WHAT IS THIS?! / EMMA'S ALLOTMENT DIARIES

[Music] [Music] Good, good morning everyone. How are you all doing out there? Um, my name is Emma. These are the a lotment diaries. This is my a lotment plot. For how much longer, given all the news about him being sold off. I know, I know. Since that news has come out about Angela Raina um giving council's permission to sell a lotments, my inbox has been flooded with people worried about their a lotment plots. So many people have messaged me to ask what I think of it. Is it going to affect them? Is it um definitely going to happen? Like what are they going to do about their a lotments? And then so many people on the waiting list um some of the waiting list 8 to 10 years just going I've been on the waiting list for like 3 years now and now this news has come out that the a lotments might be sold. What what's going to happen? What's going on? And the truth is I really don't know. I really don't know the answer. But what I can say is that a lotment plots have a lot of protection around them. So there's a lot of legislation around a lotment plots which would make it difficult for a council just to decide to sell it and then sell it. But it's not as simple as a council just going we want to put flats here, we're going to put flats here. There are lots and lots of processes they have to go through. There's lots of legal processes. They have to contact the National Aotment Society. They have to come and inspect it and agree that the space is not being used. And the criteria I expect, and I haven't read about it yet because I haven't seen the details, but I expect it will be something like it's in an urban area, but it's being really really underused. Maybe there's like two tenants on the whole site or something like no one is using it. Or it will be that it's a small a lotment and actually there's space on another place somewhere so they can move tenants to another place. I think those will always be their first priorities is can we offer people another allotment plot somewhere else or is the a lotment just not being used and then it is just wasted space isn't it which you know I don't know how I feel about that because we need housing and if people are not using their a lotment plots and if the sites are just empty and overgrown they can't just sit there they can't just be these wild empty spaces forever someone needs to take it on and grow something you you know what I mean? So, I don't know. Either people need to get their act together and go and get an aotment and put the hard work in and stop, you know, giving up after 2 3 months. We just need to use those spaces for what we need them for. And that's it. I don't know. I don't know how I feel about it. I don't want a lotments to disappear. I think they're greatly important. I think we need more of them, not less of them. I think we need to encourage more people to grow their own food and to have a lotment plots and outdoor spaces and connect with nature a bit. and then I think the world would be a better place. But I'm not in charge. So if I was in charge, my first manifesto thing that I would say that everyone has to do is everybody has to have an aotment plot and everybody has to grow something. And that would be my first pledge, my first law. I'll put that into law. Whatever it is, whatever it is. That's why I'm not in charge. So, heat waves coming apparently. Apparently, over the next few days, it's just going to get hotter and hotter and hotter until we all melt. It's going to go like to 30 31°. What is it in here at the moment? Let me tell you. It is 23. Oh my god. Is he happy? He's smiling. Smiling today. Oh, is that spider? 58% humidity. 23.2 2° 3° now. He's happy. It's been a while since I've been here at 8:00 in the morning and it's already 23° in the greenhouse. That's been a while. So, 23° at 8:00 means like 35° at 12, right? That's what we're looking at. So, the very first thing I'm going to do is go around and give everything a really good drink because I won't be here later on when it really heats up. So, now is the time to get the water in the ground. What a fancy way of saying I'm going to do some watering. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] So, pumpkins are having another liquid seaweed feed. I try and do this once a week at the moment. It seems to be really working with them. They seem very happy. I tend to do it on a Monday when I get down here cuz it's the first thing I remember to do. So, if you sort of set yourself a day when you're going to feed your plants and then stick with that day, it means you don't forget. Right, let's go fill this up with water. [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] Unfortunately, it really is the end of the sweet peas. Now, we did manage to prolong their life a little bit by cutting them right back, taking all the seed heads off and actually all the flowers. And I did actually get a second flowering. The only thing I'll say if you do that next year and get a second flowering is that the the stems the stems are very very short. So it they're not going to give you those lovely long stems that you can put in a vase. So the second flowering will be for the plant and the pollinators and for you to look at on the plant. So that's what I've discovered. That's my experiment with the sweet peas. Is that you Einstein? Oh my gosh, it is. [Music] Oh, he's waiting for his food. Right, we're going to have to pause everything and go and feed the bird. Let's go. [Music] Oh, somebody did leave me a comment and say that Einstein might not like all this greenery because he can't he doesn't like it. I don't know why. I might just cut it back quickly. There was logic behind it, but I can't remember it. [Music] That's what somebody said