I THINK IT WAS MY FAULT! : ALLOTMENT GARDENING UK

♪ Good morning, guys. Welcome back to my allotment diaries. My name's Emma. These are the allotment diaries. So many of you are enjoying these right now. Sorry about that, sun. I mean, I won't apologize for the sun, but let me close that a minute. Is that a little bit better? Yes, definitely not apologizing for the sun. I just mean the sun on my face because it is another beautiful day, blue skies, sunshine. Yesterday, it was very much April weather, so kind of sunshine, blue skies, and then rain, and then sunshine, blue skies, and then rain. We had so many showers on and off all day, but in between the showers, it was like this, sunny and blue sky. So proper April shower weather, I think, but the garden definitely needs it. It means that I don't have to bother watering and we get all the sun. I mean, it's like the perfect weather for things to grow, isn't it? Because it gets the water and it also gets the sun and blue sky. Win-win for me as a gardener. I don't have to do anything. I suppose it does actually bring up quite a lot of weeds, so we might need to do some weeding today. That might be our first job of the day. But how are you all doing? How are your allotments going? I have got quite a lot growing. Quite a lot of my seeds are germinating. These, I fear, may need to come out soon and be planted. I've got so many Cosmos plants. It's ridiculous. Cosmos are a beautiful flower, great for allotment plots because you get so many flowers and they're really open for pollinators. So they just love them. I've obviously planted quite a few. I think what happened is that I had loads that I planted and I didn't want to get rid of them all, so I kind of potted on so many and they've all survived. Of course they have. And then next to them here, we've got the courgette. These are my courgettes. Again, all kind of surviving. So that's a lot of courgette plants, guys. You do not need this many. The kale, this is Cavallonero, has definitely grown since I was last here a few days ago, so that's amazing. Then we've got our cucumbers. Look at this. I only sowed four in that and we've got like eight coming up, so I don't know what happened. I can't tell you what happened. I have no idea. There's also some leeks coming up in this one. A bit random. These are the pumpkins and the squashes starting to germinate. They take their sweet time, they do, so don't worry too much about those. And then in here, I believe, these are either weeds, which is weird because they all look the same, so I'm starting to think these are the actual crop. I think this is celeriac, is it? Or is it radicchio? I think it might be radicchio. I'm not quite sure what to do with that. That didn't come up the way I thought it would. I think that is the crop. We'll deal with that another day. And then this, I believe, is sweet corn and these are sunflowers yet to arrive. Sweet corn takes a long time. It needs a lot of heat. I'm wondering if I've got a plastic cover to put over this just to keep more heat in. Yeah, I'm thinking because... Please don't be a spider. I don't want to scream today. Please don't be a spider. Sweet corn is a very warm-loving crop. It won't germinate if it doesn't get enough heat. And obviously, this greenhouse, it does get very warm in here, but I think it probably gets quite cold at night. So I'm just going to pop it into a plastic bag. It's a plastic carrier bag from Mercado. Light can actually get through that bag. That's not completely opaque. It can get some light, but obviously we'll need to take it off when they germinate. We are getting light through there. Look, you can see it's a little bit see-through. Is it translucent? I think it's called translucent, but I think that might keep the heat in and just help our sweet corn to germinate and also keep the moisture in, stop them from drying out. All of my broccoli has now flowered, which I'm not surprised about at all whatsoever. I'm going to leave them for a little bit because you know what needs to go in here? Tomatoes. So at some point, these are going to have to come out. So I thought, why not just let them sort of flower? I did get quite a good harvest from them. They did all right, but they will need to come out soon, which is a shame because they are great plants and they did great things for me, but they were kind of like something I was growing over the autumn winter time. And now that we're kind of getting into late spring, other things need to go into my greenhouse. So they were always going to be a sacrificial crop at some point. They were just something I wanted to grow over the autumn winter, get a harvest from. But you know what they're really good for? They're great for composting. You'll hate me for saying that because obviously we should use all the crops we've got, but I want tomatoes in here and they are great for composting. The leaves have just got so much goodness in. And you can chop them up small. They work wonders. So they will not go to waste as such. You know, they will be used again as is the circle of life in the garden. Right, okay. This is awful light in here. I'm sorry. We're going to go and feed the bird because I can hear him squawking away, squawking, tweeting away, shall we say, twiddling, twiddling, twiddling away. And then we'll do some weeding. So let's get on with that. Come on then. A lot of you asked me how I get those shots of Einstein and what camera I use. I use a Sony ZV-1, which I've re-bought about 15 times because I keep dropping it and dropping it in the pond. Just one of those things of filming at an allotment plot, I think. But I just hold the camera really close to him and he just doesn't fly away. If you just do it really gently, really