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

Good morning, guys. Talking to you from my new favourite place in the house, I think. I love sitting here and talking to you. I feel like the background's nice, I feel like the lighting's nice, I feel like I can just chat openly. I think it's just my new favourite place in the house. The house that we are literally getting ready to sell and to move out of. A lot of love has gone into this house. The last week or so, firstly, we've had a really crazy heatwave here in the UK, so it's been so hot. None of us have been sleeping. We've got a loft conversion as our main bedroom, and it just heats up like an oven. None of us have been sleeping very well. I'm so tired. The bags under my eyes, they've got a whole life of their own today. Also, it's all go, go, go with this house. We're trying to spruce it up, finish a few little jobs around the place, get the best price for it. We've started looking at other properties now, so we've actually got bookings in, and I think we've got two tomorrow, one today. We've already seen two houses. It's crazy. I never thought I'd be in a position where we're actually selling the house and moving. It's already quite stressful. I'm already feeling quite stressed. We're staying in the borough, but the borough is very big, so we're looking at all kinds of different places. We're also looking at all kinds of different properties, so property that needs a lot of work put into it that we'll be able to do straight away because they're priced lower, and then properties that are at the top of our budget that are all done and pristine and beautiful. We're really seeing a huge, wide range of houses. Quite sure what we're looking for exactly, just hoping that when we walk into the one, we kind of know. There's a lot going on in my brain right now, a lot to think about. As you can imagine, I'm scatty enough at the allotment when I've got multiple things going on. This is testing my brain to the full capacity right now, and it's exhausting me. I am exhausted all the time, and then I can't sleep because it's so bleeding hot at night, so it's just a bit all over the place. Anyway, we're going to go out now and have a lovely coffee walk. I'm going to try and calm down a little bit. I need to go water the allotment. I haven't been to the allotment very much this week at all. I've been once because it has been too hot. It's been a heat wave. It's been over 30 degrees every day. It's unpleasant, so all I've been doing is going down in the keeping it going, basically, but not doing anything much down there, so you haven't missed anything from the allotment, guys. I've not been there. We're going to go down there now, water everything, keep it all alive, go and get a coffee, have a nice little walk, try and de-stress a little bit. I'm wearing quite a nice outfit today. I'm wearing a dress. I don't have anything to wear in this kind of weather. What are people wearing? I want to wear something casual and not look overdressed, but everything I have that's cool and keeps me cool in this weather looks quite dressy. It's like dresses and stuff. I feel like I'm overdressed all the time at the moment, and I can't wait to be able to pull on some leggings and a jumper again. This is what I'm wearing. It's a dress. It's from Nobody's Child. I got it a couple of years ago in a sale. Nobody's Child is beautiful for dresses and stuff, but it's quite expensive. If you wait for the sales, so in the wintertime, if you look on their sale, they'll have all their summer dresses reduced. I think I got this for about 30 quid, reduced from about 60. It's not bad. I don't quite know where to put you to see me here. Can you see all the mess in my house as well? I hope not. It's just a dress with buttons down the front, and it's got blueberries, blueberries all over it, which I really like. Not that my blueberries are doing very well at all at the allotment, but you know what? I've got them all over me, so that's what I'm wearing. Look at my sweet peas. They have absolutely exploded. This has worked like 10 times better than I ever would have imagined it would work, and I sort of had it in my head that it would look beautiful, but my goodness, it's absolutely insanely beautiful. Look at them all, and the colours, all the different sort of colours within them. They're just beautiful. Absolutely. Look at these ones with all the different mauves in there, all the different purples. Oh my gosh. They're lovely, and then this one side, on the other side, we've had even more of an explosion because this is the side that gets the most sun, and we've just got all these lovely pink ones coming out. How gorgeous. Look at that. That is absolutely insane. I can't tell you how nice this smells. The smell, the smell is so strong. This is just absolutely amazing. Honestly, this is just, honestly, this has just worked like 50 times better than I could have ever, ever anticipated it would work. I'm so glad that I took the risk and planted these early. Oh, look, when the sun comes out. Oh my goodness. They're beautiful. I feel like I've done a pretty good job because it has been incredibly hot, too hot to come here and do anything, but everything has survived. I've managed to water everything, keep most things alive in the greenhouse, so I'm really happy with it, to be honest. Everything seems to have done a-okay. We seem to have kept it all alive. Also, my poppers on my dress keep popping open because I've put on so much weight recently. You know how I keep saying that I've been stressed, I've been stressed. I've just been overeating, and I've put on so much weight, and now none of my summer clothes fit me. I