A FRIDAY ON THE ALLOTMENT PLOT / ALLOTMENT GARDENING UK

I'm a little stalker. Good morning, guys. Welcome back to my allotment diaries. My name's Emma. These are the allotment diaries. It is very, very sunny and hot today. It's very hot in my greenhouse. And I wore a jumper. I wore a jumper today. Blue skies and sun. But here I am wrapped up for winter. There is a helicopter circling us. So I'm really sorry if that sort of gets in the way of this intro. How are you all doing? I hope your plots are doing well. The stressful week continues for me. It continues. It's just been a week from hell. And I could cry at any moment. At any moment. What is that bird? That's not Einstein. Oh, I think it was a great tit. A great tit. The one that's got the yellow and the blue. We're getting all different birds here now. I think there was one time, actually, when I fed the birds. And I managed to get different birds on the bird table. Like a little great tit. Or something. And then never again. Never again. Other than crows and magpies. Which, let's just be honest, are not cute. Anyway, yeah. Very, very stressful week. I feel like I could cry at any given moment. So I've come down here this morning. Just to chill. Just to do a few jobs and stuff. And just to kind of enjoy. Oh, Einstein's already here. Hello. Yes, I'm coming. Yeah, just to enjoy the allotment and stuff. And hopefully this helicopter goes. Because it's not very peaceful at the moment. But it's looking very beautiful. Let me bring you in more to the greenhouse, actually. Maybe the sound will go. Yeah, not too much better in here. But there we go. I don't know what the helicopter's looking for. But he's looking for someone. Maybe he's looking for me. Maybe he'll stop in a minute and start landing. Anyway, I was thinking on the way in today. That my allotment plot is not very typical. Of your typical allotment plots. I was looking at everyone's plots. And they're very much sort of. There's no trees on anyone's plots. Other than really small fruit trees. The plots are completely clear. And most of them look like they were laid over grass. So like they've cut things out of grass. Cut raised beds out of grass and stuff. You know, started growing into it. Whereas my allotment plot. Is a bit of a mismatchy secret kind of garden. I've got the big trees in the middle. Because I didn't have grass down. I just had like loads of overgrowth. Like loads of blackberry canes and stuff. I've had to cut it away. And put wood chip paths down. And just as I'm walking in. I'm thinking my plot is very different. To everybody else's. I have a new neighbour. Who has just put raised beds onto grass. On the plot next door. And I was so jealous watching him. Because I was like. That just looks so easy. And I bet the soil in those raised beds. Are so good. Because it's going straight onto grass. You've literally just had grass. So he's not going to get the kind of weeds I get. And it's going to be better soil. And it was just such an easier process. Than my plot. Though I'm very proud of my plot. And very happy with it. But this is not like a typical allotment plot. Is it? I'll just show a teeny teeny tiny bit. Because I don't really want to film other people's plots. But this was grass. And he's just whacked down some beds. So he can just start growing. Whereas my allotment plot. Doesn't feel very sort of typical of an allotment plot. It's more like a garden. Isn't it? Because I think we've got the trees. And we've got a lot of shade. And it's all quite mismatched. And the beds sort of aren't in unison. Do you know what I mean? But I was sort of looking at it. Thinking. I've just sort of not really followed. The typical allotment like plan. Anyway. I'm not saying that any one person's right. And one person's wrong. Or anything. I'm just pointing it out. That I've just sort of never noticed before. That people do their plots. In very different ways. And I've sort of never really thought about the way I did mine. I just sort of did it. Naturally. You know? Anyway. I think we'll get out today. I'm going to top up the pond. Because it's been very sunny. The pond will have evaporated. Half of it's water contents already. I'm going to do a little bit of watering. Because we didn't have much rain yesterday. And then we'll also feed the bird of course. So let's get on. Let's get on with those jobs. First of all. Also. Somebody reminded me. That that's where the top goes. There's like a little nib there. A little thing that you stick the top on. When you're not using it. And then you don't lose it. So thanks for the reminder. Are you waiting? Are you waiting so nicely? Alright. Just a second. Come on. Ready? Steep. Rhyme-stine. Not the name, Rhyme-stine. Wait. Come to see, have you? Come to see. Right. A few people in the comments asking how the sunflowers are getting on. They're okay. I think they're drooping because they needed a water. Not because they're too cold or anything. They seem to be surviving outside at the moment. And they've not been eaten by anything. So. The thing is about sunflowers. Well not just sunflowers. Most plants. The thing is about them. Is when you first