TIDYING MY MESSY ALLOTMENT PLOT / ALLOTMENT GARDENING UK

sugar Water salt sugar Water Good morning everyone! Welcome back to my Allotment Diaries. It is, oh let me just close That window, because as lovely as the sun is, it's very bright this morning. Welcome back. To my Allotment Diaries. My name is Emma. These are the Allotment Diaries. I'm at my allotment. Plot right now. It's in South London. I have two plots that kind of join together. I'm Of course you all know this. We've had a really nice few days in the UK. It's been blue skies. and sunshine, and the coming days are looking even better. I think we're getting up to sort 18 degrees every day and sunshine, which is just great for our crops. It's not too hot for us, but it's really nice and warm for our crops to be growing. So yeah, this week It's looking like a really good week. I just realized this is Friday's vlog. I'm actually Filming this on Monday and you're seeing it on Friday. So happy Friday. I'm in the middle. Of a new one, well, I'm at the beginning of a new week and you're at the end of it. So welcome. to my Monday at the allotment, where I'm very excited to get going with this week which is looking fantastic. I haven't been here for about two days and everything looks amazing. a little bit overgrown. We're at that time of year when, if you leave your allotment plot For a day, two days, three days, when you come back, it will look like a complete mess. to you because everything's just growing so fast. All the weeds are growing, the grass is growing and it just looks extremely overgrown right now. So I've brought with me my Battery for my strimmer. So I'm going to do some strimming. I'll have to wait a little. because the grass is still wet, as it's very early. We'll do some seed sowing and some weeding. And yeah, just try to sort everything out because it's just looking a bit messy. As you know, I'm on my allotment plot quite a lot. So I'm always weeding, you know Always seeing me weeding, but can you see how quickly everything just starts to sort itself out? just a little bit messy. Even though I weed the same area over and over again, look how quickly they've all just shot up and they're really quite big and established now. So they're All need to come up. The tulips look like they're about to finish. I'm going to Leave them today. I won't touch them today, but I reckon next time I come down, I have to start decapitating many of them and sorting them out because they're just, they're just On the way out now. They're past their prime. Some of them have just started to bloom, which It's fine. So we can kind of leave these ones alone, but a lot of them are way past their Best now. So it's a shame, but it's somewhat inevitable, as clearly what happens. Even sadder are the ones around my pond, because that was really adding so much lovely color. Oh, and all of them are disappearing from my other plot too. Yeah, they're all just slowly vanishing. I'm It's very sad to see these ones go because they were truly looking so beautiful. I loved seeing them by the pond, but they are starting to die back now. All this area. There really needs some trimming, cutting back. We've got some grass at the back down there. by the broad beans that need trimming and cutting back. All these pathways here around my brassica bed and my peas and my parsnips and all that needs cutting back Now because that is literally just turning into a slug and snail hotel. Also, a lot of you asking me about the plot next to mine with the blue shed. So it has been taken over by A new tenant now. I've met him. He's really nice. His plan is to completely demolish the the entire plot, take it all to the skip himself to the dump because the council won't do it and then start over. But it's a$/, huge, huge job. So I have no idea when he's going to Get started, but that's no small task. As you can see, that's one heck of a shed. to get rid of. He's got to get rid of all of this, and then he's got all the fences and then there's, I think, a couple more structures within the plot that he also wants to get rid of. So this is like, a massive, massive task for anyone. I'm going to start by watering things, since everything in here has become a bit dry. So I need to water all the seedlings in here, and some of the smaller seeds outside. So like the new ones I put outside. Oh, I need to check my sweetcorn. I covered my sweetcorn with an Ocado bag because it needs heat and it needs moisture. So I thought let's Just put a plastic bag over it. And I do believe we might need to take it off now. So, oh yes, Look at that. Look at that建立健全 on there. Oh, that's fantastic. That is absolutely Fantastic germination, and it's still wet. Oh, that's great. That's almost every single one. has germinated. Okay, this one is also sweetcorn. So I'm going to move the bag, the Ocado bag, to This