beer or laga? Right. The mistake that I made with the beer traps last time I did it, which was a few years ago, was that I put a whole glass jar in the ground, so it's really long and deep. And then I didn't cover the top enough, so a frog got in and the frog very sadly drowned and died. And I said, "I'm never going to do that again." But I think the mistake that I made was making it too deep. So, I've got these sort of shallow plastic food containers here, which I think if a frog fell in, it could get out, but a slug probably couldn't. So, I've got some of these, which I think would be better. Also got given this. It's like a PR package. I can't actually remember who sent it to me. I get sent so much PR now. Um, but it's a little slug trap and it looks like a little snail. So, I don't know. It's a slug trap, but it's a snail. So, maybe all slugs want to be snails deep down. I don't know. But I'm going to use these basically. I'm going to use this one cuz it's pretty. And some shallower ones. So, let's let's give it a go. Oh, I don't bring a bottle opener. Do I need a bottle opener to open this? Is it twisty thing? Do I need a bottle opener? Oh, crap. Right. I just texted my husband and other than saying, "Why on earth do you have beer?" He said, "It's a screwy top." So, I think I just Oh my god, it's fizzing. It's fizzing. I don't want to get it all over me. I can't ask anyone cuz it's 8:00 in the morning and I can't ask anyone to open my beer for me. It's just not right. Why is it not coming off? You said it's a twisty and it is twisting but it's not coming off. It's not coming off. I don't think it's a twisty. I don't think it is a twisty if it's not twisting off and it can't be How can it be a twisty? What's he talking about? Oh, I can smell it. Oh, I don't like it. I don't like it. Right. I'm going to get my hammer. Right. I couldn't find my hammer, but I found my drill. So, I think I'm in. Yes. Yes, we're in the beer. Oh crap. Stop. Stop. Stop. Honestly, apologies to all beer drinkers out there, but I do not drink beer. And I'm just using this to make a beer trap. So, who cares how we opened it? E. Let's just uh just ignore that. He's quite cute, isn't he? For a a beer trap. for something that's gonna like, you know, cause so much harm. He's quite cute. All right, I'll just put some beer in him. Bloody hell's beer gone. Did it go in? Oh, yeah, it is going in. This is very frustrating. It's sort of coming out in bits. I think that's enough beer in there. But I've got beer all around here now, so I'm a little bit worried. Anyway, there he is. Right, let's make another one the other side. I'll take it out a little bit so that it's sunken to the ground a little bit. I know I appreciate it's not coming out very fast. Oh, it's fizzy. It's beer fizzy. Do they like fizzy drinks? Then I could just give them some Coca-Cola. I think they'd like Coca-Cola instead. It doesn't smell as bad as beer. Right. I don't think it needs to be that deep. It's not like we're building them a swimming pool. It's just a shallow pit where they can go and die. Right. Okay. I think that is an adequate beer beer trap. I think we will find out. right, I don't think I can do much else to physically protect these sunflowers. I've only planted out five and I've got a few more in the greenhouse and I've also got some at home that are germinating. So, if these don't make it, no offense, guys. And uh don't listen, cover your ears. If these don't make it, I'll just plant out the other ones. Oh, please survive. You know what, though? Sometimes I think with all this slug protection, all the slug barriers and stuff, I feel like we're just giving them a challenge. And I feel like they're just going to rise to the challenge. Do you know what I mean? I feel like they get excited when they see it all. It's more of a challenge. You know, they can. And I've given them the power of beer now. I mean, if they don't drown in that beer, they'll just be hyped up on beer. They'll just go straight over the over the shells, they won't care. They'll eat the sunflowers and pass out till the morning. Maybe the birds again then. I don't know. Anyway, time will tell. I will let you know how the beer traps go. So, come back. Come back to my channel and find out. Cool. My brassacas are doing really well at the moment. Absolutely no slug damage whatsoever. Um Oh, okay. One little tiny bit of slug damage, but not much. I mean, doing really well. I was just about to put this in my cornflour bed, but I thought I'm worried it's going to attract them because I've had no damage at all. No slug damage at all in my in my um cornflour bed. I'm worried that the beard trap is going to actually attract slugs, which is not what I want to happen. So, I'm only going to put beard traps into beds where there is already slug damage. Does that make sense? Because I just think that's that's a wiser thing to do. The brassacas have had a little bit of damage. So, I'm putting it in the corner of the brasa bed. Um, and then I'll keep them around the sunflowers cuz I think they'll love the sunflowers. Yeah. Let me know. Let me know in the comments if beer traps actually attract slugs because that is the last thing I want to do is to actually attract them into the garden. So, let me know your experience of it. I'm going to give it a go and I'll just keep you updated on how they go. Right. Unfortunately, I've run out of time. I actually don't have that long here today, which is a bit frustrating because everything in the a lotment needs weeding. We are definitely moving into that time of year where you can feel incredibly overwhelmed by your garden and your a lotment. Um, I'm starting to sort of feel that and I'm trying to keep myself calm about it because it happens every year at this time. There's always a vlog around May that the title is I feel totally overwhelmed and it it's coming. It's coming again, guys. I can't help it because everybody feels that way in May and I think it's good to keep talking about it because it's normal. Um, the weaves are all coming up everywhere. So, next time I come, I'm really going to focus on weeding and tidying and sorting things out like that. And even though it's tedious kind of long jobs and I don't particularly enjoy doing it over and over again, it needs doing and you have to stay on top of it. And that's the only way to combat the a lotment overwhelm is just to to do it. Just get out there and do it. Stop thinking about it. Stop worrying about it. Do it. Just get out and just do it. Don't forget to check out Reley. I've got my uh link below. Two months free trial. Um try it out. Let me know what you think of it. I use it all the time. Whenever I'm on a train, whenever I am in the hairdressers, whenever I am waiting to pick the kids up from school, um I'm always flicking through the Reedly app. It is absolutely fantastic. There's so many gardening magazines on there to look at, guys. Um so go do go check it out. Let me know if you do as well. I will see you again on Friday. Have a wonderful rest of your gardening week. See you Friday. Thanks for watching. Bye.