MULCHING THE ALLOTMENT PLOT FOR SPRING! / ALLOTMENT GARDENING UK

[music] [music] [music] Good morning everyone. Hope you all had a lovely Christmas and a happy new year. Uh, welcome back to my a lotment plot here in South London or welcome for the first time. My name is Emma. Uh, this is my a lotment plot in South London. I actually have two a lotment plots that I've kind of merged together into one big a lotment plot just trying to take over the world one a lotment plot at a time. So, and I'm going to have to say it because it is a cliche. It's a new year. Um, if you have just got your first a lotment plot or if you got your allotment plot last year and this is your first growing year on it. If you have already had an a lotment plot for a bit and you want to see an a lotment holder just what they're up to dayto-day and just have a bit of a nosy into your neighbor's a lotment plot. I am that neighbor. Um I might be the person to follow. I usually put up three a lotment vlogs a week. I'm going to try and do that for as long as I can. As long as there's stuff to do, I will be here vlogging and that will be Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I'm going to show you the whole process of how I get this plot ready for spring in spring and then summer and then autumn and then winter. Um, I'm just going to show you the whole year basically here on my a lotment plot in South London. So, so if that sounds interesting to you or like something you want to follow, please do hit the subscribe button. I have just reached 50,000 subscribers. Thank you so much for that. Um, I'm going to be doing a giveaway, a 50,000 subscriber giveaway. I've never done a giveaway before, so bear with me while I sort it all out. Um, I've started ordering all the little prizes for it and stuff, so stay tuned for that. another reason to subscribe and join my channel and uh not lose this video. So, [laughter] yes, I'm definitely going to do a giveaway. I It's such a huge milestone for me. It's amazing. Thank you for following. Hope you're enjoying the content. I had a good Christmas, guys. Had a good Christmas. I actually stayed away from the plot for about 2 weeks, which is probably one of the longest that I've ever stayed away from the plot. Unfortunately, we have had minor casualties. Minor minor casualties. And I'll just show you those casualties. Now, these are my sweet peas growing in my greenhouse. Unfortunately, I didn't get here to water them. So, they are still alive. Don't get me wrong, they are alive. Some of them just look a little bit sad, but they've not completely died yet. I have a lot of faith. I watered these straight away when I got here today. But yeah, so this is sort of a minor casualty, I'd say. I'm going to keep an eye on them. And then down here, the Calibri have been so so happy. But another minor casualty over here, I think these are radishes, and they just didn't get enough water. You know guys, I always think the best way to learn about any plant that you grow is to kill it. Just kill it. Kill some plants. Go whack something in and kill it because you'll never learn faster than when you kill your plants. And it's very obvious. Look, the spring onions happily growing away. The brassacas, these are calibri, happily growing away. But the radishes needed more water. And because I've sort of I they're not dead, but they're sort of flopping over. You know, I've learned something about radishes. Radishes need more regular watering than spring onions and calib. So if you want to learn quickly about how to garden, whack stuff in and kill it. That is my best advice. Also, this is unbelievable. You're not going to believe this. I've got tomato seedlings and they're still growing. Look at this. This is a thing of beauty. This is unbelievable. When will they die? When will they die? In January now. Do I even need to grow any tomatoes from seeds this year? Or shall I just leave these to grow bigger? I don't know what to say about it. I don't know what it means. I think it says that I don't really know much about gardening at all. I don't really know anything about gardening and I want to keep it that way forever. I never want to learn everything about gardening because it's so much more fun when you just discover stuff. You know, it's what it's all about, discovering stuff, right? We are going to feed the bird, but I don't know if he'll be here because it's not my normal time to come down. It's actually the afternoon. But let's get outside. Let's get outside and uh have a look. >> [music] [music] >> He might just not show up today cuz it's not his normal time. Right, we are going to do a few jobs today. They're going to be quite simple jobs cuz we're going to keep it. We're going to ease ourselves in. It's my first time here in a while, so ease ourselves in. My a lotment plot neighbor kindly dropped off some new raised beds for me. Let me show you them. Here they are. Metal ones. I don't really have metal ones here. Um, but she was getting rid of them and she said, "Do you want them?" And I said, "Yes, of course I do." They are quite a good size. I didn't realize how big they were. So, I'm really, really happy with them. These are a lot bigger than I thought they would be. They're brilliant. They're also quite deep as well, so they really are proper raised beds. I don't know if I'll be able to fill these like ever in my entire life, but I'm going to give it a go. Um, yeah, these are great. So, I had two ideas for these. It's always so great to be given free stuff for your a lotment plot, especially your a lotment. It just feels like such a bonus, like so exciting. I hate spending money on my a lotment. If I