HOME GARDENING AND COOKING / SMALL LONDON GARDEN DIARIES

Good morning, guys. Welcome back to my gardening diaries. My name's Emma. These are my home gardening diaries. I'm vlogging every Sunday at the moment, just showing you what I'm getting up to in my home garden here in London um throughout the week. So, I'm just picking up the camera whenever I can, showing you snippets. Today has been a complete write off for gardening. It's been raining almost from start to finish, which is good. We haven't had much rain recently, to be honest. So, it is actually quite welcome to see it. It's towards the end of the day now. The sun has finally come out, and I just wanted to show you the amount of snails that have decided to venture out of my garden. I don't know where all the snails have been this year, but I know where they are now. They're here on my lawn. They're just everywhere. I've never seen so many snails. Also, they all seem to be in a big hurry. I've never seen snails move so fast either. And I'm a little bit worried they're all going to go for my ders and my sunflowers now and have a nice little munch on them. So, I'm going to get a pot, collect them all up, and chuck them over the back fence, I think. And if you're wondering why I'm removing them all, this is why. Look, they're on my cosmos. They'll add that cosmos. In about 5 minutes, that whole cosmos plant will be gone. So, I've got to physically remove them all as they'll eat the whole thing. They'll go for the ders, too. Yeah, look, they're all on the ders. Hanging on the leaves of the ders. Oh, terrible they are. They'll just eat the whole thing. Two seconds. Right, honest answers, please. Has anybody out there ever seen this many snails before? That's an extraordinary amount of snails. And I think it's something to do with the lack of rain that we've had this year. But there are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of snails in here. I have never seen so many before. They're all trying to escape and everything. I've just never seen this many. Oh my goodness. I bet you weren't expecting this on the opening of this video. I've never seen I've never seen anything like it. There's hundreds of them. They're all greeting each other, saying hello. Old friends saying hello to each other. This is absolutely insane. Obviously, I'm not going to kill all of these. That would be absolutely horrendous to murder all of these snails. Kill that many is just cruel. It's just cruel and unnecessary. So, what I'm going to do is chuck them all over the back fence and hope that they find something else to eat over there and just don't come back. You're not welcome here, guys. You're not welcome in my ders in my cosmos. Right, I'm just going to I'm just going to lob them all over the back. Just to let you know, the back of the fence backs onto a train line and there's plenty of stuff for them to eat there. There is no one's gardens there. It's not somebody's back garden. So, it's it's just okay for me to chuck it over. Oh, I am really glad I came out and checked now because I tell you what, those snails, they would have had everything in about 2 seconds flat. They really are fast when they get their hands and stuff. Especially for things like ders and sunflowers, you know, for creatures that are supposed to be slow, you know, they're really not. They're really quick. Well, some of my plants I've only just managed to rescue from them and they're really gathering on them. And it's made me a little bit worried about my a lotment plot now. And I'm wondering if my husband will drive me down there tonight. We can go and have a little snail check cuz I'm a little bit worried cuz if they get a hold of those pumpkins, they will demolish them in like 2 seconds. Like I said, they're quite fast snails. For a creature that's sort of supposed to be quite sl slow, they're really not that slow at all. They're really quite fast, especially when they have something nice that they want to eat. You know, they really do go to town. I think I might have to go down there and just check everything. Right, we've come down to the a lotment plot. My husband very kindly drove me down to check for slugs and snails. I know this technically isn't an aotment vlog, but you know what? When it's been raining like that, you've got to check your plot as well, guys. You've just got to So, pumpkins, are you okay? Do you know what, guys? This is really weird, but I actually can't see any at all. I can't see any damage. And I can't see any slugs or snails here. I don't see any slugs and snails. And I see no damage on any of these. I think it's the grass that's been pulling them out. I think they've all been hiding in the grass. And because I don't have any grass pathways. No, none at all. That is really weird. Is it the grass in my garden that's attracting them then? Feel like the crops are going to be safe. And I feel like it's probably because there's not any grass here. So, I think we're pretty safe with all these crops. I don't I don't foresee any immediate slug damage happening. Cool. Okay, I'm going to head home. Morning guys. Welcome back to my garden. So, it's the next morning and luckily it's nice and sunny today in blue skies which is really really nice. Got plasterers in the house doing the front room and I'm here on my own. So, I'm really paranoid they're going to come out and see me vlogging which would be so embarrassing. But it's the nicest day of the week cuz it's the only day I can get out and do some actual gardening out here. I managed to stop all the snails. So, I haven't had any any snail damage. Keep trying to say slug damage. I haven't seen many slugs. Seen hundreds of snails now. Hundreds of