LOOKING FOR PROBLEMS / EMMA'S ALLOTMENT DIARIES

Morning guys. I thought I'd just start Monday's allotment here because I'm just walking into my allotment plot. This is like the little entryway in. It's sort of like a quieter entryway. There's a bigger one with a car park and then there's a little one and I prefer this one because you get to walk through these beautiful... I was gonna call it a copse. Is it called a copse? When it's sort of like a little mini woodland but it's sort of not like a proper woods. I think it's called a copse and it's so gorgeous but right now we've got the bluebells coming out and also the cow parsley which is a sure start of sort of late spring early summer. We just get so much of it along this little pathway here and when it all starts to bloom it just feels like summer and then look in there look at all that cow parsley and these are our sort of little forests, little copse. I'm sure it's called a copse. If it's not called that then I'm so sorry I'm just saying something so random but it just fills up with cow parsley. The second I walk down this little alleyway here I no longer feel like I'm in London especially when it becomes all overgrown and it's just lovely it's just so nice to sort of be able to step out of London but not really step out of London. I just love this place. Good morning guys welcome back to my allotment diaries my name is Emma these are the allotment diaries. Thank you for tuning in we're gonna do some jobs on the allotment plot today. Not quite the job I wanted to do because what I actually wanted to do was use my strimmer but I forgot to charge the battery so that's gonna have to be for another day. It really needs a good strim around now because a lot of the grass around my plot is growing up quite tall so it needs cutting down. Obviously we don't want that grass to get too tall or the weeds because the slugs and snails will then hide in it and then slither out and eat all my new seedlings so it's really important to keep all of the grassy areas down low on my allotment plot. I appreciate that is against the advice of wildlife obviously for wildlife it's better for them to have loads of you know overgrowth and really tall grass but I have to be practical this is my allotment plot I'm trying to grow vegetables and I can't give the slugs and snails any free hotels like if they want to eat the crops they're gonna have to work for it they're gonna have to pay their way you know I don't want to facilitate them in their mission to eat everything that I grow this year. That was a very long-winded way of saying that I don't know how this stuff just comes out my mouth it's crazy. Thanks for sticking with me last week it was a very stressful week I'm still feeling high stress levels but they're slowly coming down but you know when you've just been like super stressed and anxious it actually takes a little while to kind of come down from it it's not just like one day you wake up and you're like oh I can't feel fine now it's sort of like a gradual downward graph whatever I'm trying to portray with my hands there and yeah it's just taking time it's just gonna take time for me to kind of like I'm just being kind to myself basically and trying to get down here because when I'm here according to my aura ring my stress levels go down which is a good thing can you hear the birds today by the way and it's that picking up they are so noisy there's so many of them and they're so noisy so we will be feeding them and I've got a few jobs got a few jobs to do I've brought some more I've brought some more seeds with me so we'll see if we can sow some more seeds maybe directly as well we need to do some weeding and then there's a couple of areas that I haven't shown you for quite a long time they need to be sort of looked after and managed and stuff so I will start by feeding the birds my gosh all my sunflowers are germinated guys sorry tell me you've got ADHD without telling me you've got ADHD I was literally here like two days ago and none of this had come up and now it's all germinated look absolutely fantastic brilliant and then down here look at all my courgettes looking so good I know these are like way too small for them we may need to put them on sooner rather than later and then look the squashes again or coming up no idea what that is no I didn't look up I need to go home and look up what on earth I planted in here unless it's all just the same weed which would be weird wouldn't it is that the weather was definitely looking better when I left the house and now it's all clouded over also have you noticed that my tree has lost all it's pretty much all its blossom it's starting to get leaves now and also the apple tree the apple tree hasn't really blossomed it's just gone to leaves which I don't think is a good thing because blossom equals fruit so no blossom equals no fruit we've just got leaves so there is something wrong with the apple tree then because I you know I was worried about the apple tree and I think I was right to be worried about it this is how my apple tree is looking a very very healthy happy tree but very minimal blossom and we didn't even get the blossom because normally this blossoms over like crazy but this year it's just gone straight to leaves which means no fruit doesn't it because this is where the fruit comes from the flowers and my neighbors got a beautiful apple tree which he's left alone not tampered with like I have and his looks like mine did last year absolutely covered in blossom very minimal leaves so I think there is an issue and Einstein's sitting in there somewhere I think this is how an apple tree should look at this time of year covered in blossom because this is all the fruit it's gonna be the fruit the whole tree is just covered in blossom unlike mine so what on earth has happened what on earth has happened to my tree I mean it looks lovely I love the green leaves but this is not good is it I don't know if I've upset him if I've done something or if he's like maybe missing his mate and he's just depressed or something doesn't want to give me any apples this year I really don't know what's going on but there is very minimal blossom and that is concerning yeah trees are just something that I'm not I'm not very clued up upon and I didn't plant that tree you know that I inherited that tree that was already on my plot and I kind of tried to rescue it which I felt like I'd done a good job and now I'm worried that I've done something bad to it so I don't know what's going on I do like the apple tree I like having apples there I really don't know I really don't know I can't tell you I just can't tell you so anyway I think today we'll start with some weeding then we'll feed the birds and then we'll get on with the