SNOW DAY ON THE ALLOTMENT / ALLOTMENT GARDENING UK

Good morning everyone. Welcome back to my a lotment diaries. My name's Emma. These are the a lotment diaries. Sorry for the slightly wonky camera. Not quite sure where to put you, but you are balanced on something that I want to show you. It's something that has really bothered me about my a lotment plot is the very back of it. Um just behind the polycarbonate greenhouse. I'll show you when we get there. It's basically I've dumped a load of like logs and sticks and bits of tree basically on on the floor and underneath that is completely like just ground. So all the weeds come up, especially bindweed and it just consumes the whole back of the plot and it just grows up like a weedy mess. This that I'm about to show you what they've done. And by they, I mean the council have done on this walkway is exactly what I want to do at the back of my a lotment plot. Let me show you this. Now, if you do watch my Sunday vlogs, you might know every time we go to a park or a national trust place, I always see these sort of natural fences. I would say wildlife friendly fences. And I always say, I really want to make one at the back of my plot. Well, there's one here now um on the walkway into my a lotment plot and it's absolutely brilliant and I love it. It gives me something to do with all those sticks and logs and things and also creates a really nice natural fence. It's also great for wildlife. Birds can nest in it and all the insects can go in there and I'm sure Einstein will love it too. And it looks fairly easy to make and it looks like I won't have to buy anything extra to make it so it will be completely free. These are just logs that they've just sort of put into the ground either side. And then you're just threading all the all the sticks and stuff through the middle. So, you know, I'm not going to have to buy any new materials to do this hopefully and I can use what I've got. And I think it's brilliant. I love it. This cannot be happening. This cannot be happening. It's split again. I can't believe it. Next We've been snowed in. We've been snowed in, guys. Um, we are the third vlog into the year. And, uh, it snowed. We weren't actually predicted snow, I don't think. I think it was predicted to be quite cold and maybe frosty, but not snow. Unfortunately, it did snow. Um, but a few days ago, and what's happened is the temperature has been so low that it's just stuck around. My polycarbonate greenhouse has got a layer of snow over the top, which I am going to get off today because I'm worried about the weight of it. Yeah. You know what it is? Like I mean, it's not a lot of snow. You might laugh at that. It's not a lot of snow, but I am still concerned about that cuz I really want to look after this thing. I'm also so glad I didn't leave my windows open the whole way. I've been trying to keep them open a little bit um just to allow air flow in here because if it if even in the winter time if you've got stuff growing you have to ventilate it and that's just a fact a fact of gardening. So yeah, I mean obviously not loads that I can do down here today in snow. It feels fairly okay in here. Feels fairly warm. I'm not going to say it's like warm like I'm on holiday warm, but it's fairly warm. Thermometer thing. I think it's run out of battery. So, I think I need to take it home and put a new battery in it. I can't tell you the exact temperature in here, but I tell you what, it's probably 10, 11, no, maybe 12, 12°. I'm going to say 12. Everything survived really, really well. Everything's happy in here. So, I had one heck of a morning. Um, I actually left to come down here about an hour, no, 2 hours ago. And, um, I witnessed something really, really horrible on my way to the a lotment. actually witnessed a fox being hit by a car. Um the car, I mean to be fair to the driver, the fox darted out in front of it and there was no chance of missing it. It just caught the back of the fox. Um and then the car just sped off and just drove away as if nothing had happened. I obviously couldn't just look away and pretend it hadn't happened. So I sort of coaxed the fox and its leg was really badly broken. I mean the worst break that I've ever seen on an animal in my life. It was in agony. I coaxed it into this sort of alleyway where it couldn't go anywhere and called the RSPCA. Surprisingly, because I've called them a couple of times in my life and normally they take 2 3 hours to come out. She actually came out within 25 minutes. >> I don't know if it's because I made it sound really urgent. I mean, it was urgent. This fox was in agony, but she came out and it had got into a garden because I was a very bad um fox sitter and I just watched it go through the gate. I couldn't do anything to stop it. He's now on his way to a vet and she's pretty confident that it looked like quite a clean break from what she could see. So, they're pretty confident that they'll be able to fix the leg and then send it to a wildlife sanctuary, which is amazing news. Sometimes when foxes break their legs or they injure themselves so badly that they have to be put down. So, that was a bit of a stressful morning. I'm now looking to chill out here a little bit. Obviously, there's not too much I can do, but we are going to look after the wildlife today. Um, and that's the first thing that we're going to focus on. We're gonna feed the birds, sort out the wildlife tepee, sort out the pond. Let's get going with that because I really, really need my heart rate to come down. Do you know what I mean? It's like elevated right now. Oh, yeah. I forgot. I Hello. There I am. Hello. Um, I forgot to show you the back of the plot. This is the back bit that I was thinking of making that fence for. Um, as you can see, it's got brambles on here and it's very overgrown, very, very messy. But I have a lot of tree bits, sticks and branches and twigs and logs and whatever you'll why are there so many names for them? For goodness sakes, why is there so many names? But I've got loads of it. So I can very easily make that fence along here and I think that will look wonderful in the summertime. I mean anything would look better than how it looks right now, wouldn't it? Right. We got this one here and then we got this one up here. They're fighting again. You just do a pill in my archway. O, right. We also have to break the ice in the pond because water is really difficult for birds to find in the winter time. Wow. I am chipping away at this. And you know what? There was a little bit of like ice on there before I came down. And I think the birds have