was trying to put shorts on the other day, and I couldn't even do them up. I just put so much weight on around my middle and all around here and stuff. I feel like I'm just bursting out of all my clothes. I'm either going to have to lose the weight, or I'm going to have to just buy some bigger clothes. I'm sort of going towards buying bigger clothes because life's too short, but that's where I am with my life right now. Right, this is alive. This is good. Tomatoes are always fine, guys. I keep saying they're indestructible. Look at the little tomato flowers. How lovely. Yeah, these are just getting bigger. These are super happy in here because it's nice and humid and hot for them, so they are happy tomatoes. Look what's happened. The second I've come to water everything, it's absolutely pouring. We've got a massive shower. I can't tell you how much the garden needs this. That literally came out of nowhere. We just had to dart into the greenhouse. That's so funny. Oh my gosh. I hope everything gets a nice drink. I'm aware I keep showing you the ducks, but I do really, really like them. Hi, guys. This is what I look like right now. This is the state of me. We've been home for a little bit, and we've just been doing stuff to try and sort the house out, painting, sorting out any little tiny details that we've kind of not bothered to finish, so like painting skirting board or painting around architraves and stuff like that, because apparently that's what buyers look for. I mean, when I'm looking at houses, I'm not looking at that stuff, but apparently a lot of people are. Anyway, I think we're going to go down to B&Q now and get some supplies, and I also might get a few planters that are already pre-planted for the front garden. This all feels like a bit of a cheat, and it's not something I would normally buy, like pre-done planters, because I think it's so much more fun and interesting to plant up your own pots, but I think for the purpose of selling the house, I'm kind of doing all those little tricks that people do. And yeah, we'll just go down to B&Q and see how it goes. I need to cook dinner tonight. We've had like... Actually, you know what? I have got ready meals. Maybe we'll just stick a ready meal on. I was going to say that we've had a lot of grab and go kind of dinners recently, just because we're doing so much work with the house. I don't have time to cook, and the kitchen's a state, because we've been painting walls and stuff like that. So I'll see what we're going to do for dinner. I'll see what we're going to do, and we'll see what we're going to do tomorrow as well. I think we've got a couple of house viewings and stuff. Pippin, are you waiting for your dindins? You're waiting so nicely. I need to get rid of Pippin's box. Pippin has got this box in my house, and he loves it, and he's been making holes in it, and I've got to get rid of it soon, because we've got to get photos done for our house, and we've got to sell it. Can't have a cardboard box in the room. Are you upset with me for saying that? Are you sulking, Pippin? Oh, Pippin, I'm sorry. This is his little box in the corner of the room that he's been working on. Look at all that cardboard everywhere. See, for me, this is a rabbit using something in my house, and he loves it, and it's his little fun thing, isn't it? He loves it. So it doesn't bother me, but I can understand how a buyer walking in the house might think, hmm, why is that cardboard box there like that? So we do need to tidy it away, Pipps. I know, I'm so sorry. Oh, look at you. All right, let's get your din-dins. Right, Pippy, you're going to have to have your dinner in here, because the house is a little bit of a mess. I don't want him running through paint or something. Rosie? Pippin? Are you in your box? There's your dinner. You could have your dinner in your box today. Aren't you lucky? Just say that if you are looking for roses for a really good price, go to your local B&Q, because they have such a huge range of different roses, so patio ones, climbing ones, really nice smelling ones, and they were really reasonably priced, kind of £50, £35. Some of them were like two for £20. So go to B&Q for your roses, guys. Right, I've got the goods. This is what I'm planting up. I've got carnations, got some of those pink ones, and I've got a couple of begonias to go next to the pot, and that's what we're going to put at the front of the house, I think. I think. We'll have to see how it comes together. Right, this is my cheap planter that I got from B&Q. It's the Verve range. They've got a Verve range, Verve, and all their stuff in it is really quite cheap, but it's a nice looking little planter. The only thing is, it doesn't have any holes on the bottom, so the water can't drain. So I'm just adding the holes now. That's what I'm doing, basically. So I think I'll just add a couple more. Can't have too many holes, that's what I say. I've always said that. Right, got some lovely carnations and some pink flowers here. Can you hear me over the wind? It's so windy. The sweet flowers are scented, what are they? What are you? Dianthus. They're Dianthus. Oh yes, of course, I have bought these quite a few times before, and I always forget what the name is, but they're Dianthus, and they're lovely. And these are the carnations, no, these are the chrysanthemums, sorry, chrysanthemums. I think they'll look really nice together on our windowsill at the front of our house. So I'm going to pack as many as I can into the planter and hope for the best, really. Right, that is really lovely. That's going to go on my front windowsill, and I think that's going to really brighten it up. I love it. And I've got some