BYE BYE ALLOTMENT PLOT! / EMMA'S ALLOTMENT DIARIES

[Music] [Music] Morning [Music] guys. Welcome back to my a lotment diaries. My name's Emma. These are the a lotment diaries and welcome to a heat wave in the UK. So having a bit of a heat wave obviously just said that. Yesterday it was the hottest day of the year so far. We got up to 34° where I am. And I decided not to come down to the a lotment firstly because it was just too hot to do anything. But secondly, the night before that we had so much rain that everything got a good water. So I wasn't too worried about it to be honest. It was just one of those lucky moments where it just absolutely poured and then the next day was very very hot and now I'm down today. Actually the ground still seems fairly like damp like it's had a good water. So I'm not I'm not bothered. I'm not bothered by it. It's going to be a little bit cooler today. Maybe 28 29 but still quite hot. I am going away. You won't know this because the vlogs will continue like I haven't been anywhere. Um, and that's on purpose because I don't want people to know exactly when I've gone away. But I am going away tomorrow and I'm not going to be here for nearly 2 weeks. I might be able to get here in the middle of those two weeks for like an hour or so and just check on everything. But the plot is literally going to be unsupervised for nearly 2 weeks and I don't know if it's going to survive or not. One thing I do know is not really surviving is the pumpkins. I panic about the pumpkins every single flipping year. I panic about those pumpkins. And I tell you what, this is the first year where I think it's actually warranted. I think I should worry about them because they're dying back, but there's hardly any pumpkins on them. And normally on a Jackie little plant, you get between 8 and 10 pumpkins. I can see about three. And I've got about four plants growing. So, this is not good. I am actually genuinely worried about these pumpkins now. The plants really do seem to be dying back and sort of finishing, but where are the pumpkins? You know, this is what the the leaves are looking like. This could be a lack of watering. I really don't know. It's only really the bottom leaves and then the top leaves are sort of okay. In fact, this little bit of new growth here actually looks like it's going yellow and it's not even that old. So, like, what on earth is going on? Should I take those leaves off? But then I'm worried that they won't have enough like leaves on it. Oh, I really don't know what to do. But my biggest concern is really the lack of pumpkins growing on it. Like the lack of pumpkins. Um there's one there. There's one. There's one there. One in there I can see is looking fantastic. There's one up here which is looking great. But that really is it. That is three pumpkins and I've got four plants growing. Three pumpkins and four plants ain't great. It's the first year I've worried about the pumpkins. And I think I actually should worry about the pumpkins. Normally I worry about them. I've got no need to worry. It's just me just fluffing about. Fluffing about, you know what I mean? But I think this year I might genuinely have cause for concern to worry about the pumpkins because they're just not giving me pumpkins. Given me lots of leaves and foliage. It's been lovely. But I would really like some pumpkins and I just don't know what to do. I just don't know what to do. And I'm going away now for 2 weeks, so there isn't much I can do. I'm going to start by giving him a really good water and we'll just go from there. I don't know what else to do. [Music] [Music] [Music] Right. This will not become another vlog worrying about the pumpkins. I promise. But obviously, uh, sorry, Bee. Sorry, Bee. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. Please be understanding. Obviously, at this time of year, pumpkins is my main concern. You know, it's the thing I'm thinking about the most. So, all becomes about the pumpkins. I've got to tie this guy up cuz he's fallen down. He's got a little mini pumpkin growing on him. So, what is that though? Is that magpie? Oh, be just wait a second. He has a little baby pumpkin growing on him. So, I've just tied him up to the archway cuz I want to keep it off the ground. The bee seems very angry at me. We better go. Yeah, there are plenty of flowers. Maybe they're not the right male or female, whatever they're supposed to be, but I've had loads of pollinators. Are you Are you kidding? Ant just landed on me. I'm fine. I'm fine, guys. I'm going to be particularly scattyrained today. Ant just landed on me and I just absolutely freaked out. It had wings. It's a flying ant day. Ben will be flying ant day anyway. Oh my god. Are you kidding? I just saw Einstein. So, I think we're going to just take a pause, take a breath, and um go and feed the bird. Not that bird. [Applause] [Music] [Music] Come on then. Come on. [Music] Come on. I can hear him, but I cannot see him anymore. He did swoop down and then he sort of swooped off again. Oh, Einstein. I have noticed that the pond has dried out and I know that they sort of rely on that little water source. You know what I'm going to do in the