A BUSY WEEK IN MY LONDON GARDEN / EMMA'S SUNDAY DIARIES

Good morning guys, welcome back to my Sunday Diaries. My name's Emma. These are the Sunday Diaries. Did I just slur my words then? It's been a long week. I'm a little bit tired. I went to the allotment plot this morning and the weather was so overcast and windy it was so difficult to film and now it's like blue skies and sun and it's super hot. So I think this weather's continuing for a few days and we're having a bit of a mini heatwave in the UK, which is excellent. I'm very happy with that to be honest, definitely not going to complain. It's not been great weather recently has it? It's been very overcast and just not great, just not very fun to be outside in to be honest. So I'm very happy that we're finally getting some sun and we're going to try and relax and read a lot in the garden as well. I love sitting outside and reading my books. I feel like I read more in the summer because I can read outside. Just wanted to super quickly mention, and I'm not technically working with them this week but I've worked with them before, the Hello Sunday SPF products, they've really kindly put my discount code up again. So my discount code is EMMA20OFF and it'll give you 20% off. There's also a QR code and a link below. And like I said, I'm not working with them technically this week but I just love their products so much. This is the one that I've been using the most. This is their serum, so it's like a really super hydrating serum and I've been using it in place of my usual moisturiser in the morning because it's got SPF 50 in it so it's so good. But also, I really love this one which is their take out balm and basically, whenever you're out and about and you kind of feel like it's getting really hot and you need to top up your sun cream, it's just a little balm and it just goes on your face like this and you just rub it in and it just really quickly tops you up. But I've been using it for like the kids as well when we're out and about and it doesn't smell bad as well, it doesn't have that kind of sun creamy smell that sun creams normally have. So it's really good when you slather it all over your face because you're not going to smell of sun cream the whole day. So yeah, I've been using these like literally religiously since I got given them. They are, this one is SPF 30 but this one is SPF 50 and they both protect against UVA and UVB rays as well. So if you do want to get some sun cream because we are experiencing a bit of a heat wave and there's a lot of sun at the moment so if you do need to top up your SPF, this is a great one to go for and you might as well use my discount code and get 20% off. So anyway, I'm going to do a few little bits and bobs in my vegetable garden here at home and I'll show you what I'm doing. I don't think I've given you an update on my vegetable beds here at home, have I? Oh my gosh, look at this snail sitting on one of my onions. I don't think he even eats onions, what's he doing there? These are my onions and garlics, sorry mate. Onions and garlics doing really well and then next to that we've got some radishes which are growing away in there. They've been a little bit munched but not that badly actually, they're still growing quite happily and then next to that we've got the broccoli which is doing fantastically and also I haven't really worried about spacing, they're so close together but they seem to all be thriving and throwing up like broccoli so I don't know you guys, I think I've discovered something here. I don't think you necessarily need to space them apart too much and then here we've got the broad beans which are doing fantastically and look at all of these broad beans I'm getting so I'm definitely going to have to cook with these this weekend. Look at these, these are giving me so many beans already and they're way ahead of the ones at the allotment plot so I don't know what that means but it means something. These are like ready to burst, I've got to pick these this weekend I think and cook with them. They are however getting some of those aphids on the top so I'm going to have to snip all the tops of these off so I think that's the first job that I'll do. And then here in this bed we've got mixed results so the carrots are doing fantastically and they're getting bigger and bigger every day. I genuinely believe that I'm going to get loads of carrots this year so I'm keeping that belief, I'm keeping that faith. We've got some beetroots behind it which is doing great and then over there we've got some parsnips however the peas were completely munched by snails. I'm pretty sure snails have got these because they seem to love sitting around these beds but unfortunately no peas however I've got loads at the allotment so I'm not too worried. I've got some leeks in here that really could do with going out, they've just been sitting in this little pot, this little tray for ages and they are starting to dry out a