CHANGING MY SMALL LONDON GARDEN / EMMA'S SUNDAY DIARIES

[Music] Good morning, guys. Welcome to a very rainy day here in London in my small London garden. My name is Emma and I make these Sunday diaries just showing you what I'm up to in my small London garden, showing you some baking, some cooking, talking about things in my life. So, if you enjoy these, I'd love for you to hit the subscribe button. I'm very close to 50,000 subscribers now, which is incredible. So, thank you so much if you have already subscribed. This week, unfortunately, is going to be very, very rainy. So, I will see how much I get done. It is starting to rain right now. I'm in the middle of a bit of a garden rejig. I was going to say garden renovation. I think it's more of a rejig. I'm just rejigging the back of the garden because I want to put in some vegetable patches and have some raised beds. I think I'm going to go for metal raised beds. So, all I wanted to do today was pop out in the rain and do a little bit of measuring and just see where the bed should go. There is definitely a sizable amount of space here to have vegetables growing and maybe some fruit and maybe some more flowers and things. I mean, I think there's plenty of space. So, let's measure up. Perfect. Gosh, it's like it's made for it. It's like exactly 5T by 200 cm. That's crazy. I want to have gravel all over here, but somebody did tell me in my last video, put the raised beds in first and put the gravel around the raised beds so I don't buy too much gravel. That was a really good tip. So, where else do I want them here? I think I can fit about five, but we'll have a look at shapes and things. But yeah. Okay, I better go in cuz it's starting to rain a bit harder now. Right, we're just going to head off to the garden center. There's a few bits I want to see, want to pick up. So, I'll take you along with me and then when we get back, I will show you what I got. [Music] [Music] Wow, it has turned into just such a miserable day. Um, I've had to put you right in the doorway just so that I've got enough light to show you this because my Victorian terrace house is pitch black and it's like midday. Um, okay. So, I got four new pots. Um, they ranged from $8.99 and then I got a slightly bigger size, $17.99. Not too bad. Not too bad. I was hoping there'd be a sale on, but there wasn't, so I was slightly disappointed about that. But hey ho, the pots are for some new tulip bulbs and daffodil bulbs. And then I am going to reuse some of the pots I've got out there for that as well. But I wanted some pots specifically for spring bulbs. Also picked up some more spring bulbs. Let me quickly show you. Now, how do you choose your spring bulbs? Because personally, I just go in and look at the pictures and any that I like, I pick up. So I've gone with these purpley ones. We got these mixed ones which do incredibly well at my a lotment plot. So I'm going to put these into the a lotment I think. Got these beautiful pink ones. You can see they're all quite classic shaped. Um I'm a real fan of just the classic tulip shape. And then I got these mixed ones as well. All different colors. So they're going to go into the pots. Some are going to go into the a lotment plot. We will decide. Um but that's that. Also picked up where's the um oh some new shears because my ones at the a lotment plot seem to have gone missing i.e. someone's either stolen them or I've dropped them somewhere and bindweed has consumed it like like the vines of Jamani and they just wrap around it take it away never see it again. So I got some new shears and I'm excited to chop up all my compost tomorrow when I go down there. So, I will be doing that. And this, which is not actually a it's not a gardening thing, but I picked up some coffee at my local um it's a Blue Diamond garden center where I go, they do all these lovely little coffees there, all different flavors. And this one is gingerbread cookie. How cute. Um absolutely love it. So, I've got some of this. And that's what I picked up from the garden center. And now we're going to make a roast dinner cuz it is Sunday today. Did I say that it was Sunday? It is Sunday today. It's rainy. It's miserable. It's cold. We're going to make a roast dinner. If you can see it. I don't know if you're going to be able to see it. Should I put the light on? Oh no. I just can't do it. I have such a problem with the big light. I just hate the big light so much. This is half a leg of lamb. I got it from Aardo. It's 1.248 kg. So, it will cook in about 75 minutes basically. So, let's prepare the lamb. bit of olive oil. And then we're going to use a sharp knife to make some indentations in the top like this. Indentations, is that the word? I think you know what I mean. We shall stick in some sprigs of rosemary. And then we'll also put some chopped up onion around the side. And this is going to be for our gravy