TAKING OUT THE WILDLIFE POND / EMMA'S ALLOTMENT DIARIES

[Music] Morning. [Music] Good morning everyone. Thank you for tuning in to my channel. My name is Emma. These are my a lotment diaries where I'm just vlogging all about my a lotment plot here in South London, showing you what I'm up to on a day-to-day basis. Basically, we are now officially back to three videos a week. Um, I just did one week with only two videos, but actually a couple of the videos on Wednesday before were kind of pre-made, so I have had a bit of a break. The plot is actually looking so so beautiful at the moment. It's like it's got a new lease of life. Um, I don't know if maybe the blue sky and sunshine is helping. Look at that sunshine on my face. I did say in my last vlog that I'm basically going to come here on days where it's nice and blue skies. Um, just so I can really get the most out of my a lotment. And so far, it's working. So, all of my videos just look like it's nice weather here. And you're like, "But it's raining today." I just didn't go on that day. I'm being very choosy with when I come down here now. But yeah, everything's looking just so so lovely. So, big project big project of the autumn is to sort out the pond area. And today I'm going to make a start on it. And what I'm going to do is dig it out. Dig out as much as I can and just start to sort of clear that area. That's going to be the main job of the day. But I think straight away I'm going to check on a few of my crops and see how everything's growing because we've got some runner beans over there. I can see we've got lots of things still actively growing and it's looking great. So let's go and check out let's go and see what's growing on the plot. I also did just hear Einstein, but I can't see him anymore. So we'll give him a little bit of time. He should be here today cuz it is sunny. [Music] Look at these potatoes. These are main crop potatoes. They are doing fantastic. I have managed to earth them up a bit, but they definitely need earthing up again. And they are getting so big, but they're also getting flowers. And I always thought that flowers meant the potatoes are ready to harvest. But I think with main crop, I think it's when they die back, isn't it? I think early crop, the flowers are a good indicator it's ready. But main crop is different. I think I have to say I'm a huge fan of potato flowers. They are absolutely stunning. I would grow potatoes just for the flowers. I think they are beautiful. Yeah. Look at that crop of potatoes. Fantastic. [Music] [Music] Oh, good morning. Oh god, where'd you come from? Foxy. Having a little look around my plot. Make sure I'm not here. I am here. You're going to have to go. He'll be back later. These are my runner beans that I planted quite late, actually. These are doing fantastic, aren't they? And I love that they're growing up bamboo canes. So much easier than netting. I don't know why I didn't do this before. To be fair, my plot neighbor does this and it works really well. So, I don't know why I didn't think to do it myself. Yeah. Looking great. In fact, we do have one here that seems to be without any kind of structure and it's flowering, so I better change that. How beautiful are those flowers? Oh my goodness. That is the most beautiful runner bean flower I've ever seen. [Music] There you are, mate. I've got you your own stick so you don't have to share with your mate anymore. Got your own stick now. You just go that way and then that way. Do you need some help? Maybe you need a bit of help. Just tie you in a little bit. Let me tie you in a little bit. Oh, poor thing. This is your stick now. Oh god, he's confused. This is yours. Go that way. All right. [Music] Wrap all your little leaves and things around this one. That's it. That's it. There you are. He'll figure it out. I'm sure he will. Oh, you know what? There is on here bugs. Lots of bugs. Are these aphids? Black aphids or blackfly or whatever they are? They're all over my runnab beans. That's not good. You know what I did see? I saw a friend earlier. I'm going to go and get him. Hey, there's a little friend in there. I'm going to get him and put him on my aphid problem, whatever it is. Right. Where's the aphids? Where are they? Oh, they're down here. Hang on. Right. I've got a present for you on there. If you go on there, you're going to find some real good food. Come on. Look to the right of you. No, you're going the wrong way. You're going the wrong way. If you go the other way, you're going to find some breakfast. He's found him. He's found him. Are you eating them? Are you doing it? Go on, have a munch. Oh gosh. Are you a vegetarian? I think I might have found the one ladybird vegetarian. Oh well, he's on there now. Hopefully, it'll sort the problem out. Got faith in you, little guy. I've had to start closing the door in here when I'm not here because the fox and the cat, who you both saw this morning on the vlog, have been coming in digging. I don't know, just doing general foxy stuff. I mean, he's not eating the tomatoes as far as I can tell. So, he's obviously in here for other reasons. Reasons unknown to us humans, but there we go. The tomatoes are really tomatoing now, and I do need to pick them today. So, I will be picking a big bunch of tomatoes at the end of the day before I leave. But now, we are going to get stuck in with the pond. Now, the first job with the pond, and probably the biggest job, is to clear the whole area. And I want it cleared properly cuz I'm absolutely sick of weeds coming up and it becoming an overgrown mess. And I just think what it needs is just taking back to basics, taking back to ground level, sorting out. So that's what we're going to do with the pond. Let's go. My wheelbarrow is at the point where not even duct tape is going to be able to fix that. that is going to go any any minute now, any day now. There's just going to be a giant hole in here. So, I need a new wheelbarrow, I think. [Music] Oh yes. [Music] Yes. [Music] Oh my god, I'm invincible. [Music] Fork just broke. Look at that. One of the prongs came off. It just snapped. Another one bites the dust. I'm not being funny, though. All I was doing with this fork was digging something out. Like literally just digging something out. It's not like I abuse this. I'm