little bit so I think I might just whack these out in clumps. I might just clump them in between the broccoli and the radishes because there's a nice little bit of space here, gosh this is really good soil, well done Emma, you've done a good job with this. What's that? Is that weed? Yep, oh my gosh, anything that's got a root that long is always a weed and that is a fact. So what we do is flatten this out a little bit, the thing with leeks is that you can kind of plant them out in clumps so if I just pull up a little clump and stick them in like that because they'll sort of push each other out the way as they grow, I don't really have to worry about them, they're so small and spindly it's a lot easier just to be able to plant them in clumps anyway, just pulling out of there so easily I don't have to worry about them. Leekies, in you go, that's it, do I look red on camera, has my face gone bright red? I promise you I'm not burnt, those products do work, it's just very very hot and I've been sitting outside, Pippin it's not your dinner time yet, we've got like six flies in here just flapping around like absolute lunatics, the door is open guys, the door is open, I think it's just exciting for them to come into the house, I just don't think they know what it's like to be in a house, anyway we're going to make some cupcakes, the kids are coming home from school soon and I've got so many strawberries, I was going to do a big Victoria sponge but I actually think I'm going to do some like mini cakes and turn them into mini Victoria sponges just so they can grab them whenever they want one, to be fair they'll probably just all go tonight anyway but it'll make me feel better knowing we've got little ones, so I think we'll just make a very basic cupcake recipe, or follow a very basic cupcake recipe I should say, yes this is flora, I always get in trouble for using flora, that's a little bit too much, it's supposed to be one ten, one twelve, that's close enough, right, one twelve of butter, then it's one ten of caster sugar, oh my god that's 140, what was I thinking, why did I just throw it in like that, why didn't you stop me, 120, that's 109 now, that's 111, oh I can't get to 110, it doesn't exist, 110 does not exist, right then we'll cream that together, oh my god did I just throw a load of sugar out, what is happening, jeez louise we're guesstimating now, we're guesstimating now, forget it, forget it, forget the recipe, I'm not making a very good job of this, okay so now that that's creamed together we need two eggs in there, eggs come next, that nearly went everywhere, okay so then it's 110 of self raising flour, will we make it 110, I don't know, flora you just went out and you've just literally come straight back in, what's your problem, right I'm going slowly this time, slowly, slowly, slowly, no straight to 112 from 100, I don't understand that, something spooky is going on with the scales, right I think our cupcake tray, I know it's very messy but it's very used and very loved and not very cleaned, also we're sort of using christmas paper cases because this is all I've got, I think I usually buy these on offer after christmas, I'm pretty sure I got them from a garden centre when they were on offer just after christmas and I just got so many of them so they're quite pretty though, okay good you didn't see all that messiness, I'm trying to do it a bit neatly now I'm actually recording, yeah that's a bit better, why does the mixture always taste better than the cupcake, right they're all out now, I'm going to try doing something I don't do very often and that is to use a piping bag to ice them, I never do this because it's a bit complicated for me, a bit fiddly which is why I'm using ready sort of bought buttercream vanilla icing, so at least I know it's the right consistency because that's the thing I always struggle with with icing is the consistency of icing, I'm not quite sure what I'm sort of hoping to achieve from it and I want to put a cut strawberry on the top so I don't think it really matters what it looks like, I just like little roses, little flowers, whoa I don't know what happened to that one, I don't know what happened to that one, I just I don't know I just panicked and just carried on, that was a panic one that one was, just a few more to go and we can all relax and eat cake, oh god no I don't want to do, why did it sneeze, has anyone ever made it sneeze before, was that a first, you know what it's like, it's like that alphabet show, I used to watch that as a kid, where it's like the A, around, up, down and flick, it's kind of like that, around, around, down and flick, my strawberries at the allotment plot are just starting to turn red and I need to get down there soon and protect them before the slugs get them all, or the birds, they're just about starting to go red now which is amazing and sometimes I get a second flowering of my strawberries on the allotment, it really just depends on