put them outside. When they've been growing inside or in a greenhouse. They sulk. They sulk for a little bit. It means that they go a little bit droopy. Their leaves kind of flop down like this. They look very sad. They hang their heads over. And they sort of just sulk. It takes them a little while to get going again. They kind of stunt their growth. So they just stop growing for a little bit. And it's almost like. We call it sulking. Because they literally just hang their heads over. Like they're sulking. But they're not dead. It's a bit of a shock to them. They've come from one environment. You've put them into another environment. And even if you do the whole. Taking them outside. Putting them back in. Taking them outside. Putting them back in. And then planting them out. They will still sulk. It's a shock to the plant. And the plant has to sort of regroup. And get used to its surroundings. And figure out if it's safe to grow or not. And then it will just start growing again. So particularly with bigger sunflowers. Because sometimes I grow them sort of this big. And then put them outside. They look dead when you put them out. They will flop over. And just look really sad. Don't give up on them. Keep watering them. Keep looking after them. Keep giving them a telling off. And eventually they do come back up. And start growing properly again. It's just a sulk. This one here in particular. Is doing a very good job at sulking. You can see the leaves are pointing down. He's looking a bit sad. And you're thinking. Oh gosh. Are you going to flop over and just die? You're not mate. You're fine. OK look. You're up. You're growing. You've got the sun. You've got the soil. What more do you want? You know. Just tell it. It used to worry me a lot. When my plants would sulk. When I'd plant them out. Especially sunflowers. In particular sunflowers. I don't know why. They're just the most sulkiest plant. Of all the plants. But they will come back. Keep watering them. Keep an eye on them. They will come back. I promise. These are our new peas we put out a little while ago. About a week ago. They haven't got any bigger. But they're looking very strong. They are looking really upright. Really happy. So in my experience peas don't typically sulk. You can see they're looking really strong. And sort of upright. And bushy. And just happy. So they've survived the snail attack. We haven't had any slugs or snails. And they seem to be doing OK in their new home. Also I don't know if you can see in there. But there are a lot of parsnips that are germinating. I'm not going to weed in there. Because I will end up pulling them out. When the parsnips get bigger. Then I will weed. But they are coming up now. Really really happily. And the other peas are starting to really grow. This is just looking great in here. We've got the brassica bed behind it. This is all looking alive. I think I might do a bit of weeding in here. Maybe give them a bit of a water. You can see the bindweed starting to come through. It's bindweed season guys. No matter how many times I pull this out. My plot. It comes back every single year. It is a nightmare. It is you. What are you looking for? Some actual real life worms. Alright. This is the worst place to have weeds. In your beds guys. In the corners. Because what it actually does. Is creates a slug hotel. You are basically making them free hotels. Because they can go and hide in the corner of your bed. Under all this foliage. All these weeds. And then slither out at night. And eat all your crops. These are really the places where you need to be focusing. On not allowing weeds to fester and grow. That's what they love. Don't make them free hotels. That's in my manifesto guys. Don't make slugs free hotels. There's my spatula. Not my spatula. My hoe. There we go. Got him. Come to think of it. It might be time to charge up my strimmer. And start sorting out all these bits of grass. All these grass pathways here. Because that's not going to help the slug situation either. That is the perfect hotel. See? Did you just find one Einstein? Thank you for proving my point. We're working together today. You see? Teamwork. Teamwork makes the dream work. Right? Don't poo. Right this is where we've planted the sprouts. I can't actually believe they're all still alive. I'm actually in a state of shock. Also they did all sort of bounce back as well. Which is really excellent. These wool pellets, they actually might be working you know. I can't believe I'm saying that but actually these might actually be keeping away the slugs. That won't though. All of these weeds around here. You know I really need my strimmer. That's what I really need. I'll try and get out as much as I can but I really need a strimmer for that. Look at this. The bears have just pecked all of my twine off. They use it for their nests. This is another bit of twine that they've just pecked off. I might have to re-tie it because that broadbeam is very very tall and I don't want it to snap in the wind. Right let's see if we can. Oh Einstein. Like my little stalker today? Eh? Like my little stalker? Yes. What are you up to? Eh? Right we can't just tie