not a really strong human being. Do you know what I mean? I'm not like putting too much weight on it or anything. I'm just using it as the tool it is supposed to be. So why did it break? Like I think that says more about the the tool than me. Surely I need an invincible fork. I need a fork that is so strong it can put up with anything. I just don't think this is my fault. I just think it's the fork's fault. I should be a tool tester. That should be my official job. I should test tools. I'll tell you which ones work and which ones don't. You know, I will [Music] It's going pretty well so far. I didn't really think I'd be back at the point where I'm digging out ornamental grasses again, but here we are. Here we are. Deja vu. Just basically trying to clear the area at the moment so I can see what I'm working with. See the size of it. I've not managed to dig it all out yet. So, a lot of it's just been cut back to the ground, which is not ideal because it will just grow back. So, it does need to be dug out. But, we're making quite a good start. We're making a good start. I think it will be easier to dig it out when the pond is actually been taken out. Um, so yeah, we'll just keep going and clearing. [Music] Right, we have made some progress. I think you can probably see the progress we've made. It's still a complete blooming mess, but we've definitely made a good amount of progress. This is a job that I'm not going to rush through. I'm going to take my time with it. Come here, do a little bit every single day until it's completely cleared. get the pond in properly. Um, the problem that I have is that I rushed the first pond. That's the whole problem. I rushed it. I didn't weed it properly and now I've just got all these weeds coming up every year. It's a complete nightmare. So, this time we are going to go, we're going to slow down a little bit. We're not going to lose motivation. We're just going to do a little bit every so often and do a really good job. Is that Einstein? I think it is. Oh, there you are. And he's singing as well. He's not like doing the warning sound. Oh, wow. All right, it's coming, Einstein. [Music] There you go. [Music] [Laughter] [Music] Right, I'm going to trim some of my plot and make it all nice and neat again. He's laughing at me already. It's going to be fine. It's going to be fine. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] There we go. That's all looking a lot better. [Music] God, it's very windy out there today. I wasn't expecting it to be windy, but at least it's blue skies and sun, so I'm definitely not going to complain. Right, I've got a pack of Calibre. Um, and I thought I would put them into a module because I'm not sure about planting them out directly, like sewing them directly. And also, I don't really know where I want them. I'd rather have the plants to plant out, if that makes sense. So, I'm going to put them into this module. I'm just going to use I'm just going to use some compost from around the plot. So, I'm going to go fill this up with some soil um from anywhere. And the good thing about doing that actually is it's growing into the soil that it's going to end up in. Do you know what I mean? So, the seeds are learning what soil they're going to end up in. So, I think it's quite a good idea to try and use compost from your a lotment plot in with your seedlings. That might be complete baloney, but you know what? There could be some fact in that. There could be some science in that. So, take that as you will. Right, we fill it up. Of course, the downside the downside of using soil from your plot is you're probably going to get some weeds in it. But, hey ho, what can you do? Can't win them all. And it's all we've got. It's all we've got to work with. So, it'll grow fine. Right. Calibri Iron Man F1. Who named these ones? That's what I want to know. Who named these ones? Someone with a big ego, I think. Iron Man. Honestly, is it cuz they contain lots of iron or something? Oh god. Is it Is it Is that the reason? Oh my gosh. Okay, this is I was This is so unexpected. Anybody who actually sewn these before will have known the seeds are bright blue. Bright blue. Can you see that? Bright blue. Now I'm a little bit worried that these are like radioactive or something. Oh my goodness. Never known for seeds to be bright blue. That's absolutely unbelievable. I'm just doing two or three per module. That's crazy. That is They're literally radioactive seeds. I've never seen anything like that. This is very good compost they're going into. I hope they appreciate this. This is really good, guys. You're going to love this. There we go. This is something that I will most likely plant outside when they're sort of big enough. But, you know, if the weather takes a turn and I think, gosh, there's no way they'll survive. They can always go in the greenhouse. So, it's all good. But, I'm pretty sure brassacas, they're quite hardy plants, aren't they? So, I think they should be okay outside. Right. What we'll do, we'll give those a bit of a water. I wonder if I get superpowers if I eat this stuff. [Music] [Music] [Music] Right. Well, I'll leave the vlog there today. I hope you've enjoyed watching. My battery is about to run out, so I'm going to stay for a little bit longer and just pick lots of the tomatoes. I'm going to leave the green ones for now. A lot of you keep telling me that I can eat the green ones and like slice them up and fry them and stuff. And I am going to do that, but I'm going to give them all a chance a little bit longer to turn red or orange or yellow or whatever color they're supposed to be. And then I will do sort of like the final harvest where I just take every single tomato, whatever color it is, and use it up at home before sadly getting rid of the plants. But not yet. Not yet. They're doing great. Still getting flowers on them. So gosh, it is noisy out there today. I hope you've enjoyed watching my vlog. If you have, do subscribe to my YouTube channel. Also, come and follow me on Instagram and Tik Tok. Um, I'm always posting little silly videos and uh pictures on there. So, come and see me on there if you haven't already. And I will see you again on Wednesday with a new vlog. We're back to three a week, guys. See you Wednesday. Thanks for watching. Bye.