the year, oh these look so cute and fresh, the only thing is it's so hot out there my kids are just gonna want an ice cream, they're not even gonna want to eat these, but then I suppose I'll just eat them all so, I know it's such an easy easy recipe but how sweet and fun just to make these and then just have them homemade sitting there waiting for your kids to come home from school or something, not that I'm a 1950s housewife or anything but you know I like to pretend I am sometimes, if I'd have made these bigger, so let's say I'd done sort of more muffin sized cupcakes, I could have sliced them open, put some strawberry jam in the middle, close them off and then put our icing or cream on the top and it would have been a mini Victoria sponge but actually they were just a little bit too small for me to bother cutting them in half but they're very nice aren't they, very sweet, very summery, he's very cross with me because I dared to try and cut his nails today, we only got halfway around your feet didn't we, yeah cutting his nails is a bit of a traumatic experience for me and him and we tend to do it in batches so I've sort of done the back ones, I haven't done the front ones yet so I know, I know, look if I try and touch it now, look, no, not having it, isn't that nice, yeah you see how you're grooming yourself, that's what I'm trying to do to you by cutting your nails, it's me trying to groom you, that's how I groom, good morning guys, it is the next day and officially the start of the heatwave here in the UK so we've woken up to blue sky sunshine, it's already getting really hot out there, I am starting to worry a little bit about my allotment plot because the plan is not to go down there today and just take the day at home, take it a bit slower, yeah I really wanted to like lower my stress levels and I've been working really hard at lowering my stress levels recently and it is working, I think since taking the decision to not do the kitchen extension and to actually sell the house I think I feel a lot calmer and I have noticed that my stress levels have just started to slide down so I think the impending building work was really playing on my mind, also having to negotiate it with our neighbours who don't particularly like us doing anything at all, I mean I think I just feel a lot calmer and I know that's not a reason not to do something but I think it's just time to move, I am slightly stressed thinking that I should go to my allotment and water things but I did go there yesterday and I gave everything a really good water so I'm kind of hoping it survives just one day and I can go down tomorrow morning, I'm gonna try not to stress about it to be honest because if something dies it dies I'll just have to replace it, hey-ho, anyway such a lovely day and as I've said many times we are going to go in the garden, I've got a dahlia that I put into a pot and put it into my mini outdoor greenhouse and I forgot about and it's actually sprouted really well so we're gonna go stick that somewhere and also we're gonna give everything a bit of a drink, a bit of a water, so that is the plan, so we're gonna go outside now and do a little bit of gardening, very gentle gardening, I'm actually wearing, actually let me show you what I'm wearing, I don't have a white top on, a very plain boring top, you can't see the bottom of my outfits, what's the point, hang on a second, okay I'll just show you the bottom half of me, I've got this lovely skirt from H&M a little while ago and I've been really wanting to wear it, it's so light and airy and it's got all these lovely little flowers on it, I love the blue and it's, yeah, it's very lightweight so it's like the perfect skirt to wear, we're doing kind of very gentle non muddy gardening, so let's go, my new herbs are definitely enjoying this weather because they are all very sun warm loving and the chives are coming back to life, I wasn't so sure last time if I'll be able to revive them but I have managed to and they're getting some flower buds too which is really nice, so all the herbs are doing great and then this is the dahlia which I forgot that I planted and you can see it's really starting to sprout, so we're going to put this I think into a pot oh no, I had some summer bulbs in here, I can't remember what they were but it looks like the slugs and snails have got to all of them, so I'm going to put the dahlia in here, I'm going to have to get some serious protection for them, the slugs and snails have just loved this one, I'm pretty sure it's snails in my home garden, it's slugs at the allotment and snails at home, I'll look quite a few dahlias growing here and I think they might need some protection against the snails, so I've got this box here which is filled with eggshells that I've been collecting, so I think what we're going to do is just crush them and put those around the dahlias and hopefully that will stop the slugs, sort of like create a barrier for them, we'll