autumn time here? In the autumn time, I'm going to take the entire pond out and I'm going to get a bigger pond, a proper pond put in. Cuz when I dug this out, it was lockdown. It was the first day of um lockdown actually that I dug out this pond. I remember making a joke that the world was falling apart and I was just digging out a pond. That's just what I do. put your head down, carry on, pretend it's not happening. But I'm going to take the whole thing out. I'm going to get one of those plastic pond things. I think it'll last longer and then I think it'll be I think it'll just be better. So, I'm going to dig out a bigger pond, put that in, plant around it again, just completely redo the pond cuz every single year I end up trying to sort of half redo the pond. It's too small. It loses water too quickly. It needs to be bigger. It needs to be deeper. And I need to get some frogs. And that's it really. That's it. That's the bottom line. The bottom line is we need frogs. So, right, I might just get um a watering can fill and just pour that in there for now because I think my wheelbarrow is a bit it's got a hole in. So, yeah, it's got a really bad hole in it now. Oh god, I really need a new a wheelbarrow. At least no one will steal this one, will they? Right. I think I'm going to go around and do a bit of weeding now. It's not my favorite job to do and um I really can't be bothered, but I think future me will be happy that I did it. So, we're going to just get the wheelbarrow, go around, weed as much as we can. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] This absolutely beautiful clemetus. Didn't it do well this year? Didn't it do well? It absolutely grew all over the shed. It's just absolutely fantastic. Whoever told me to get a real plant growing over my shed instead of the fake one, I owe you a massive thank you because you were so right. It's beautiful. It has been taken over a little bit by bindweed. I'm not too panicked about it because this clemetus is one that you chop down to the ground. I can't remember if it's an autumn flowering or a summer. I mean, it flowered in the spring, but I think it's technically a later flowering clemetus. I think it just flowered early, but I'm pretty sure you cut it down to the ground. It's one thing I looked up about it when I bought it. So, I'm pretty sure I'm just going to snip it down to the ground at the end. But, we will try and get the bindweed off just for just in case it flowers again. Is it Einstein? I can hear him. There he is. You hear that? It's like a little warning sound. I've spotted him. He's up there. You probably can't see him, but I've spotted him. Yeah, he's never sat in that tree. This is a different bird. I mean, he's thinking about it. We'll just tackle this while he thinks about it. [Music] [Music] [Music] because it's so tangled together it's actually quite difficult to get the bindw weed off without sort of hurting the clemetus. So I'm just sort of going for it really. I thought about being gentle but then I thought nah let's rip it off. Actually that seems to be working quite well. [Music] Right. How are we looking? I'm trying to look around and foresee any problems I might have while I'm away. I think the plot is really just going to be at the mercy of the weather and also foxes and also people. feel like there's only so much I'm going to be able to do to protect it um and to look after it before I go because to be honest, if somebody wants to come on here and trash it or steal some of my crops or if a fox wants to come and dig, there's nothing I can really do about it. And if the weather wants to be a heatwave, then it can, can't it? It can dry everything out in like a day. I don't know. I don't know what what to do other than Oh, he's singing now. Does that mean he's going to come down and have some food? We'll find out, I guess. Yeah. I think the plot is really just going to be at the mercy of all the all the things I can't control. And I need I need to switch off a little bit. That's what's so difficult about an aotment plot, though, is that you can't really switch off cuz if you leave for a few days or even a couple of weeks, you have no idea what you're going to come back to. And it is quite worrying cuz a lot of work goes into these things. A lot of work. And I've got all my autumn veg growing now. And the thing is is what's really bad. I don't want to tell anyone on the a lotment that I'm going away and ask them to water it because I don't want to make it known that I'm not going to be here. I don't want them to know that the plots's going to be unattended for 2 weeks. Like I don't want anybody to know. How sad is that that I can't sort of rely on the people around here. I wish some of you guys had plots near me because I know so many of you would come down in a heartbeat and help me and do a bit of weeding and, you know, water a little bit for me cuz you guys are so nice, but I just can't seem to find any of those people in reality. I mean, there's a couple of people here that I would trust, but I also don't want to put that burden. I don't want to ask. I just don't want it. I just don't want to make it known that I'm not here. That's