slowly. And then with, I think, most cameras, the closer you get to something, the better quality it kind of looks. I'm not a camera expert or anything at all whatsoever. I just re-buy the same one over and over again because I just don't know what else to buy. But yeah, in terms of those shots, I just literally hold the camera really close to him and sometimes I zoom a little bit and then just get a really good close-up of the bird. He sort of doesn't mind. I think actually what he's trying to do is stay really still. My rabbit does this. When he senses danger, me, I'm the danger, he sort of stays really still. As if, like, if I stay still you might not notice me. He thinks I'm a T-Rex, basically. But this isn't Jurassic Park. And if anything, he's the T-Rex because he's evolved from a T-Rex, not me. But for some reason he thinks that I'm a T-Rex. So he's looking at me now like, what on earth is she going on about? But there he is. Just sort of turning his butt to us now. I'm a little bit scared he's going to poo on me because he is directly above me at the moment. In terms of the pond, guys, I wanted to talk about the pond because I'm a little bit stressed about it. A lot of you said that I might be responsible for the demise of the tadpoles because I've mucked about with the pond too much. I'm slightly concerned you might be right but I still feel like had I not done that, I think things would have got worse in the pond. So I really hope that's not the case. I'm going to have a little look and see if we can see any tadpoles but I haven't seen them for about a week. Where are the tadpoles? Oh, I just can't see them anymore. I sense that there's lots of other things swimming in here but it's nothing near as exciting as a tadpole. Oh, no. I can't see them. Oh, I can't see any. I just can't see them. I just can't see them anywhere. My mum was right. I can't have anything nice. Unless by some kind of miracle it became a frog and it hopped away. Is that possible? Could that have happened? Did it suddenly become a frog and just hop off? Could that be a potential? Could it maybe become a froglet and just hopped out? I don't know. At least, at the very least, I know that I have created a pond that can facilitate tadpoles and a frog did decide to lay them in here. So I think that's a good thing. I think I'm going to top it up because it's looking a bit low. And for a lot of people asking, you see all of the liner around it. You're not really supposed to see the liner. I've been collecting rocks and putting them around the edge and stuff and I've got plants now. The plan is to try and cover all of the liner. You're not really supposed to see it at all, no. I'm just trying to use what I've got of the allotment plot to cover it. Hopefully, eventually, I'll just collect enough stuff to kind of cover all of the liner and that's the ultimate plan. Music I'm chopping some of the heads of the tulips off that have finished flowering and I'm doing this because I don't want it to make seeds. What I want it to do is when it dies back and all the leaves start to die back, I want it to put all the energy back into the bulb in the ground so that next year it comes back strong. I don't want it to force all of its energy into making seeds because it will take away from the original bulb. So this is what's left under the flower. When all the petals disappear, this is a seed pod and in here will be all the seeds for the next tulips because it's trying to make more of itself and I don't want it to do that. So that's coming off. And then what I'm going to do is leave all of this green, all the foliage, to die back on its own. So when this has completely died back, it's gone brown, it's just crisping off in my hand, then I will remove it but not until then because all of this will die back and help to feed the bulb as well. So this all stays. Obviously, that might make you think twice about growing tulips on an allotment plot or any kind of spring bulbs or at least having some kind of dedicated place for them to go because I now can't use this bed until all of this has died back if I want to look after the bulbs which isn't the most practical thing on an allotment plot, is it? I'm fortunate that I've got quite a big plot so I can kind of get away with it and I've also got a few designated beds for tulips where I just allow it to die back but it is definitely something to consider if you are wanting to grow spring bulbs and you want them to be strong and healthy and come back every year how am I sitting, by the way? If you want them to come back every year you need to take into account that even when the tulips are finished you need to wait for the foliage to die back and that can take quite a few weeks. And I will do the same for these daffodils as well you see there, that big bulge that's the seeds we don't want it to do that if you do want them to spread around just leave them alone that's what they would do naturally in nature but because it's an allotment plot and I want to contain them I want them only coming up here I will take the tops off I think you should be able to snap them I can't actually snap that so we're going to cut them These were the only daffodils on my plot that didn't get eaten by something so they actually bloomed and looked beautiful all my other daffodils got eaten so what does that tell you? I don't know what does it tell you? It tells you that these ones survived that's what it tells you I love these tulips with the frilly edge how gorgeous are they they've got like a frayed edge around the petal I don't know what they're called but they're just beautiful I just look at the packets and pick the pictures that I like and these ones are just done amazingly and they're so so beautiful