left, so I'm going to put them into the pots. I'll just put one in this pot. I reckon that'll get bigger, fill it out. Hi snail, what do you think you're doing? I haven't even planted this one out yet. Give it a chance, mate. See, I feel sort of in two minds about this now, because normally at this time of year, this area is all filled up with flowers, but obviously because we're moving house, I sort of didn't want to fill the pots too much, but I've ended up doing it anyway, because otherwise it doesn't look good for people looking around the garden. But some of the pots are sort of filling up now, and the dahlias are growing and not being eaten too badly, so I think the eggshells are working, which is... I said I was going to update you. This dahlia hasn't grown at all, so I think that's the dahlia's problem, not the eggshells. This one, this one has grown, and it's not really been eaten. I think I've done that. I think I just knocked it. Oh well, that's basically pinching it out, so it'll be fine. But yeah, I think the eggshells are working on the dahlias. But yeah, I'm just trying to sort of make it look like a nice area at the end of the garden, without putting too much money and effort into it, because we're literally moving. So a bit of a complicated year really, a bit of a complicated situation, but I obviously want it to look appealing, and I think it does. I think people will get the idea. I think it looks like a nice seating area. Yeah. Right, I know that I have changed again. It's actually a different day, but we're going to continue with the gardening theme now, and because I remembered that I have planted these chillies, or sown these chilli seeds, chillies and peppers, I... my goodness, I've actually labelled them, I can't believe it. These have been sitting on my loft window for the longest time. They have grown pretty well, but one of them's starting to get flowers, so I really think I need to pop them on and plant them outside now. I think it's warm enough for chillies and peppers to go outside, because it is June. So even though we're not getting like the best weather, I think they can go out. This is the one that's been getting flowers, and it is a tea dream. Tea dream? That might be short for something else. I think this one is a pepper, and these are longhorn, longhorn ones, and I've got two in there. Again, these are getting flowers. Look, I've got a flower on that, so that's not good. That... oh, I've just pulled the flower off. They need to go outside, basically. They need to be potted on, and then this one is a lemon drop. So I've been doing my best to keep them alive. I think you... I think you'll agree I've done pretty well, but it's time to get them out. Let me just really quickly show you my kitchen. It's a little bit hard, because I don't feel like I can show you too much of my house, for obvious reasons. It's about to go on the market. So I've sort of told you about all this DIY that we're doing, and then I haven't kind of shown you, or been able to show you very much of what we've done. Let me just show you the kitchen, because you have been seeing it as a mess for the longest time, and I'm actually so proud of what we've done. So firstly, I don't think you've ever seen my kitchen this tidy before. Look at the surfaces. It's absolutely insane, but the big change is the flooring. We've gone with this really pretty kind of roll-up flooring. Is it vinyl it's called, or something like that? It's really comfortable to walk on. It's really, like, soft, and we spent a long time putting this down, and it kind of complements the colours of the door and the cupboards. Oh yeah, I painted the same colour as the kitchen cupboards, because I thought it sort of looked a little bit better, and we've also put this little curtain over where the bin was. So I just think the kitchen is looking so much nicer now, and I'm really, really proud of it. And the reason why we haven't done it for so long is because we were going to get the kitchen extended, but now that we're moving, we've just had to, like, zhuzh it up a little bit, and make it, I don't know, bring it up to standards, which is probably something we should have done before, but we didn't want to waste money doing it, knowing we were getting it extended. That's what we've been up to, but for now, let's get back out in the garden, just while the sun's out. I bet it goes in the second we go out, guys. Right, I've got a couple of pots here, so I think we'll just put a couple up in here, and I'll find a couple more pots at the back of the garden that haven't been planted into, but I've got two of these, which are quite pretty. They've got this little tree on there. I'm not sure what they're called. Sanctuary Home and Garden. There you go. I'm not sure if I'm going to have quite enough compost to fill up both of these pots, but I'm going to give it a go. We'll do as much as we can. Right, there we go. I've got three pots that I've just about managed to fill up, so we're going to put the lemon drop, this one, the tea one, tea dream, and then one of these. Maybe one of those in there. Okay, we'll just go for it and try. Oh my goodness me, look at the roots. Look at the roots on that. It's just going round and round, and that's when it becomes pot bound. If it stays in a pot for too long, the roots go round and round, and they'll never find their way out, so I might need to break a few of those roots. Just gently run my glove along like that, and that will just encourage the roots to kind of spread out. Right, that's the lemon drop. We've got one of these. I think I'm just going to plant them both together. Well, maybe I'll sort of separate them. Plant both then, why