all it is. I'm just so worried about that. Maybe it's just a London thing. Maybe it's just a London thing, but that's how I feel. Oh, he's turned up. He's turned up. Fantastic. We are going to see Einstein today. There he is. It's our little feathered friend from before. Are you the new Einstein? He's starruck. You recognize Miss Me from my vlog. You can't believe it. He's starruck. Look, it's me. Yeah, it's Emma. Emma's a lotment diaries. Yeah. Yeah, it's me. You can't believe it. Look, he's gone off to tell his mates now. [Music] [Music] I can't really do very much today, guys, cuz I'm literally going away tomorrow. I sort of feel a bit paralyzed in what I can do. Like, I feel like I don't want to start anything big because I'm not going to be here for 2 weeks. I feel like I can't do very much because I won't be able to upkeep it and stuff. Do you know what I mean? Like, I feel a bit lost. So, what I'm going to do is show you a few things that are growing. I haven't done that for a little while. So, I'll show you around a bit. Right. So, this bed here, we've got half sort of manure in it. We've got some corn flowers and behind that some cauliflower. A lot of that's been eaten by slugs. And then in front of it, we've got a uh a lovely little pumpkin. I can't remember what it is, but I sort of whacked it in, didn't I? It's very, very small, but it is just starting to sort of take off, annoyingly. The carrot bed has been left alone by the fox now. So, it is actually growing and doing well. I'm a little bit worried about that drying out while I'm not here. But, you know what? It will just have to cope. This archway is doing all right. It's mainly nesters and um runner beans. It's not done as well as it did last year, but I do have a pumpkin growing up it. Again, very, very small, but we'll see what that that becomes. I might get a couple of pumpkins off of him. Couple of brassacica beds at the front. This one's sort of finishing from summer. And then this is my autumn winter one. Doing really well. This bed is parsnips which have done really well. As you can see, they're growing away. Got some more carrots in there. And then some radishes, which unfortunately got eaten, but there we go. And then behind that in this bed, runner beans all come up really well. All the sweet corn germinated. So, I've got more sweet corn growing. I have some leaks here in amongst the weeds. And then at the front there are some beetroot. these French beans that I planted in a little while ago. These will germinated here. So, these will need some kind of support or structure soon. Um maybe when I get back that will be my my first job. This bed's a bit weedy, but it's okay. We've got some main crop peas, some beetroot, and then some early potatoes which are whacked in which have all come up and started to flower. Fabulous. We've got the flower bed which is mainly at the moment these beautiful gladioli. I've also got some cosmos in here which has yet to flower. We'll see what that does. We you never know. We might get a late flowering of cosmos. And then behind even more excitingly looks like I'm going to get a few ders. They've finally thrown up some buds. And this one is starting to bloom. I'm probably going to miss this one cuz that will probably bloom and die within two weeks. But yeah, I am actually getting a dia plant which is amazing. These apples will also need harvesting when I get back. They should be about done when I get back. I think they actually look a bit done now, don't they? But I can't pick them yet because um obviously I won't be here. Sweet corn. Amazing. Giving me some lovely cobs there. Might need to give them a bit of a shake. Um or just let the wind do their job, do its job, you know. Either way, corettes won't stop. Can't stop. Won't stop. Will never stop giving me corettes. And then this is the colobby. Some of it is beginning to swell and give me an actual colobby bulb. This is the bit you eat on a colobby and it's delicious when you make colelaw with it. But yeah, all looking great. Like I said, I'm a little bit stuck today. I feel a little bit paralyzed. I've got like gardening paralysis. It's a real thing. I've got it. And I just don't quite know what to do with myself because I don't want to start anything too much, too big. and I don't want to start something, realize it's a bigger job and then feel stressed about it on holiday. But anyway, I will do my best to enjoy my little breakaway. Um, and you absolutely should too. If you if you're lucky enough to have a breakaway, you should enjoy it. Just enjoy it. The next time that you see the a lotment plot, which will be on Monday, it will have been 2 weeks time and we will find out what happens to the a lotment when you go away for 2 weeks. So, that should be an interesting vlog. So, take it all in today. did the little tour, showed you what's going on, and then on Monday, it will be 2 weeks time. I don't know. I find that quite interesting. So, we'll see. We will see what it becomes. Until then, guys, have a lovely gardening weekend. I will be back again on Monday or Sunday with a London home gardening vlog. Either way, see you then. Thanks for watching. Bye.