A HUGE SURPRISE ON THE ALLOTMENT! / I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS WAS HERE!

What is that? Oh my god, what is that? What's happening? He scared me so much. What are you doing in my greenhouse? Eh? Look at him. Absolutely terrified me then. Honestly. Oh my goodness me. He scared the absolute bejesus out of me. I tell you. My goodness. Where did he come from? It's because I've left my greenhouse door open. Oh my gosh. I need like a minute to get over that. What was he up to in here then? What's he been doing? Nothing. I think he's just been snoozing and lying down in here. Honestly. Anyway, how are you all doing? The heatwave has broken guys. It's gone. We're now kind of back to normal. Kind of end of June, beginning of July temperatures. Though it is getting up a little bit hotter next week. But this week it's looking very nice. So I'm hoping that we can get some actual gardening jobs done. Which would be great. Because my allotment plot is looking very... I was going to say hungover. I think it does look hungover. It looks hungover from the heatwave. We've got quite a few weeds. It's looking a little bit overgrown. A little bit messy. A little bit hungover I suppose. It's an easy good old kind of tidy up. There's also a few things to harvest. A few jobs to do. So I think we'll start with giving things a bit of a water. Because though the heatwave has gone. It is looking a little bit dry in here. My lettuces down here. Which did not bolt during the heatwave. Look like they're about to bolt. Bolting is something that happens to your crops. When they're under extreme stress. Usually heat. So when it gets very hot. And you can see that my lettuce here. Doesn't look like a normal lettuce. So this one. That I would say looks like a very harvestable lettuce. The kind of one you get in a shop. Where it's kind of a compact ball. But if you look at this one. It's starting to get taller in the middle. And it will continue to get taller. Until it starts throwing up shoots of flowers. And that means the plant has bolted. If you just really simply. Just to simplify it. Think about why a plant makes flowers. It's not actually so we can pick them. And put them in pretty vases. It's actually so they can make seeds. And sew themselves around. And make more of themselves. So when a plant bolts. It's panicking. It thinks it's coming to the end of it's life. It can't withstand the extreme temperatures. So it throws up it's flowers. And in the flowers are it's seeds. And it tries to set seed. Before it finally gives up and dies. So that's why plants bolt. And that's why we have flowers obviously. So plants can make their seeds. So it's just something to be aware of. Especially during a heatwave. Or just after a heatwave. Keep an eye on your plants. Because they might start bolting. Brassicas do it a lot. Lettuces do it a lot. Things like rocket. That does it a lot all the time. Just keep an eye. I didn't actually feed any of my crops last week. So I'm going to give some of them a tomato feed. I'm actually going to focus on my pumpkins outside. Because I think the tomatoes can do with a fortnightly feed now. Now that they've got going. And they're starting to make tomatoes. I think I'll feed them every two weeks. Not every one week. With pumpkins you could use a liquid seaweed. I used to use a liquid seaweed. But now I've just got tomato feed. Because it kind of does more crops in one tomato feed. Let's give those pumpkins a feed. You're just going to sit there are you? Yeah? I don't know why we're suddenly mates. We don't even know each other. Apparently my plot is the plot to be on. So this pumpkin here is doing particularly well. It's really starting to climb up the archway. Which is incredibly exciting. I can also see a couple of runner beans. Starting to scale to great heights. Which is good. It's what we want them to do. Down on the floor we do have a couple of jack belittles. That have survived. Which is excellent. Can you see him here? So he has survived a slug and snail attack. Is that a jack belittle? Yes I think it is. And he is actually getting more leaves as well. So he's doing quite good. That's excellent news that is. We have flowers. We have some cosmos. Which are doing very well. They're getting very bushy. Which is what I wanted them to do. So they can give me an abundance of flowers. And these are the multi-petalled cosmos. Look at that. Isn't that absolutely stunning? So much prettier than the standard cosmos. Though they are very pretty as well. But I just have a thing about petals. Look how gorgeous. And then we've got the sunflowers. Getting very nice and tall. Looking fantastic. The nasturtium along the bottom of the archway. Is looking particularly nice I think. Really gorgeous. Lots and lots of different colours there. And on both sides as well. Which just looks fantastic. I love those. And then look one of my sunflowers here has flowered. Look at the colour of that. Isn't that absolutely amazing? Archway just looking very much alive at the moment. If I pan round a little bit. Can you see? How things are kind of getting a little bit overgrown. But at the same time everything's blooming. Everything looks really happy. There's such a fine line between it being overgrown. And out of control. And like being just a little bit free and wild. There's such a fine line. But there are things that you can do. To kind of make it look more under control. Just keeping like hedges trimmed nicely. And stuff like that. And keeping the grass down. And that just immediately kind of makes it look more structured. I do like my allotment being a little bit wild. I do. I get so many insects and bees and butterflies. And birds and animals. I just love that kind of slightly wild. Slightly is it going to completely get out of my control look. I think that's the look I just sort of gravitate towards. Or is that just an excuse? You be the judge. Right. Main crop potatoes looking fantastic. And I tell you what. Getting so big and bushy. And starting to produce some flowers on the top. Which is a