one. It definitely worked. So we'll try the other sweetcorn. Perfect. Hi guys. I'm I'm not going to feed the birdie until he actually shows up, because otherwise I'll just be standing there For about three hours, waiting for him. So when I see him flutter past me, we'll go and feed him. I think I'm going to cut off some of the heads of those tulips. And also, I've noticed that my turnips have flowered, which means that they bolted, which is not a good thing. So I might Snip those down as well and see if we can rescue them. I think, really, when a plant bolts, it's kind of a sign that it's trying to reproduce before it dies. of game over and you can't really bring it back, but I'm going to cut them off anyway Give it a try. I feel like decapitating some things today. Um, it's just the mood I'm in. I'm in the mood to behead. So I don't know, call me Henry the Eighth, whatever you want. Let's go behead some plants They did a really good job this year coming back. And I think it's because I took the time last year to chop off all their heads when they were finished. Um, you've got to channel your inner Henry the Eighth for this job and you've got to just do it even if you've got lots of tulips because I did sort of say in my last vlog, I know I'm like a broken record, but this here and this large bulge you see when the flower is done blooming—that's the seeds. So it's trying to make seeds. So if I cut that open, God, I can't cut it open. Inside are seeds. I don't know if You can see those on the camera, but it's starting to produce seeds. Um, and it will put all of its energy into producing those seeds to create more of itself. That's ultimately what plants want. grow more of themselves. What we want a plant to do is channel all its energy into the bulb beneath the ground. ready for next year. So next year it can just come back again, really strong. So I'm going to cut off all the heads, prevent it from producing seeds, and then allow all the foliage to die back Own. Sorry, mate, just smacked him around the head. Sorry, Henry the Eighth is really just coming. through me right now. Sorry, mate. I'll let all the foliage die down as well, and then it will all feed The bulb and hopefully next year we'll get an amazing display again. These are the turnips that, unfortunately, have flowered. They have the most beautiful little Yellow flowers. I bet the pollinators love these. Um, but this means that they've bolted. because they're not supposed to make flowers. They're supposed to make The bleeding turnips at the bottom, which they never really got around to doing. Plants tend to bolt when they're under stress. So if it's too hot, or if they haven't had enough water, Um, just any kind of extreme environment—it's a panic station. It just means like total panic. Stations, panic, panic, panic. We're going to die. Um, our environment is not good enough. We can't survive here. And so what it does is it throws out flowers, and in the flowers, the seeds, and it tries to sort of self-seed itself in order to keep, you know, keep its babies alive, basically try and make more of itself. It's a panic situation for a plant, Not so much for us and the pollinators love them, so it's not such a big concern for us. The only thing is that when a plant bolts, it will stop putting its energy into producing the crop. And it can also make the crop quite bitter. So you can't really eat them, basically. Um, it's just kind of like game over for the crop. That's why plants bolt. It's obviously It's been under some kind of stress. I haven't watered it, or it's been too hot, or it's been too cold. Um, and it's just panicked and thrown up flowers. I think I actually might leave them to flower. Because I think, um, now that all of my spring bulbs are disappearing, I don't have many flowers. on the plot, and I think the pollinators will like those. Another funny thing about when a plant The thing about bolts is that the pollinators seem to really like the flowers. They really prefer flowers. and vegetables. Um, so when my brassicas bloom, they're covered in bees and pollinators. All the time. They just seem to love them. They are quite pretty. They are quite pretty. They always seem to be yellow as well. Let me know if a crop has flowered and it hasn't had yellow flowers because every crop that bolts seems to give me yellow flowers and the pollinators go mad for it. And I think they're so pretty. So what we'll do is we'll just leave these all to bloom for the pollinators and say, sorry, we didn't get any turnips this year. Never mind. I need to figure out how to use the strimmer again. Um, it has, It still has wire in it, so I'm assuming that means it's working. Oh my God. Okay. All right. I remember how to use it. Okay. Me and power tools don't really Get on, but, um, I'm going to give it a really good try. So we're just going