not? I've got two longhorns in one pot, so if one of them dies, I've got a contingency, one growing, so that's good. They look all right. Right, I've got to harvest some of this broccoli today, because my broccoli at the allotment plot has flowered, and it's starting to flower at home as well. I think what might have happened is because of that heat wave that we have, the broccoli kind of bolted. It just developed really quickly and then bolted straight away without me realising, so I wasn't quite on the ball with the broccoli. It looks amazing. I think I should be able to harvest that today, but what is going on with my onions and garlic? It all seems to have flopped over, which is really strange. Does that mean that it's ready then? It doesn't feel ready, because it just doesn't look very big. Should I pull one up and see? Has this been the heat wave? Because I know when they're ready, they should flop over and kind of start to die back, which is what they're doing, but I don't feel like they are ready. Hang about a second. I might be completely wrong here. Let's just... How do I pull it up? So this is a... I'll be darned. Are you joking me? Are you joking me? Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. I've never grown garlic this good before. Oh my goodness me. Do you know what it is? Do you know what it is, guys? At my allotment plot, I have white rot, which is a really awful kind of... I don't know if it's a fungal infection or a bacteria, but it's in the soil and it affects alliums. Whenever I grow onions or garlic, the bulbs come out with a little bit of white rot on, so I've never been able to grow it. But obviously, in my home garden, these are new raised beds with new soil. No white rot on this at all, and this looks absolutely fantastic. I don't know if it's quite ready yet though. Should I leave it a few more days, do you think, for it to properly die back? The shock that I feel right now of holding this in my hand, it actually looks like a really, really good garlic bulb. It's really firm. It's not like... I'm just so not used to it. I'm used to it being a little bit funny. I can't believe I've grown that. The onions are doing the same, but I don't feel like they're done. I'm going to pull an onion up just to have a look, because they're flopping over the same as the other ones. Okay. Okay, firstly, it's not an onion. I think it's a shallot, or is it a specific type of onion? Is it one of those senshu onions? That is really, really, really good. I know it's a bit small, but I tell you what, it's got no damage, no white rot. It feels really firm. This is something that I really wanted to grow with my lotman, and something that I can't grow because of the white rot. This is so exciting. I think potentially they might need a few more days, because I think they should be a lot more dead than this. There's still a lot of green in there, and I want to see more brown. I think I'm going to leave them a little bit longer just to develop or do whatever they do, but I'm definitely going to keep these. The carrots aren't quite ready yet, but I just had a little bit of a dig around one. Look at that. There is orange. There's actually an orange carrot under there. I don't think they're quite ready. I think they need longer, but oh my goodness me, they are so healthy and big and thick and just lovely. That's amazing, and also my beetroot is really developing here. I tell you what, new raised beds are just a dream. You can just, I think particularly in the first year, you can get away with so much, and you can really just grow like crazy. My parsnips are doing really well. This is amazing. I will definitely be putting new raised beds into my new garden. It'll be one of the first things that I do. Fill them up to the top with brand new compost, and I will grow veg at home as well, because it just seems to do so well. I just thought I would show you my little planter outside the window. It's so hard to show you, because I don't want to show you the front of my house, but that is what it's sort of looking like through our window, so you can see all the reflections on that. I've also got the begonias out as well, so just either side of the window box are two begonias, and then I've also got front of the house. Anyway, I'm going to end the vlog there, because I've woken up today. The weather is terrible. It's just raining, raining, raining. We've actually got loads of house viewings to do, so I'm not going to be doing any baking or cooking. I will be back again next week with some cooking and sorting out the courtyard bit of my garden, I think, which really needs sorting out, and so hopefully you'll be around for that. Hopefully it will stop raining as well. Oh my gosh, this week is looking like rain every single day, so I don't know how much I'll be able to get to the allotment. Hopefully I'll be able to go there a few times and just get some vlogs. I need to feed Einstein. I need to sort out the weeds. I need to stop the slugs and snails, so there's lots of reasons to go there, so I'm hoping for a few dry moments, and hopefully I can go down there and just film something, maybe see some frogs. Who knows? Who knows what we're going to see? Anyway, thank you so much for watching this week's vlog. I will be back again next Sunday in my home garden, or you can catch me at the allotment plot hopefully tomorrow. I haven't filmed anything for tomorrow yet, but hopefully I will film something tomorrow morning and have it up by 5 p.m., so join me on the allotment plot tomorrow. How many times have I said hopefully in this? My gosh, I'm obviously feeling very hopeful at the moment. See you next time. Thanks for watching. Bye.