BUILDING A SWEETPEA STRUCTURE / ALLOTMENT GARDENING UK

Good morning everyone. Welcome back to my allotment diaries. My name's Emma and I vlog all about my allotment plot here in South London three times a week if I can. I do my best to get three vlogs a week up and then I vlog from home on a Sunday. So I put up a lot of videos basically about gardening, baking, cooking and my allotment plot here which is my main... which is sort of what the channel's really about is the allotment plot. I'm taking off my coat because it is actually quite warm today. I think that's probably to do more with the fact that I've just walked here and I'm a bit hot than it is to do with the actual weather because I don't think it's that warm. The sun is out. Can you see it on my face? Oh my goodness. Hello sun. Where have you been? It has been the most miserable few days. We've had so much rain, so much rain and the ground is so boggy and wet. As I'm walking through the grass I'm like I don't know how this is going to recover this year but I know it will. It's just like walking through a swamp. It's absolutely crazy wet everywhere and a lot of my allotment has become quite boggy in some of the beds but today I woke up and the sun is out so what I just wanted to say is that if you are in a part of the UK where you're getting a lot of rain so are we. We're getting a lot of rain here in London as well. It's just that we have these little moments where the sun comes out and the sky goes blue and when that happens I come running down. So it's like eight o'clock in the later on it's going to be windy and rainy so don't think that I'm missing all of that awful weather because I'm getting it too and I'm equally as frustrated as you guys are so don't worry. The only thing we're not getting is snow and I know a lot of the country is getting snow this week and I don't think we're getting snow so that's something to be very thankful about I think. Right I've got a few little bits down here to show you actually. Let me just show you. So yesterday I dragged my husband down to the plot and he helped me to bring these three gigantic bags of peat-free multi-purpose compost which I picked up from B&Q. It's their Verve range which I find is just the most reasonable for an allotment plot. I don't use these in my home garden. Let me explain. Not much to explain it's just that they're not very good. They're not like the best compost so for my home garden I tend to go with brands such as Silver Grow and Westland. They are my two favourite brands for compost. They are quite expensive and because this is my allotment plot and I like to keep the cost down I just go with the Verve range from B&Q which is a bit cheaper and to be honest I use a lot of horse manure and I've got so much so many beds to mulch over and stuff it's just not cost efficient for me to spend lots of money on good compost. It does okay it does fine you see my allotment every year things grow fine so this is the compost that I use here. I don't know if I'm going to mulch anything today because I feel like the weather is so up and down I'm not sure if it's worth my time to start mulching over because I just feel like it's going to just get lost disappear get muddy get boggy I think I might save it for when I'm actually planting into the ground and then mulch it before I plant but we'll have to see what the weather does and then these bits here my plot neighbour has sort of left and the council are really like ripping out all of his plot I'm ready for a new tenant and I found all these old sort of seed tray things and I thought I'd keep them so I've got some pots here that I found in his shed and a couple of seed trays which he's clearly not using they were scattered on the floor so I thought I'd have them and put some seeds in them so we've got more pots and things I always need those and the idea of all this going to the dump sort of made me feel a bit sick so I thought I'd rescue it and use it somewhere anyway it's uh oh there goes the drilling I knew it couldn't last I knew this quiet and peacefulness could not last heaven forbid we have a peaceful moment in the sun in this country my gosh it's a nice day it's sunny let's go and feed Einstein so we can get some shots of him hopefully looking lovely and springy in the sun if I can get out the greenhouse I did hear him earlier I feel like this is the time of year where he's kind of off busy finding worms in the ground especially in the sunshine so we'll have to see if he turns up I think look at all these tulips coming up aren't they lovely I really really really feel like I pulled them all up but maybe I planted new ones in and I forgot I don't know but they're all coming up and also you know what else is starting to grow these Californian poppies these are such beautiful plants for pollinators I love them and they're all starting to come up already all on their own self-seeding so I'm just going to leave these and they are just gorgeous I love them so we'll just hopefully they'll survive right so I did bring oh god I did bring my drill today um in the hope of putting some of my beds together when my husband came down yesterday he was just like what's happened to all of your beds like all the woods just fallen down and the thing is is I don't really notice it because I'm here all the time but when he said it I could notice it so all the beds are just all the woods just falling apart I've only got these extraordinarily long screws and I don't know what I was going to use these for but I feel like I'm going to use them for the beds now I feel like they're too long but this is sort of all I've got to work with so we're going to sort of try and put some of the beds back together and make it look a bit more profesh um and then eventually I think what I have to do is start replacing the wood on some of those beds so just buying fresh wood um maybe decking boards people always say decking boards boards are quite good some of my beds are decking boards because they've already been treated to be outside so they last a bit longer um and they're sort of the right height and the right like width and stuff so anyway I'm just trying to say I'm going to put the beds back together and this time I'm not going to wear gloves because last time I did this my gloves got caught in the drill and then a spider came along and it was a complete disaster so we're going to try not to do that again so for example this one here you can see that board there keeps falling off thing is I don't know how we could screw it together but we're going to sort of try I don't even know if that will screw into there because that's really um is that one already screwed at that end oh okay I might just go for that I know that is like people are just screaming at the screen now like what are you doing but it might work and then what will you say exactly that's the wrong way okay it might work and then you might all be like I might be laughing at you it does appear to have worked so now who's laughing haha yeah I just want it to hold I just want it to hold for a little bit and stay upright and that's that's fine that's not fine but it as a thing it's fine right cool okay let's move on that was very successful this is the main troublemaker because this is just completely collapsed