I just love tulips can you tell? So every time I put twine out anywhere at all to support any of my plants the birds come along and peck at it I actually can't find any of it right now but I bought all this coloured twine on Amazon which is so pretty but it's kind of like a material it's like a woolen kind of obviously it's twine but it's softer this stuff is plastic and I absolutely hate it but the birds don't peck it so I think I'm going to have to use this on my crops and maybe buy some more of it because this is super tangled unless I can magically untangle it I wouldn't really recommend going for softer twine at an allotment plot especially bright colours I feel like it attracts birds and they peck at it and they want it for their nests they kind of peck little bits of it out and take it off to make a nest which is quite sweet but obviously not very helpful when I'm trying to actually do something with it so this plasticky twine I know you'll probably be put off by the fact that it's more plasticky but it does the birds do leave it alone and because it's this dark green colour it's hard for them to see as well so it's just something I've learned I always try and be aesthetically pleasing here and make things look really pretty but actually practicality wins the day it's always better to be practical than whimsical who am I? did I actually just say that? it's better to be practical than whimsical oh my gosh am I growing up? am I an adult? guys I think I'm getting old that is not something I would have said 5 years ago or even a year ago to be fair I've grown up very quickly we're going to go and support our sweet peas and weed them and look after them we haven't really looked at them for a while so let's go and look at them so this is my wall of sweet peas isn't it great? it's absolutely fantastic I just tried to make a really long wall and there's sweet peas on either side of the structure so it's doing amazing I planted these out super early and pinched them out twice as well so they're super mushy which is really good because it means we'll get more flowers but they're all looking healthy and there's been no damage so far oh actually tell a lie a little bit of damage but they're so big and healthy it's not bothering them that's the important thing to say because most plants do get a little bit of damage you're always going to get a little bit of slug damage a little bit of bug damage from somewhere but is it affecting the plant is it stopping the plant from reaching it's full potential and I don't think it is these are looking fantastical I'm just going to give them a little bit of a weed because there are some weeds coming up around them and then we're going to tie them in so they know which way they're supposed to be going apparently they can't quite figure it out can you guys it's alright I'm not mad I'm just disappointed there we go hopefully doing that will help them to find where they're supposed to go and stop flopping all over the floor they're being very dramatic I'm very sad that my tulips will be ending soon it's sort of the end of April when they start to disappear completely even though we've still got some that are just starting to bloom the bulk of them will be gone and I'm very sad they really don't last very long but they are spectacular when they are here right that is me for today guys I hope you've enjoyed my vlog apologies if it's a little bit shorter I know my last one was as well I'm having a bit of a hard week I'm not going to lie to you I'm having a tough week but I am still getting down here so when I'm coming down I thought I might as well film a vlog it does definitely lift me up when I come to my allotment plot it's a place of peace I have this aura ring this is a smart ring by the way it's got a computer in it and it connects to an app on my phone and it basically tells me about my health and one of the reasons why I got this was because my dentist and my doctor both told me that my stress levels are really too high and it's making me grind my teeth and it's also giving me really bad headaches and having a lot of issues with stress basically at the moment and I can't seem to get my stress levels down so I thought by getting this because it kind of gives you an indication of how stressed you get and it shows your peaks of stressful times and then it gives you an alert and says you've been stressed for like an hour now, you need to calm down you need to do some deep breaths or something so that's one of the reasons why I got it yeah my stress levels are way too high coming here definitely reduces it I always see it goes down in the app but yeah I thought I'd just be honest and say I'm having a really tough week so some of the vlogs might be a little bit shorter just because I don't know I don't know why they would be shorter they just are, I'm just not in the mood for doing it but when I'm here I may as well pick up the camera and just have a chat and show you what I'm doing, that's all I really do so it's not that much hard work I hope you are enjoying these vlogs anyway and that I've brought a little bit of sunshine and happiness into your life, I love it when people say that these vlogs relax them or like de-stress them and I really wish that I could like watch them back myself and feel de-stressed but I don't because I know that I've made it anyway I think the point that I'm very slowly trying to get to is thank you so much if you're enjoying these thank you for watching, I hope you're enjoying them I will keep going as long as I physically can until I get burnt out and then maybe I'll take a week off but until then enjoy the vlogs I will see you again in my next one on Friday have a lovely rest of your week, thanks for watching bye!