been chipping at it as well, trying to get into the water. I have never seen it this frozen over. I wonder if I could stand on it. Should we try? It's the question we're all asking right now. Can you stand on that and ice skate? Let's give it a go. I feel like I'll be able to. Might use this as a bit of a support. standing. That is absolutely amazing. I'm standing in my pond. It has never been frozen over. It's never frozen that much. That's crazy. Hands up if you thought I was going in. It's all right. I thought so as well. I was thinking that would be a funny bit of the vlog, wouldn't it? Me going in the pond. I mean, I have to stop here and just say that really you should um use hot water on your ice on the pond. sort of slowly melt it in a nicer way because if you've got creatures living in your pond, they wouldn't really appreciate being battered to death with a hoe. However, that is a very very new pond. I don't think there was anything in it at all to be honest. I mean, even the pond plants are gone. I don't know where they've gone. They've just disappeared. So, for me personally, and it also is I don't have any hot water here and the ice is so thick. Actually, there is a trick of putting a ball or a tennis ball in your pond and it will stop it freezing over. And I think that is because the ball moves about with the wind and ice can't form when it's moving about. Do I have a ball? I might have a ball. Actually, I might have a ball. Let's have a look for a ball. Oh, there's a ball, my friend. That is a ball. Let's do it. I can't promise that's going to do anything much to be honest. Um, the yellow ball's just sitting on top of the ice. Hang on a second. Definitely not going to do anything. I think a tennis ball is better cuz it's heavier. But you know what? That's what I've got. We'll give it a go. Right. You can't see me at all. Hello. Hello. Hello, Jackie. Going to make up this little teepee again. This um I made I think at the beginning of last year and I got it from Amy. I don't know if you follow her on Instagram in the cottage garden. Um she's got hundreds of thousands of followers. Her advice is so good. So, I got this idea from her and it's basically a teepee that you make which is with three sticks that you can find and then you just fill it with like little twigs and sticks and things and it just creates a little habitat for um insects I suppose or I don't know whatever sort of wants to go in there. Whatever wants to live in sticks, you know. I can't tell you everything that lives in a stick cuz I don't know. But whatever wants to make a house out of sticks. Clearly didn't read the story of the three little piggies, did they? But at the same time, there's no wolves around here. Was it a wolf or a fox that blew blew the house down? I think it was a fox, wasn't it? Was it a fox? A fox blew the No, it's the wolf. It's the wolf. Whatever it was that blew the house down. Something's blown my one down. So, I need to fix it again. But I just really liked the idea cuz it's a really good thing to do with all the sticks I get. I get a lot of sticks on my plot because of this tree. So, over the winter time, loads of stuff falls down from it. Again, why are there so many different names for things on trees? Branches, twigs, sticks, logs, trunks. Why are there so many? We only need one. Let's call them all sticks. Be done with it. How's it going in there? Right, wildlife taken care of. So, there's always something you can find to do at the a lotment plot. Even if it is covered in snow, just come down here for a little bit, feed the birds, sort out something for the wildlife, give them a water source. Oh my goodness. If there's one thing that I can encourage you to do, it's give birds water. Um, and other animals as well. It's not all about the birds. foxes, cats, um, squirrels, moles, moles. Next time you're out feeding the birds, just put a little bowl of water. I don't know, get a bird bath, whatever. Give them something to drink. Anyway, I wish I brought something to drink. I um didn't expect to be out so long. I'm going to get the snow off of the polycarbonate greenhouse now. And then I'm going to go and protect the broad beans cuz I'm a little bit worried about them. I always get worried about them in the snow. And actually, normally they're okay, but I think I'm going to fleece them. Oh, I've got a cloth. I've got a microfiber croc cloth. This might help to get the snow off. It might take a bit longer doing it manually, but um yeah, let's give it a go. Uh yeah, marginally more light has been let in here. I think maybe I just have to wait. I think I might just have to wait for the sun and the weather to warm up a little bit. I think we are due some rain/ sleep and I think as soon as the rain comes, it will start to clear away a lot of the snow on here. So, maybe I'll just be a bit patient. And I think I think the stuff in here is getting enough light. Now, I sort of know that these broad beans will come back to life cuz this has happened to me many, many times before. Um, and they are remarkable plants. They're very, very hardy, which means they will survive very, very cold temperatures. However, I don't remember the last time it was this cold on my a lotment plot and I am slightly concerned about them. So, what I am going to do is put some fleece over the top of them. more sticks now. Oh god, I always need more sticks. I never ever have enough sticks in my life. There we go. Right, that actually worked out quite nicely. That's quite a good little bit of fleece there. And also, it's not touching the plant. Now, if your fleece flops down and touches the plant, it will freeze along with the plant. So, there's no point. You need your fleece to be slightly raised from your plants, not quite touching them. So, using hoops or sticks or something is a really good a really good way of doing that. Right, you're not going to believe this, guys, but um that's it. There really isn't much for me to do here today, believe it or not. Um, when half a plot's covered in snow and ice, there's only so many jobs that you can do. Um, there's always something to do. Do you know what I mean? There's always something you can find to do in the garden at any time of year. Anyway, I do hope you've enjoyed this vlog today. I'll be back again on Sunday with my home diary. And then on Monday again with hopefully another a lotment vlog or seeds that I'm sewing in January. We'll have to see what happens with the weather, guys. I'm at the mercy of mother nature right now. Anyway, hope you've enjoyed today. See you next time. Thanks for watching.