that we're going to make at the end. [Music] Right. So, while that's cooking, we'll get started on the roast potatoes. [Music] So with the potatoes, we're par boiling them, which if you've never heard of that before, it just means that you boil them for a little bit until your fork can kind of go a little bit through so they're soft on the outside. And that means that they'll go nice and crispy in the oven when we roast them. So about 10 12 minutes I'm going to par boil these cuz they're quite I've cut them quite big. But just keep an eye on them especially if they're smaller. You don't want them to go too soft. You're not making mashed potato basically. [Applause] [Music] So then what we're doing is we're trying to kind of rough them up a little bit against the sides like this so that the top of them goes a little bit in fact we could use a fork like that because any bits that we fluff up they're going to go really crispy in the oven. There we are. See we want all those fluffy bits. To be fair, I could have parled them a little bit longer, but that'll do. [Music] Okay. So, then these go into the oven for about an hour. [Music] Right. We're also going to make York puddings cuz my kids love them. 70 g of plain flour, 100 mls of milk, two eggs. [Music] This is just a little bit of oil that I've heated up in the oven. And then I'm just pouring my mixture straight in. Oh, there's none in there. I'm going quick. Back in the oven. Wow, look at those. [Music] Morning, guys. Um, it's a very rainy day today, so it's raining on and off. I'm going to have to run in and out the garden when I can, but that's fine. That's fine. We'll make it work. I'm just going to do a little bit of work on the new area. I'm going to reme-measure a couple of things cuz I have found some raised beds I want to order, but I want to see how many I can fit in. And then I'm going to plant some of the spring bulbs into some pots. So, first of all, let's go and have a look down there, put the other bit of trellis in, and reme-measure stuff. Okay. [Music] [Music] Do you reckon that's a big enough gap to get through? Or do I think it is actually? [Music] Yeah. So [Music] [Music] [Music] that Both a little bit wibbly wobbly, but I will level them out a little bit. And that's basically the idea there with an archway in between. I like that. That's good. Most of the beds I found follow this measurement. 120 cm by 60 cm. 120 by 60. So, if I just give that another little measure. Two. Three. I reckon I can get four. Yeah. Okay. Right. So, 120 cm by 60 cm. Good. Right. Got all my spring bulbs here. And pop them into some pots. [Music] Right. So, I want one of each kind in each pot, if that makes sense. So, in this pot, it will only be these. And then what I'll do is I'll put the pots together to make like a display, a bit like you would in a border. So, they're not going to be mix and match. They're all going to be one thing in each pot. I just think that will work better. [Music] [Music] Got to protect them from the squirrel cuz the squirrel will dig them up. So, I'm going to put these little metal sort grids over. This is from my uh freestanding greenhouse. You won't be able to get to them. You see? [Applause] And then I've got lots of these lovely daffodils and I thought they could go all around this tree. So, let's whack them in. [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] I also We might just throw in all that compost because why not? [Music] [Music] [Music] Right. Apologies for this vlog being a little bit sporadic all over the place. Um, I've woken up to a beautiful day. blue skies, sunshine, really nice and warm. Um, so I thought I'd come out and do a little bit more work on the back of the garden. One of the things I need to do as well is divide a couple of my shrubs in the border, my perennials, because they've got too big. But I've got these two pieces of trellis and I had an idea and I just wanted to run it past you quickly. So this is my idea. Let me try and visually show you. So I've got these long rectangles of trellis. Um, and I sort of use them in borders and things, but I had an idea to make a bit of an archray out of them. Archrays can be a little bit pricey to buy. So, I thought if I make one, it saved me money. I've already got these materials. So, I mean, it'll be free for me cuz I've already got it all. But yeah, they can be a bit pricey. And also, the sizes are very like precise. And um, I've just sort of made that gap and I don't want to take anyway. Let me just show you. We have got another bit of trellis, believe it or not. A little bit of trellis across the top. What do we think? What do we think of this? And then maybe I could put a rambling rose over one side and sort of have it grow all over it. And then maybe it give me a bit privacy. You can see they're getting a new loft over there. And if I had something growing all over there, sort