to me. So, we'll try [Music] sitting right there. See him? He's poking his little head out. Come on, Einstein. Come on then. [Music] Come on. Going to come get your food. [Music] Oh my god, there's two. I have been sat here for so long waiting for him to come and get his food, but I tell you what, he's come so close. He keeps flying down and doing a swoop. It's like when a plane comes into land and it changes its mind and suddenly it goes back up again. Um, I think we've made progress. I just feel like we have. We've made some kind of progress, but I can't sit here all day, unfortunately. So, I'm going to have to go back to the sweet peas. The food is there for him. Right back to the sweet peas. What I'm going to do now is collect up as many seeds as I can. And the seeds I want to collect are these ones, the ones that have gone brown. And they will be ready to store and sew again in the autumn time. I'm actually going to sew my sweet peas over the autumn now that I've got the greenhouse. Um, I'll be able to do that. So, I'm going to sew these ones. And also the thing with sewing seeds from plants that you've already grown in your space is that they're perfectly adapted to your soil. So these seeds have now got all the memory of my soil conditions of the light conditions of everything. So they tend to grow better. As long as the original plant grew quite well, the seeds from it are likely to do well. That's something else that I've learned. There you go. [Music] [Music] Right, next job of the day is going to be to move some of these sweet corn that I planted. So, I planted in sweet corn in the hope of getting a late harvest. And I also planted in some runner beans and they sort of crossed pathways because me being me, I forgot where I planted them, didn't I? So, now I've got to move them. But it's fine. You can move sweet corn. They don't like their roots being disturbed. But if you do it early, they should be able to settle back down. on. And with the heat wave coming, I have a feeling they're going to be happy here. So, it's worth doing. It's quite a simple procedure of just locating the sweet corn, digging it up, and planting it somewhere else. It's not rocket science. Okay. Okay. Brilliant. I didn't really mean to do it like that, but that's how we've done it. So, the roots are already so big. Look at that. [Music] The roots on that already. It's only been in the ground about a week and a half, two weeks. This sweet corn is going to do amazing. I think assuming I don't kill it before. [Music] See, I remember how strong runner beam plants are and how big they get. So, I've put in these extra canes for them to sort of grow up. And then I will add a few bits of twine along the bottom. But I actually reckon they need something more sturdy to grow up cuz I remember the structure last year. I remember how easily the runner beans pulled it down. My neighbor grows runner beans up like tripods. So bamboo like tripods and it really works. They look they look really cool actually and I really should try that. See these are my neighbors runner beans and they're sort of up these tripods and then he's got all different ones but they kind of connect together and he just gets these really cool effects of just these really tall towering sort of runner beans. I love them. I mean look they're spinning all over the fence and everything. They are just fantastic plants. [Music] Some of my tomato plants seem to be giving world domination another go. you can't keep them down for long. Um, and they are sort of hitting the roof. I'm not sure if we're going to have time for these flowers to turn into tomatoes and then for the tomatoes to go green and then go orange. Like I don't know if we've got time left, I think, cuz we're end of August and it does take them quite a long time to go from green to red. And actually, I'm not sure if we've got time before the colder weather comes. I know we're about to have a heat wave, but there's just a lot of them. The last time that I grew tomatoes was probably three or four years ago successfully. I because I didn't have a poly tunnel or a greenhouse. I grew all my tomatoes outside and they only ever got to about that high. And they were the same varieties. So I haven't really experienced this kind of growth in tomatoes. And that's why I'm always that's why I'm a bit confused by it all and happy and shocked and and you know excited by them. But it's just something I haven't grown for so long. I forgot how big they get. But I have a feeling I've got to take the top off now. That's what we're going to do. As a CEO of my plot, I've made the decision to take the tops off. And that's it. [Music] [Music] Let's pick some of these lovely tomatoes. Oh my gosh, look at them. Wow. [Music] [Laughter] Oh, I'm just going to rescue this ladyb bird cuz he looks like he's got lost in here. I tell you what, every creature that comes into this greenhouse gets stuck and can't find the way out. It's not very well signposted. Come on. That's it. Why would you just do that? Never mind. [Music] Look at this corette. Isn't it crazy? Look at the way it's grown. My gosh, I do not need another giant corette in my life. I really don't. I've only just got rid of a giant one. Now I've got another one. Please keep sending me your corette recipes. I keep sharing mine on my Sunday home garden vlog, but let me know if you've got any more cuz I need all the all the recipes I can get right now. I'm just getting an absolute abundance of corette. Anyway, lots of people are arriving so I'm going to wrap up the vlog there. I hope you've enjoyed it today. If you have, do give my channel a subscribe. I will see you again on Wednesday. Have a lovely rest of your week. See you Wednesday, guys. Thanks for watching. Bye.