try it right, those eggshells are really easy to crush because they've dried out for a very long time, I know a lot of you put them in the oven to dry them out, so when you've finished cooking something you just leave the oven, turn the oven off and then pop the eggshells into the oven just to dry out, so they go super crispy, but these have already gone super crispy, so I have really high hopes for these, I will keep you updated on how the eggshells do against the slugs because the slugs absolutely love dahlias and I'd really like to grow them, so I'm hoping they'll work, but I'll let you know. Good morning guys, it is the next day, yesterday just got away from me, I did a lot of washing yesterday and hung everything out to dry and it dried so quickly, so towels, bed sheets, just went on a bit of a washing frenzy and just washed everything in the house, but it all dried the same day which was amazing, very exciting times here, don't say I don't keep these vlogs exciting, it's day two of the heatwave, this will be the last day that I vlog because the vlog's going to go up tomorrow morning, we are going to head out super early, it's about eight o'clock in the morning, I'm going to water everything in my greenhouse at the allotment because I'm pretty sure it will need a water and then we're going to walk along, grab a coffee, go see those ducks and just try to enjoy the morning before it gets really hot later. All right, my husband's ready, let's go. Okay guys, it is not pleasant in my greenhouse, I've come down to my allotment just to water everything, everything looks okay actually, it's just starting to wilter, to wilt, wilt, so I think I got here just in time but I tell you what, it's not pleasant in my greenhouse and I do not want to stay in here very long, it must be in the 40s already and it's the morning time, it's insane, it's insanely hot and it's just horrendous and this is why I'm very reluctant to come down and vlog in this heatwave because it's just not pleasant at all, it's about keeping everything alive, in fact there's hardly anyone on the allotments and it's like this, it's like nine o'clock in the morning, you'd expect there to be quite a few people here on a Saturday, it's quite empty, it's just too hot. All right, let's give everything a water, keep it all alive, we're gonna really soak it because it will be fine, it will dry out quickly, I think I will probably come back and water it again so I'm not going to stand anything in water but you can stand seed trays into like a tray of water, they start to really dry out. I'll try and get back here tomorrow so I'll be able to keep them watered, these are my jappy littles and this is my sweet corn, all looking really happy, probably just thinking it's on holiday which is nice actually, isn't it? Let's water everything in here, water the tomatoes. Oh look, my cosmos is about to have its first flower, it's very small, I think it probably will get a lot bigger than this and also my sunflowers are still in here that you probably won't see me plant until sometime next week because I filmed the vlogs in advance, but they are alive so now you know in advance. I can hear Einstein but I can't see him, there he is up there right in the middle of your screen singing away. He's not used to me being down here on a Saturday so he's just a bit confused I think, I just wanted to show you the sunflowers because a lot of you were asking for an update on the sunflowers and I didn't give it to you last time and they're doing fantastic so these are the ones in the back, the back bit of the plot. As you can see they're just getting really big now so they're sort of in a row like little soldiers all along the back here so they should grow up really tall and give me sunflowers and then we've got the corn flowers in front which again are doing amazing. Yeah they're all they're all alive, I'm melting by the way I've been here for about three seconds I'm absolutely melting, I need to go home, I need to go and get coffee actually. A lot of you in my last vlog were worried about me giving up the allotment, I think you don't need to be worried guys, I don't think I'd ever be able to give up this and I think we have decided to stay local and that means that I'll be able to keep the plot as well so I feel really lifted again. I feel really hot and sweaty but I also feel quite happy and lifted so God these cornflowers are going to be absolutely gorgeous, can't wait. Music Oh my goodness, they're all coming for us. There's nothing for you, there's nothing for you, no, no, it's not for you. No, I haven't got anything for you mate, no, seriously mate, come on, off you go, off you go. Right I'm afraid you can't see my face because I got home from the duck pond which is practically what it is and I am melting so I've had to jump in the shower so I've got wet hair and I just look a state but I'm nice and cool now which is good so I'm going to make myself a pretty lunch