can get away with not spending money, it's not because I'm tight. It's just because I really believe that a lotment plots are all about growing food on a budget and sort of just making do with what you've got and using what you can find. I feel like that is part of a lotment life. [music] >> [music] [music] >> I don't know if that's just sort of a waste. Do you know what I mean? [music] Like a waste of space because I've already got room to grow there. So, why not make a whole new bed? Where would the new bed go, though? [music] >> [music] [music] >> The question that I have to answer at some point is, do I want completely new beds and new growing areas, or do I want to just reinvent an area that has already been growing on? I don't know. I don't really see the point of reinventing an area when I could just literally have more growing space and new beds. Do you know what I mean? I think it should be new beds. Just not entirely sure where they're going to go yet. So, you know what? We'll just have to come back to this job. Um, and think about it. Yeah, obviously under the tree here is going to get quite a lot of shade. So, that's something else to consider. Even though it's getting sun at the moment, the sun kind of moves around and then it gets shade. So, oh, I don't know. Let me know in the comments. [music] >> [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Right, Christmas has been and gone, which means I have got loads of cardboard at home. And if you've got loads of cardboard too, it's a great thing to bring down to your a lotment plot. Make sure that you remove all the tape and sticky labels from it and any staples because that's not going to do your soil any good. Also, make sure the cardboards that you're using is matte. And what I mean by that is that it's not shiny. Um, you know, like toy boxes or like fish finger packets and it's got that kind of shiny coating on the outside. It means that it's been coated with a chemical. Um, there's always going to be some amount of chemicals in cardboard. It's always a bit of a debate whenever I talk about it. Obviously, the ink, there will be an amount of chemical in that ink. Black ink is better than colored ink. Um, but I think the difference is quite marginal. It's up to you if you want to use cardboard in your garden or not. Like I said, every time I talk about cardboard, there's a big debate. Some people say it's great, some people say it's not good. It's a brown material. Um, and it's dead. I mean, it's not alive, is it? It's dead. So, it works quite well in compost heaps. Um, you can rip it up, shred it, put it in your compost or just lay it on the top. It also works quite well in raised beds. Um, it acts as like a natural kind of mulch. Not that natural, I know, not a natural mulch, but a mulch. Basically, you lay it over the top, put um compost and other things on the top of it and it will kind of like go mushy and disintegrate into the ground, biodegrade into the ground. So, reasons we use cardboard. Firstly, um it's a brown material like I said, so it does it it adds really good structure to the soil. It helps your soil to retain moisture. It can be quite good at warming up your soil for the springtime. So instead of covering up the ground sheets to get an early start on your sewing, you layer it up with cardboard. It's it um warms the soil up a little bit quicker. It's quite a good mulch against things like weeds. So, in beds where I've laid cardboard down and then put compost on the top, um I have found a reduction in in the amount of weeds that come up because obviously it smothers them. Weeds need light and water and room to grow. Cardboard stops that. It suppresses it all. It's also just really easy to get your hands on. So much of no, especially if you're doing no dig. If you want to do no dig, which is basically where you layer up your beds instead of dig into them, it can be so expensive. You've got to get all of that material. You've got to collect it all. you've got to buy it. Um, cardboard, we've all got cardboard. We all order stuff. We all get boxes. Most of us get boxes. It's an easy, easy material to get your hands on. It's pretty much free. It's an easy thing to replenish year after year. So, for me, I love cardboard. I use it all the time. Make your own mind up. Do the research. Decide if you want to use it on your a lotment or not. Personally, I think it's great. And so do the crows, obviously. Right. So, I'm going to layer up one of the beds. I've got these two really big bags of compost. These are the BQ Verve multi-purpose compost. No, they are not the best quality. They are Pete free, which is excellent for the environment and for us. Um, they've got added nutrients. It's obviously multi-purpose, so you can just whack it into raised beds and um decide what to grow in it later. No, it's not the greatest uh quality, but it is the cheapest I can find. And with the a lotment plot, I've got so much that I need to use. Um, I just sort of go cheaper. I do add in smaller compost bags of other brands. I like Westland and I like Silverrow. Those two always work really well for me, but they're so expensive. I can only get them in smaller kind of bags. So, for the base layer, I just use this stuff. [music] >> [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Oh my cheeks. >> [music] [music] >> Thought I was getting stronger being at the a lotment plot. I seem to be getting weaker. Or is it because I've had two weeks off? My god. [music] >> [music] >> And the only thing with this bed here that I need to fill up, this bed has not had cardboard and proper compost fit into it for for years and it's not done very well for that