to leave it to flower. Like, I think I'm going to start with the easy grass area and then we'll move on from there. That's it. That's all I get from the battery. That's it. That's it. I'll take the battery out now. Everyone always tells me to take the battery out. out. That's all you get for it. So I've probably been doing that for about What? Eight minutes. Okay. I have to take this home and charge it unless it's just overheated. Maybe I'll try it again in a bit. They might have just overheated actually, because I just feel it. It was getting quite hot, but I did manage to complete the main tasks I really needed to finish. The plot is looking a lot more under control. I don't know how I survived without a strimmer. Well, I do. I used to take my shears and get down on my hands and knees and literally cut it. Mowing grass by hand. Um, so much easier to do with a strimmer. Let me show you the difference. Would have probably helped if I'd shown you a before, but I think you can see the difference. So this has all been trimmed back here. And then at the back down there, it's all been cut back down. and then just along the side of the brassica bed and the pea bed, all of that's been cut right back down, which makes a real difference. Oh, there you are. He's just flown into the He fled in a panic. Tried to get away from me and ran straight into the shed. What's he doing in there then? You waiting for your food now? You ready? Yeah. What did you go In the shed for you, silly thing? Tried to get away from me in a panic, ended up in a shed. Right, I still don't know if he'll show up because he seems more interested in sort of Being around the dirt and finding worms that way at the moment, That's fine. That's perfectly fine. We'll let him do that. I'm really hoping this works out. Oh, just as the wind comes. I'm not sure how many of those tadpoles I managed to film, just because I don't know. If my camera is picking it up, it's so bright I can't see the screen, but they're in there. There are several I've found now. They're eating, they're swimming around. They're just Having a lovely time. So there's also so much life in my pond. There are so many other bugs and things. swimming in there. So I might just go ahead and top that pond up because I'm a little bit I'm worried because it's going to be so dark. So I'm just going to go and top that pond up. I don't want it drying out, so let's go top up the pond. So Right. As I was just walking toward my greenhouse, I noticed that the chicory I had sown The last time I was here has actually been dug up a bit, which is annoying. I think the cat, I think the cat must have dug it up a bit. So I'm just going to re-sow it. And then I'm going to put Some wire, not wire mesh, but plastic mesh, like garden mesh, laid down just to deter him from digging. Because unfortunately that's what cats do. Whenever there's a nice new plant put in a pot, He comes and digs it up as soon as I plant the seeds. He didn't even poop. So I have no idea what that was all about. If he doesn't poop, I get it, but he doesn't—he didn't even poop, guys. He just dug it up. A large portion of an allotment garden involves re-sowing things over and over again that either get killed by slugs and snails or dug up by cats. It seems that most of my time here is just spent Re-sowing stuff. So that's fine. It is what it is. Just literally going to start over. Cause I have no idea what part he's dug up and what part he's left behind. Luckily, I've got plenty of The seeds are gone. And I was really looking forward to my chicory. That's why I'm re-sowing it. Because I really do want chicory. I'm so excited to buy the packet. So Quick re-sow, hopefully leave it alone this time. In fact, he will. Falling over. I have a secret weapon this time. I've got this. It doesn't cover the entire thing. but since it's covering most of the soil, he simply won't bother. He'll just look for somewhere else to dig. So there we go. Just trying to take in the last of those tulips before they finally fade away forever. So sad. It's so sad that they have to leave. It's my favorite flower in the garden that appears every year. And it always comes at the time when I'm feeling a little down, and winter has been really long, and all of a sudden All of my tulips bloom, and it just lifts me up. So I always feel a bit sad when it's time to say goodbye. say goodbye to them, but they can't last forever. I need to think about what's going to Go in their place. I think dahlias. I'm going to try dahlias again. We're just going to go for it. Guys, I feel like it might be a good year, a good year for dahlias. We'll see. Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed the vlog today. I'll be back on Sunday with a home diary or on Monday. Back at my allotment plot again. So I'll see you when I see you, and thanks for watching. Bye.