jobs that we need to do today but the weeds have come up like crazy so let's get on top of that and not panic about weeds this year every time I get to the plot I try to do 15 to 20 minutes of just light weeding keep on top of it all no stress this bed here with the peas and parsnips in desperately needs a weed but the thing is is the parsnips are so tiny I'm not even sure if you can see them there they are let the parsnips are so tiny that if I start pulling out weeds around them there's a chance I could pull the parsnips out and it's frustrating because I really just want to weed it but I don't think it's the right thing to do I tell you what some of these some of these peas are growing the wrong side of the netting they've like gone around the back of the netting like this one how am I supposed to harvest peas if you go around there honestly no I see it's like gone right through what you get these plants a good structure to climb up are they thankful no they never know where to go plants they never know even when you tell them and you show them and you give them a structure they never know where to bleep and go right you need to go that way and I've got tie you in now might seem like a little bit of a trivial problem but if I don't change the way they're growing now it will be harder to harvest later I think part of gardening is trying to predict problems before they happen and fix them before they become a problem you know so if you see like a structure half falling down fix it straight away don't wait for the plant to pull it all down you know it's part of gardening is just predicting it's trying to think ahead what's gonna happen I think it's gardeners we're always thinking ahead actually always thinking of the next season always thinking of future problems always thinking of the pests that could arrive in our gardens and eat everything you know it's a lot of looking ahead and gardening and I think that's sort of what gives it so much power over us because there's you know it's a sense of hope and looking for the future looking to the future rather right if you just stay this side of the net I can pick all your peas and they grow would that be alright guys all my new peas that I put in a seeds are starting to germinate as well I've put in a lot of pea seeds in between these ones and they've all started to germinate which is just fantastic and so that's bindweed we don't want that and it's good that the mouse didn't get them so I've got more peas germinating at the bottom that is fantastic look who's just turned up I had the flutter of your wings and I looked for you oh you've brought some of the blue sky with you as well Einstein just as he's turned up we've got some blue sky and the Sun looks like it's gonna come out so that's good you brought the sunshine with him I appreciate that right let's feed the bird then seeing as he's here waiting he probably won't turn up now when I put some food down he'll just like stay away come he just wants to hang out with me oh you can see him in the camera he's up in the corner he just wants to hang out with me oh he's got something in his beak he's found something to eat oh my gosh what is that what is that in your mouth Einstein what have you found I'll just come and eat the worms Einstein no my goodness right this here growing up my shed is a beautiful purple clematis and which covers my pink shed in the summertime and just blooms for ages and it's just so gorgeous it is absolutely beautiful when it flowers and it flowers for months and months and months it's the purple one I can't remember what it's called it's not a Montana it's not a clematis Montana it's the other one the purple one hopefully that helps anyway it's got a little bit like constricted you know it seems to think it's growing up a tripod when it's not it's got loads of room so what I'm gonna do is sort of try and tease out some of the some of the branches I think they're also holding on to each other I'm gonna tease them out and then spread them out a little bit on around my shed to make sure that they kind of grow you know like a fan and not just up so wish me luck hopefully I don't kill it right there we go I've sort of fanned it out a little bit you know just sort of encouraged it to spread out and not stick together like glue you know so I've just teased some of them out you can see it's more fanning now so hopefully it'll grow out now yeah just once again just trying to predict what's gonna happen before it happens and try and fix the problem while it's small and that's a lot of gardening is like that I'll just say again and again if you see if you deal with a problem in gardening early on it's much easier than later on you know things get really big and bushy and pest problems you know you might just find one snail and then next week it's like 15,000 snails so the sooner you deal with these things the better in gardening so it's all just about trying to predict those problems locate those problems and then solve them as quickly as you can and hopefully I mean that seems like a very trivial kind of problem and it is it is trivial everything I do here is trivial and pointless probably but I may have just solved a bigger problem later on and I'm not gonna snap all the stems later so hopefully that's done something you know that's all you can really hope for that you've done something do I do anything though or do I just wander around here annoying all the plants I feel like I annoy them a lot I feel like they do better when I leave them alone maybe that's another lesson anyway enough lessons enough lessons let's go and regroup in the greenhouse right I've been given some seeds here by seed craft seed craft is like a subscription seed box there is a link in my description if you want a discount code for them and they send you seeds every month so I've got four four packs here I've got sweet corn which I've already sown a lot of summer cabbage that's quite a good one dwarf French beans which is the mystic mystic one and then tomatoes I haven't sown any tomatoes guys I'm not gonna lie I'm gonna buy the plants this year I've decided I just ran out of time that's my excuse anyway anyway I think I'm gonna start some dwarf French beans I think I might start them in the greenhouse and then move them outside later on oh the Sun please I really just need some Sun today please just stay on my face breathe it in guys I think that's what we might see the Sun today I hope you enjoyed it right and dwarf French beans so let's start them in this little module here and then we can plant them out we don't need to wait for them to be really big because I think it's warm enough here really I could start them in the ground now and I think they'd survive but we're going to put them into modules