of blocks it out a little bit. What do we think? Right. This is the border that needs jiggling about a little bit cuz it just isn't working. It looks like it's working at this time of year when it's all quite small, but what happens, and I've shown you a few times, is just here under the apple tree, this becomes very, very big and overgrown, and the rest of the border is teeny tiny. So, this is the best time of year to dig up perennials or shrubs and divide them and move them about because they're not in active growth. They're kind of slowing down. Dig them out, divide them, replant them, water them in well, and then they'll come back. So, this is the perfect time to do that. And that's exactly what I'm going to do. This is a Japanese anamone anemone. And people always tell me how to say that and I always forget. It's just built into my brain not to know. I think that's the problem. But that's what it is. I think you know what I'm trying to say. And this is what we're going to dig up and divide. [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Oh my goodness, it is so noisy today. But this is essentially what I have done to this border now. So this is the Japanese anamony anamone and it's been split up into one two which I think works well. I've moved this rose which is absolutely beautiful but it does like to sort of spread out and then the clemetus is still where it is. So, that will spread all up here over the fence hopefully. And the apple tree has been moved and I'm going to put it into my new vegetable area. And apologies for the noise, but that is where we are with the border now. Right, I need to go in. So, guys, the raised beds that I've ordered, and they're like beautiful metal ones in like um an off-white creamy color. They're going to be gorgeous. They have not arrived yet. They were supposed to arrive yesterday. They haven't. I've sent an email. They've said there's a bit of a delay with the delivery, so we will see. Apparently, they're still at the airport, so I don't really know where they're coming from. I don't want to say where I've got them from yet until they've arrived and I can kind of review them and then I'll let you know how it is. I mean, this is this sounds like it's just a temporary delay. Fingers crossed it's no more than that. But I will let you know when they arrive. Hopefully by next week's Sunday video, they will have arrived and I could be putting them up. I was hoping to do it in this video, but it doesn't look like it's going to happen. So, just thought I'd update you on what where we are with the raised beds, but I have ordered four. They're really good size, and if they do arrive, they should be beautiful. It's such a shame they're not here today cuz it's a gorgeous day. It would have been such a good day to get them all all set up. I also appreciate that I haven't done much cooking in this week's vlog. I'm sorry for that. Um, I just haven't really cooked from scratch very much this week and the meals have been very basic, like nothing too exciting that I can show you. So, next week I'll go back to doing some more cooking and baking in the vlog. I think we're going to go and carve the pumpkins now. Oh my gosh, another train. Right, I've literally just had to stand here for about 4 and 1/2 minutes waiting for trains to pass just to say we're going to go and carve some pumpkins now. Let's go and do that. Come on. Oh, and this is this little sweet pee update. They're all germinating in the toilet rolls. really well. Like literally all the seeds are germinating which is amazing. So the sweet peas we have liftoff. [Music] Right. So here is one of the pumpkins that we got from the pumpkin patch. And I've got a really good idea for carving it this year. I'm very excited to try it. So I'm just going to sort of show you what I'm doing. It might not work. And that's fine. That's fine if it doesn't work. But if it does work, it's going to be epic, right? [Music] [Laughter] Right, we've hollowed her out. So now I want to make a door and a window. Might draw it on first. So, on the door there, right, I'll try and be quick before it gets too dark in here cuz I can see it's getting really dark already. [Music] [Music] Right. What do we think? can use some stairs or something. Doesn't need to come down, but he's got a bit of a slope there, so he can he can come down if he wants to. That's my little pumpkin carving idea. And there we have it. Just a bit of an alternative to sort of doing a a scary face. What do you think? I'm not the most creative person, but I really like that. I think it's really cute. [Music] Right, guys? That's going to be the end of this week's vlog. I do hope you've enjoyed it. Such a shame the raised beds didn't arrive, but next week's vlog will definitely have the raised beds going up in. So stay tuned for that and I'll see you again when I see you. Thanks for watching. Bye.