it back on because they've bitten it but they've taken a bit of it. They've actually taken a bit of it so it no longer fits and they've done the same there. Can you see there? They've just taken a little bit of my twine for their nest. Yeah. I know Einstein. Einstein's telling me all about it. Telling me all about it. Right I did sort of have a rough plan of what I was going to do today and it included sorting out the greenhouse and tidying it up a bit but because it's so hot and sunny I feel like we should change plans and actually go plant something out. I actually really want to get this cosmos outside because it's so big and looking so lovely. I think it will be fine and I think next week if we get a day where it's not such great weather and I'm down here, great day to do the greenhouse. So let's just rethink our plans. I think we'll get the cosmos out and what about the kale? I'm so worried about the kale because it looks so vulnerable, like it looks so vulnerable doesn't it? Look at that. When does it get big enough for me to put it out? Would you wait for that to be like twice the size? Maybe I'll wait a little bit longer on the kale just because that looks delicious to me. Like I would just eat that. So a slug. Forget it. Where should we put them? Right I think I'm just going to put them out in twos, in pairs so they're with their mates basically and I'm just going to stick them around where I think they should go. I've got a lot more to go out as well so I have to remember that. Let's just whack them out. Right let's stick a couple into the flower bed. So this has got some, what are they called again? Cornflowers and sunflowers. So we'll stick two out in here because remember that cosmos get really big and bushy so we only really want two. One here as well. In amongst the cornflowers, that'd be nice I think. I'd kill them getting them out. Alright I think I'm right to get them out because look at the roots, look at the roots on them. That's absolutely insane. They're desperate to come out. Sorry guys. I didn't realise how much you wanted to come out, you should have made a fuss. You should have sulked like the sunflowers. Cosmos are too nice you see. I think we'll put a couple in the flower bed here, I think that'd be really nice. This is lavender and then we've got a few other flowers that usually come back. I don't know if they will this year, who knows. But we'll whack them out in here as well. Oh ok I've lost them all. One way of getting them out. Alright this does give me the opportunity now to sow some more seeds, but what seeds shall we sow? These are really good. These are from peas and some plants that I got from the garden centre and I just reused them but they're excellent because they're really big. So you saw how much room the cosmos roots took up in these, they're just fantastic. So what can we sow? I might whack in some more sweet corn so that can go into there just so that we've got more growing in case the other stuff doesn't work for whatever reason. Right guys correct me if I'm wrong but did I not sow these helianthus sunflowers? Did I not sow these ones or are they just a different colour? Because this pack is completely unopened and I can't understand, I thought I sowed sunflowers last time I was here. Oh it was these ones. It was these ones that we had last year so these are the same sunflowers but they look like they're just a different colour. So we'll just sow some of these as well, why not? Ok that makes a lot of sense. I know that I often forget what I've sown but I do film it guys and I also take a picture on my phone so that's sort of how I get around not putting labels in. I just take a quick picture of what I've sown and I've also got these vlogs to look back on as well and that's just how I get around it because I know so many of you are just like oh Emma why don't you like label things? I just keep forgetting, the labels just rub off and stuff and it's just another sort of job to do you know that I find really irritating. So I just refer back, one of the perks of vlogging every single time I'm at my allotment lot. Right that's the sweetcorn in, right sunflowers, these are weird seeds aren't they for sunflowers? I like these. Right we'll just do two, two per module. I bet Einstein would like some of those, I tell you what, if these all germinate I'll give him the rest of them and he can eat them, it can be his little treat. Right guys that is it for me today, I do hope you've enjoyed this vlog, just been a really really tough stressful week for me so I'm really proud of how much I actually managed to film and get out for you guys. I do enjoy doing these and I do know that so many of you enjoy watching so I do my best to get as many out as I can. I hope you found some joy in them and some happiness and that maybe I've de-stressed you a little bit which would be great. I just need to work on de-stressing myself. I'll be back again on Sunday with a home diary, potentially, don't hold me to that this time. Otherwise I'll be back on Monday at the allotment plot, I will see you when I see you. Thank you so much for watching today, have a lovely weekend, bye bye.