snails. But no slugs so far. So, that's all good. Um, today I need to pick some sweet peas. I do need to mow the lawn at some point. Might do that a little bit later. And then I need to dead head a lot of the flowers. I've got so many flowers growing this year. So many. It's really determined to have as many flowers in my garden as possible this year because I feel like last year I barely had any flowers. And all these pots are full of beautiful flowers. Can't remember the name of all of them. I've just been picking them up from garden centers. This one isn't doing very well, is it? What's going on with this one then? Has he got some kind of bug problem or something? Cuz the flowers aren't opening very well, are they? I might chop it right back cuz I can see some fresh growth in there. Let's do that. Sometimes if there's a problem with a plant, best thing to do is just chop it back. Chop it back really hard and see if it all comes back again. But I just have a feeling it's just not doing very well. But then inside I can see new growth. So maybe the new growth will do well. So let's chop back some of the stuff that's not working. I'm being very brave with this, aren't I? I'm just going for it. What's come over me today there? We'll see if he comes back to life. Sunflowers are doing okay. They do have a little bit of an aphid problem. Um I need to show you something actually on my bud and it looks the same as this. This is my budlia plant. I don't love it. It's really big and it gets very unruly. So, I'm thinking of taking it out in a couple of years time. Um, but I did ask on Instagram what this is on the leaves. I've never seen this before on my bud leaves ever. It's sort of knobbybly and bobbly and it's look the greens have gone two different greens. And I asked on Instagram what it is. And a lot of you said it's a really bad aphford infection. And the RHS are actually tracking this this year. So, I went on to the website and I gave them my details about where I am and documented it for them. But this is a really big problem this year with aphids. Anyway, one of the suggestions was to chop chop all the damaged leaves back. But the thing is, if if I do that, the whole plant will be chopped back. There'll be no plant there. So, I think I'm sort of going to leave it to do its thing. And I'll let you know what happens with it. But yeah, it's apparently a really, really big problem this year with aphid sucking out all the goodness from the leaves. This here, this is my hydrangeanger. And you can see all the flowers are dying, but I'm getting new flowers on it. So, I think what I'm going to do today, chop all these dead ones off. You might think I'm being a bit brash with this, but I tell you what, a lot of you commented and told me that this was forced to flower early by the garden center. They forced them to flower early so that we'd buy them earlier in the year. So when I bought this, which I think was sort of back in April time, it wasn't actually hydrangeanger flowering season. What they' done is they'd sort of forced it to flower earlier to entice us to buy it, which obviously worked cuz I did buy it. But actually, it's put a lot of stress on the plant by encouraging it to flower a lot very early. So I'm not too surprised to see them dying back. That looks very sad now. But hopefully what it will do is by removing those flowers, it will force all the energy into the roots into making it nice and big and strong for next year. I'm going to go around and dead head the rest of the dead flowers before it rains. Look at my beautiful wall of sweet peas. My fence of sweet peas. Isn't aren't they just gorgeous? I've got such different colors than the ones I've got at the a lotment plot, which is really nice. So, it means I get all different colored sweet peas. Not so keen on these dark red ones, but I think they'll look nice in the bunch. I really like these pale pink ones here. These are beautiful. But because I've not been on top of picking them, look what's happened. They've started to create seeds. That is the worst thing that can happen. If you see that, take them off straight away cuz they'll stop producing flowers. And what I need to do now is pick them. How about that for a nice bunch of sweet peas? Popped it all into an old pasta jar, but it's good to get them into water straight away so they don't die. Um, I think I've got some more growing up there and also over there. So, I'm going to go pick them, too. Oh, they smell amazing. I know only one has flowered down here, but these are growing really, really nicely in here. These didn't do anything for ages, and all of a sudden, they've shot up and they're just going to look so beautiful going all up that trellis, aren't they? Oh, I just love them. Right. What's going on with the veg truck? And why does everything look like it's dying? I think this has got leaf miner. This is my spinach. I think it's wilting and dying, which is a bit sad. And I think also, look, the radishes are going to seed cuz I've not been picking them. So, I think I'm going to pick all the radishes now. Oh, I've just not been picking them despite the fact they've done really, really well. I mean, look at that. That is absolutely fantastic. But I've just not been picking them. I've just left them. I said, "I'll do it later. I'll do it later. I think they need to come out. They're all going to seed." Oh, there's a good one. Look at that. That is lovely. Look at the size of that one. That's a whopper. It's like a beetroot. Wow, I'm getting so many. Right now that the radishes are out, I'm going to move the corette plant so it's got more room to grow. So, I'm just going to dig it up and replant it here. He's not