first I have to say I have to admit seed sowing has never been something that I've enjoyed massively I find it quite stressful quite tedious you know me I'm more of a lover of the big jobs the big garden jobs where you get stuck in and you know you've got like bigger stuff out a lot of people enjoy seed sowing and find it quite relaxing I find it the opposite I find it unrelaxing and stressful but having said all that since I've had this some greenhouse I've really started to enjoy sowing things from a seed I think it's just because I've got the space to do it now and I feel like I can do it properly whereas before I was having to balance everything on windows at home which is fine I know I did it for six years you know balancing everything on a window but it is a game-changer having a designated space like this where you can actually start seeds and you know that they're gonna have a really good chance of living because you've got the light and the heat and I am just really really enjoying sowing things from a seed this year so except tomatoes except tomatoes which I just didn't start I can't really give you an explanation as to why I didn't I just sort of didn't maybe next year we'll sow tomatoes from seeds they are ridiculously easy to sow from the seed it's just a bit late now right so these are dwarf dwarf French beans so they won't grow very tall I'm guessing wonder how I figured that one out but yeah I think they're sort of shorter and stubbier I'm sowing a lot I know but I do think with things like beans and peas you know I use them a lot in my cooking and also they're they're very easy to freeze you know to put into the freezer and keep and stuff so I don't think there's any harm in over sowing with these crops because I feel like they do definitely get used you know and they're easy to store oh my gosh what was that either someone dropped a window then or I don't know what that was right there we go French beans right it's actually just started to rain a little bit it's just kind of like spittering spittering what would I call it I'm drizzling drizzling a little bit and it's gone very gloomy out there so it's not the best day here or getting a little bit heavier now there are a few plants that I've planted out recently especially around the pond but also in my flower area that I've kind of neglected and I've just had a little look and they're not looking so happy so I think I need to water them I think I forgot that when you put new plants in you do need to sort of water them I'm not gonna lie that's a very basic sort of bit of knowledge of gardening is to water things when you plant them I think because they were big established plants and I put them in the ground I kind of thought they'd just be fine and and I thought also the rain would take care of it but actually this kind of rain doesn't really water plants what plants new plants need that go into the ground is like watering directly to their roots and to make sure they get a really good soak and I've just not been doing that so I don't want all the things that I put in to die I'm gonna go around and water in the rain so you are about to watch an English gardener water her garden in the rain enjoy this moment guys I'm not sure what this one is I think it might be an iris of some kind but it's them it's not been watered look how sad it looks it might have been scorched a bit by the Sun as well but these yellow leaves aren't good and the droopiness isn't good it means it's just not had a good water and that one too I can't remember what that is either all right I think the rain has stopped just enough for us to get something out so I really wanted to sow radicchio radicchio which is a chicory basically and I remember now that I didn't sow it in a module I was going to sow it directly and because I thought it'd be easier right this is where it's going at the end down here so we'll just give it a bit of a weed I think we've got some garlic in there randomly and then I'm just gonna and I'll just um give it a bit of a mulch and then we'll just plant the seed straight in there this is the problem with bindweed we call it bindweed because it literally binds itself to other plants it wraps itself around another plant to get to the light and then pulls the other plant down and kills it and suffocates it so this is what bindweed does and why it's such a pain in the garden coming back out now welcome to April in the UK rain followed by Sun fantastic right let's give this area a bit of a mulch I've never sown chicory before but I do feel like it's an easier crop to sow directly than it is to sort of prick it out and it says to sow from April so we're at the right time so thinly outdoors where they are to crop one and a half centimeters deep in rows spaced 30 centimeters apart can also be sown under glass early in the year okay all right cool 30 centimeters is sort of like enough to get a hoe down the middle isn't it so you can sort of weed between the rows expect they'll have the tiniest little seeds known to man not my favorite yep tiniest tiniest tiniest little seeds sprinkles so thinly oh my gosh how am I supposed to sow this thinly forget it we will be sowing thickly and just dealing with it thin them out later pack down and then we'll give them a water Sun and blue sky again out of nowhere right well I've shown you all the weather today we've had rain we've had the clouds we've had wind we've had Sun and blue sky and we end on Sun and blue sky welcome to April where the weather is changing every 25 seconds I feel like we've got good stuff done today we've got some seeds sown I sorted out my clematis I checked on the peas we fed the birds we did a little bit of weeding we're in that kind of period of the year where it's sort of repetitive but also I kind of really enjoy it because you just know what jobs you've got to do every time you come down and even if you're not sure what to do there's always something to do you know just pick up a hoe and start weeding and just do some watering just tidy up an area like there's always something that you can be doing at the moment on your allotment and it's just my favorite time of year because you don't have to think too much just turn up you just turn turn up and flounce about and pick up your hoe and just do a little bit of weeding and it's productive so it's sort of the dream time of year for me really I really enjoy this kind of anticipation of everything starting to grow anyway before I waffle on too much I will be back in on Wednesday with another vlog I hope you've enjoyed this one today and enjoy your gardens and hopefully fingers crossed we get some Sun this week I think we are due some more Sun so hopefully it turns up I'll see you when I see you guys thanks for watching bye