reason probably or maybe just growing the wrong stuff. I don't know. Whatever the reason, it's getting a top up. The only thing about it is that there's lots of self-seeded nesters seeds at the front. So, I don't want to cover those over too much. There's also some daffodil bulbs on the other side. So, what you what you're supposed to do is cover the entire bed with a thick layer of cardboard. I'm sort of going to maneuver the cardboard around those areas so they don't get covered and just compost over the other areas if that makes sense. So, but normally you cover the entire bed. We're just going to experiment. It's what we do best here. [music] >> [music] [music] [music] [music] >> right I've just watered the cardboard, not because I've gone mad. Um, though I feel like I have a little bit over Christmas to help it to break down quicker. The wetter it is, the quicker it will break down in under the ground. Um, always better to have wet cardboard than dry cardboard. I don't know why. It just feels like a good thing. But don't worry too much if you forget that stage. I forget sometimes. And you know what? It rains, it gets wet under the ground anyway. The worms also love wet cardboard. Don't get me started on why worms love wet cardboard. For some reason, they love it. Damn it. Look at that. Look at that. Look at that little bit of modern art there. Look at that. Look at that. You know what? I could put some glue over that or something. Make it stand forever and sell that as modern art. Look at that. That should be an art exhibition. That should That could be in the tape modern. How much do you reckon I'll get for that? 20,000 30. There [music] he is. There's Einstein. He's fighting again, though. He's sitting over there chirping at the other one. There's the other one. in front [music] of me. [music] [music] [music] >> [music] >> There we are. Filled. As easy as that. Bit of cardboard, bit of water, bit of compost. Look at that. Is there anything more exciting than that? Oh, it's just the best. It's just the best thing ever. Right. I'll plant into that bed in the springtime. Probably put some spring crops in it. I don't know what. Probably from a seed as well. Can you plant straight into it with the cardboard? Yes, you can. Um, cardboard goes soggy. Think about if you've got cardboard and you soaked it and how like it goes really really sort of sort of goes all soggy and rips apart really easily. Um, or have you ever grown a sweet pea seeds in a toilet tube and then seen the roots coming out the side of a toilet tube? If you were to put seeds straight into that now, by the time the plant got big enough to have substantial roots, it would be able to push through the cardboard because the cardboard would have become soggy over that time. Do you see what I mean? So, yes. Yes. If you've ever if you've ever sewn a seed in a cardboard tube or something, you'll know for sure that roots can go through cardboard. The cardboard will just break away. It's fine just to plant into. But I will leave that top of spring now cuz I'm not ready to plant into it yet. And also, I think the cat will really appreciate the new toilet. So, you know, I like to do my bit for the cats around here. Get them somewhere nice and soft to poo. Anyway, let's move on with the next job. [music] [music] Right, guys. I apologize that I'm very awkward in this vlog. I haven't vlogged for a long time, and I find it very strange talking to myself again. It will become normal soon. Um, I'm going to have to go soon because the sun is literally setting. It is 20 2 in the afternoon and the sun is starting to set to the point where it's just not going to be light enough to make a good vlog. So, welcome to January. Uh, I think I'll come down nice and early tomorrow instead. The last job is I want to sort out the back of the greenhouse here and just mulch it over really quickly. So, I do have some more cardboard and another bag of compost. It's just stressing me out a little bit, this back bit of the greenhouse because I just feel like it could be so much neater. [music] [music] Too many [music] men's pose. >> [music] >> It's exactly the disaster I was just trying to avoid and ended up happening. [music] Right. That looks so much better. The only thing is it's a little bit higher than I thought it would be. I don't know why I didn't think it wouldn't be higher, but I've sort of created a bit of a mound, which I don't think is a bad thing, but I might need to put more of a border up here to stop it from falling onto the pathway. Not quite sure. Oh, maybe that would just actually just be enough. Oh, yeah. I could just do that, couldn't I? Will that keep it in? I think it will go down. I think the soil level will go down as it gets wet and gets planted into. But that is so much better. Right, the greenhouse is pretty much ready to go for spring, except it needs a good old wash. But I won't do that till nearer to spring. Sort of maybe the first week of March. I'll just uh wash it all, get all this grime off the sides and everything, and then we should be good to go. But it's looking really good. Right. Well, that was my first vlog back. Um, I hope you enjoyed it. I feel so awkward. Um, I know that I haven't been natural on this at all whatsoever. Please bear with me. I will get back into the swing of it. I promise. Thank you so much for watching. I will see you again on Wednesday. And I'm also going to be back every Sunday with a Sunday diary. Just a diary of my weekly baking, cooking, what I'm up to, my home garden, which is getting a lot of attention this year. So yeah, join me then as well. I will see you when I see you guys. Thanks for watching. Bye.