been doing too bad here, but I think he could do with more room. So, move you over, mate. That's died. Let's get that out. It's causing issues. Right, he's got a little bit more room now to spread his wings a bit. There you go, mate. And then I'm thinking the spinach is done for. Uh, so what I'm going to do is I'm going to take it out and either plant more spinach or plant something else. I think I might plant rocket. I really like rocket. Let's take you out. Spinach. All right, I'm going to rack whack in a couple of brassacas and a random tomato plant that I just found because why not? The best that happen is that they grow and I get a harvest and the worst that happen is they don't grow and they just die. And that's a risk I'm willing to take. Right, in you go. Right, I'm going to clean these Oh, some of them have split a little bit. I have to sort them out, see which ones I can still eat. And then I'll store these in the fridge. And then I think I'm going to have to leave the think I'm going to have to leave mowing the lawn because it looks like it's going to rain. Good morning, guys. Welcome to my very messy kitchen. My kitchen is an absolute state today. It has been a busy week, so I've just not really had a chance to tidy anything. And that's my excuse. It's been raining for about 2 days in a row, so I've barely been able to get out in the garden. I haven't been to the a lotment plot for a couple of days, so stressing a little bit about the slugs and snails there. As we know, they are out in full force at the moment. So fingers crossed everything has survived. Currently in my kitchen, as you can see, I'm going to cook today. I'm going to make a corette and chocolate cake. I'm not feeling 100% um the last couple of days. I normally get like that when it's rain when it rains. It's really weird, but like I suffer quite badly with like headaches and migraines and stuff. And whenever it rains, I tend to get like a headache and my mood really dips and I just feel like a a tension and a heaviness like in my head. And I read ages ago and I don't know if there's any truth in this whatsoever, but I did read that when it rains like because of the clouds that suddenly come, there's like an added pressure in the air and it can affect people that get headaches. And I have no idea if that's true or not. That could be complete rubbish. But it is true that whenever like we've had nice clear weather for a bit and then suddenly it rains and it's really cloudy, I do tend to get headaches. So maybe there is some truth in that. I don't know. So we're going to cook a corette and chocolate cake today, which is um a new recipe for me. I've made beetroot chocolate cake, but never corette. So I'm excited to see how it goes. Also, um, would you like to see more home content from me? I have a couple of quite big projects coming up around my house. So, we are redoing our living room at the moment, getting it renovated, and I'm going to be decorating that. And also, I'm thinking of sort of decorating the kitchen a little bit, and I thought it might make quite nice content. Let me know if that's something you want to see. I think I'm interested in moving into sort of lifestyle content out of the a lotment plot and showing you what I get up to with the produce and like my kitchen and my home and you know what else I get up to in my life. So let me know if that would interest you and um I'll see what I can do. But right now let's make this cake. These all our dry ingredients in here that I've already done and for some reason did not film. So, I've got plain flour, cocoa powder, um bicardinate of soda, bicardinate of soda, um some baking powder, some salts and cinnamon, and what else is in there? Some sugar. And now we're going to add the wet ingredients to it. Oh, heat. Hey. Hey. Heat. Heat. What do we think of that guys for a chocolate cake? Corette chocolate cake. How gorgeous does that look? Let's cut a slice and have some. I mean, how can we not? How can we actually not have a slice of this? So, it has got corette in. So, it is still a little bit sort of sticky inside. Not sticky, but gooey. Little bit gooey inside. Oh my gosh, it looks delicious. That is exactly what I needed today. I needed chocolate. But I love the fact that there's a corette in it as well. The thing is guys is I don't have any corettes growing at the moment, but I told you I have a lot of corette plants and as soon as they start producing lots of corettes, which by the way is one of my favorite vegetables, I will need loads of recipes to use them up. This cake used one quite big corette. Um, so it's just a really great way of like using them up. And it's delicious. Has an ever so slightly different flavor to it, but it's delicious. It's chocolatey. It's dense. It's rich. Um, I've just got some melted chocolate and cream on the top that I whis whisked up together, and it's just delicious. So, I will be enjoying this. Now, in my next Sunday vlog, I'm going to do a lot more cooking. So, I've got a coal coli colelaw to make. So, if you're growing krabby and don't know what to do with it, I'm going to make a really great coleslaw, which is delicious. And I'm also gonna make some strawberry jam because I am just inundated with strawberries right now, which isn't a bad thing. So, I'm gonna make some strawberry jam as well. Um, and then I've got a few gardening projects to do uh next week. So, it should be a really nice little Sunday vlog. But I do hope you've enjoyed this one as well. Um, I will be back at the a lotment plot on Monday, so tomorrow. And then I'll be back here at home sharing some more home things uh next Sunday. So, join me then. See you then, guys. Thanks for watching. Bye.