and I'm going to share what I'm doing with you. Right so I picked up these really gorgeous tomatoes, these are Isle of Wight tomatoes, well from the Isle of Wight, they're beef tomatoes and hopefully it won't be too long before I'm picking my own tomatoes on the allotment, they are all still alive so it's a good start. Look at these, I've grown that before, that's absolutely incredible isn't it, what beautiful fruit. Right we're going to slice the top of it off, right take out our core like that and then I want some slices of this tomato for my lunch. Oh my gosh how absolutely beautiful, absolutely beautiful, too pretty to eat but we will eat it because I'm starving. Right, pop our tomato onto the plate like so, okay then I've got some mozzarella, we're going to slice this up, I think I'll just do that much and leave the rest for dinner tonight because I really want some more of this later. Right then I've got some basil but I think before we put the basil on I'm going to put some salt on, right a little bit of sea salt, a little bit of extra virgin olive oil and then we'll pop on the basil. This is sort of peppery basil as well, it smells absolutely gorgeous. Okay this was supposed to be a lot more aesthetic than this but I tell you what it's going to taste nice so who cares. And that my friends is my lunch today, very very simple, very summery, this is my favourite dish to eat when I'm on holiday. If they ever have this on the menu I order it because it's so fresh and lovely. Right so guys it is that time of the vlog, I am going to end it here. It is so hot, it's getting up to like 31 degrees here in London today, it's not pleasant heat, it's like really sticky and really hot. My camera keeps overheating and I keep getting a little warning thing saying it's just too hot to film so I don't want to break another camera. I've just been sitting out here drinking this which is the new Dash, this isn't an advert by the way, I literally bought these, they're the pink lady apple dash cans and the cans are so pretty but they are so good, they are so tasty. I've had two already. I've had quite a few comments from you guys saying that I seem like a lot happier and more uplifted since I've sort of made the announcement that we're gonna we're gonna sell up and move house. I think you're right, I just feel a lot freer and a lot like I feel like a huge weight has been lifted from my shoulders and I didn't even realise how stressed and tense I've been about certain things until like I made the decision or we made the decision you know as a family and all of a sudden I just feel so much better and like freer, I'm more relaxed and I'm so glad that that's kind of coming across in these vlogs. I think we are going to stay in the local area, we're not moving too far because the kids are in a really good school here and they're really happy so I will be able to keep the allotment plot after all, not that that was like a deciding factor but I do love my allotment and I know you guys love it too and I'll miss Einstein if I if I have to leave it but I would always grow my own vegetables wherever I end up in the UK at any time so there'll always be allotment diaries on this channel, don't panic about that guys, it does look like I am going to be keeping the allotment and hopefully gaining a little bit of a bigger garden but I think I'm very set on having my garden as kind of my space so I will do the Sunday diaries and I will show you a little bit of what I'm getting up to but it won't be as intense as the allotment diaries that I do three times a week so it will kind of give me more privacy in my home garden and more room to enjoy it and enjoy gardening, I think it's really important to separate that you know and have the allotment where I can vlog and I can kind of create this content for you and also like work it and grow things there and grow my own veg but then having my home garden sort of more as my kind of space that I can enjoy because one of the things that I love most about gardening is just sitting in it and enjoying it and just looking around at stuff so not very vloggable but I think more relatable and that's what I love to do in my garden so I think it will be nice to have the best of two worlds also so many of you got in contact and said that you'd given up your allotments when you got a bigger garden and that you really regretted it and you ended up back on allotment lists all over the place so I don't want to end up regretting it that would just I think that would just be the worst thing so for now we are keeping it and hopefully gaining a slightly bigger garden but I'll keep you updated and let you know what's going on I hope you've enjoyed this Sunday's this Sunday's vlog I'm going to get straight on and start the next one tomorrow I think ready for next Sunday so join me again next Sunday in my life or you can see me on the allotment plot in the week thank you so much for watching guys see you next time