and it looks absolutely ridiculous it looks like there shouldn't even be wood there like what's the point of it oh my god Einstein oh did you see that he's so close he just got sorry Einstein you just make me jump when you do that are you coming to say hello hello hello yeah it's nice to see you you just make me jump oh this is not the sort of thing I'm good at you noticed Einstein's come to see look at him inspecting it honestly um this is our handiwork today so the screen didn't go quite all the way in but we've gone through all of that and it is sort of together and that is sort of as well as I can get my beds together at the moment so a little bit less judging yeah Einstein a little bit less judging come on let's support each other here again this one didn't go quite in but I think as a whole the bed does look better so at least it sort of looks like it's together now which I think is a good start I don't know where the wood went at the end there used to be another bit of wood there and it's sort of gone so this is actually getting a bit weird now because I feel like you're talking to me is there a problem it's like an episode of lassie I feel like he's trying to tell me something it's not working I think the battery's run out I think the battery's just run out Einstein but luckily I think we've done the last one so he's sitting right by you what is it Einstein what do you mean what's going on what do you mean do you want me to weed the bed or something I don't know what's going on what is going on mate you know what I'm gonna weed this bed I feel like he wants some worms he's waiting for me to do some kind of digging work or something I'm just going to weed this bed is that what you wanted me to do right I'm just going to stick my coat back on because it is a little bit colder than I thought it was it's really warm in here though it's lovely in here why are the seeds not germinating when it's so bleeding nice in here fussy little things right I can't decipher what Einstein wants so if anyone speaks Robin and heard any of that conversation with him please let me know what you want it's just hanging around me getting really close and tweeting away I feel like it's an episode of lassie I feel like he's trying to lead me somewhere but I just don't understand what he's trying to say anyway the sweet peas the sweet pea situation is they are flipping huge they've gone absolutely crazy so today as it's such nice weather I'm going to make the sweet pea structure um so where they will live and I'm going to make something a bit different this time well I know it's the same but it's going to be longer um it's going to be a wall of sweet peas so let's go make it right so this bed is where I'm thinking for sweet peas this year and I'm thinking of having like a whole wall of sweet peas so the whole bed just being a big structure like a big wall of sweet peas there the only thing is it is a bit shady but it does obviously get some sun and because my whole plot does get sun at some point yeah there's the other angle so the sun we do get sun we do definitely get sun here but I just think imagine how beautiful having a whole wall of sweet peas there I just think it'd be stunning so let's um give it a go and I've also I've got so many sweet peas and I could also buy some more plug plants so I could really have like just thousands and thousands of them and it would just be beautiful right we're here so far it's sort of looking like I thought it would look I mean it's going to look a lot better when the plants are actually growing up it um but it's sort of like a wall of sweet peas is what I'm looking for so I've just made my usual kind of tripod thing not tripod what's it called if it's only got two sticks it's not tripod it's like a double pod I don't know but I've made it longer and put extra sticks along the top I think I'm going to put some twine and tie it a little bit to make it more secure and then we're going to start putting the twine across the bottom um and that's what the sweet peas are going to grow up there we go I've twined it up at the top so it's all tied in it should be nice and secure now none of my structures are ever that secure but actually this does feel it feels pretty good actually um it also looks pretty good I'm pretty happy with it I would normally just put netting over it and I might very well end up doing that but I think it does look nicer with the twine so I always start with the best intention and then go from there I mean that's obviously going to need a lot of twine I'm just going to put it all the way up there but I actually do think it looks so much nicer the twine and also the good thing about twine is you can adjust it and you can add more more sort of on and tighten them up however much they need tying in and all the rest of it so I just think it looks better with twine and I always start with twine with the best intention of making it look really really snazzy and I usually end up just throwing a net over the whole thing but hopefully not this time and that is what we have created oh yeah the other thing I wanted to show you is that I found a great big glass panel from my neighbor's fallen down shed and I've used it over the top of this so I'm hoping I'll be able to find a way of sort of propping it up a little bit so we can get some airflow in there and then putting in like my sweet peas and other plants that I sort of want to harden off but I don't want to sort of get out yet so thinking about that I'm not sure if that's totally necessary for me to do I might end up filling it up at some point and growing something in there some potatoes or something or even some flowers that'd be really nice all right okay I've just got a vision in my head of cornflowers imagine these two planters outside my greenhouse filled with cornflowers that are like three four foot high how utterly gorgeous would that look okay I think I might be sold on that idea I think I might be sold on it that I think it'll be so beautiful just having cornflowers there oh my gosh and all the bees buzzing when I'm in there oh yeah okay I might have to plant these up so right guys I think I am gonna have to go now um because the sun is starting to go behind the clouds it's getting very cloudy it's getting a bit windy my hands are absolutely frozen um I did get the things done that I wanted to do today I just wanted to pop down get a few little bits done and I think it's just nice at this time of year if you can just pop down do one or two jobs and then go and that's how you kind of keep on top of it all and I will probably I will be saying that a lot over the next few weeks just little and often just get down here do a couple of things go back have a cup of tea forget about it come back maybe a couple of days later do a couple more things that's just the way that you handle it um otherwise it becomes quite a lot of work we've got the sweet pea structure up that's important because these guys will not wait for much longer so I really think end of February probably probably the last week of February these are going to go out um because they are literally reaching for the moon anyway I will leave it there I hope you have enjoyed my vlog today I will be back again on Friday so I'll see you then guys thanks for watching bye