fantastic sign. Because it means the plants are really healthy. A lot of people like to take the flowers off. To help encourage the potatoes to grow bigger. I tend to leave the plants to do whatever they want to do. I have not earthed these up. And you can see they've got very very tall. So it's too late to earth them up completely. And cover them over. But I will be earthing them up now. So just grabbing some of this soil. And basically piling up around the roots. Because basically what I want to do. Is make sure that the potatoes. When they start to grow under the ground. Don't appear on the surface. So if a potato starts to grow. And then starts to pop out from the soil. The sunlight will hit the potato. And it will turn green. And that means the potato is poisonous. And it can no longer be eaten. So even if I'm just earthing them up. Around the base here now. It will keep the potatoes tucked under the ground. That's really what I'm looking to do now. Right my poor sweet peas. Are definitely starting to finish now. This I'm not surprised about. This is a result of the heat wave. It's just been getting worse and worse. Over the last few days. And now we've just got so many seed pods. So what I'm going to do is leave them. So that the seed pods can develop. Into seeds for next year. So I need to wait for them to dry out a little bit. And I will continue to pick the ones on the top. Which are still holding on. And doing their best. But can you see how short the stems have now become. On my sweet peas. Where they were once really long. They're now really short. And that is a bit of a sign that they're finishing. I mean it's pretty obvious they're finishing. But that is another sign of them finishing. Right my courgettes are doing fantastic. They're getting really big. I've got two plants here. And they seem so so happy. I actually didn't realise they do this well. Or I wouldn't have put the peas so close to them. But here we are. A couple of the pea plants have died. Which is a shame. A lot of them have survived. And are doing quite well. But some of them have died. So I'm going to re-sow some peas along here. Give it water. And then I'm going to fix this structure. It's the same variety. It's pea meteor. Which is an excellent variety. And obviously they germinated really well. So if it ain't broken don't fix it. They seem to be quite happy here. So I'll just whack them in. I did have an idea I would be re-sowing everything. After the heat wave to be fair. So it's not come as too much of a surprise. If I'm honest. And obviously the first lot did germinate very well. So I have high hopes for these peas. Flooded should I say. Look at that. This is actually a very well draining bed. But because of the heat wave. The top of the soil has dried out completely. And so water is just pooling on the top. So it might need a double water. Because that will sit on the top. And pool on the top. And take a really long time to go down. And the sun will evaporate it. Before it has a chance to reach the roots. And that's why we double water. I'm also looking at these very sad leeks. And I think I might just sow a row of seeds. In the row that's kind of died. So this row has done ok. This row has sort of died. So I'm going to sow a little row of seeds. What I'm going to do. Is I'm going to make a drill first. Water the drill. And then put my seeds in. There we go. Now we'll sow the seeds into that. These are the leeks I've sown. If you can see with the sun. Bulgarian Giant. Got a thousand seeds in there. Imagine having a thousand leeks. What would you do with a thousand leeks? Anyway, a lot of them are doing ok. So hopefully those ones will germinate too. But this bed is looking fantastic. We've got the sweet corn, the courgettes, the peas. And now the leeks. Somebody is enjoying my earthed up potatoes. Fantastic. She's having a lovely time. Right, I'm going to harvest the rest of my early potatoes. These are an early variety. Called Red Duke of York. So they're bright red. When you cook with them, unfortunately, once you've peeled the red skin off. They're normal colour. Which is quite disappointing. I'd quite like them to be red the whole way through. Far more exciting, but they're not. I've been pulling these up and harvesting them. If you can even see the potatoes. I know there are so many weeds in here. But I've been pulling them up as and when I need them. But I think it's time just to pull the rest up. So, right, let's get them up. There's so many weeds. I can't find the potato plants, honestly. Right, I think we've actually found one. It's a miracle. Right, let's pull him up. Yes! There we go. I'll pull this one up as well. And then we'll have a dig. Oh, there's another one. Fantastic. Look at that. Teeny, teeny tiny ones there. That's okay. They will all be hiding under here somewhere. So I have to be quite careful. Okay, that is the seed potato. Yuck. There we go. There's one. Where are all the potatoes? Is that it? Are you joking me? Where are the actual potatoes, though? Where on earth are all the potatoes? Oh, here they all are. You're all hiding in here. Gosh, I was going to say I didn't have any potatoes. Thank goodness for you guys, honestly. Oh, thank goodness. I will dig this all over. Don't worry. I will make sure I get every single potato out that I can find. Oh, look at that. That is fantastic. The soil is quite dry because of the heat waves so it's quite difficult to dig and find them. Oh, fantastic. Right, that is a pretty good harvest especially when it's like an early potato because, like I say all the time, they don't store very well. So I'm going to be making a huge potato salad and then also having doing something else with them as well. I think the potato salad will last a couple of days in the fridge. The bed needs digging over. You can see still a few potatoes on the soil. I need to dig over this, make sure I get all the potatoes out and then top it up and plant in my brassicas. And that is the plan for this bed. That's what I will be doing. The early potatoes are out. These are my second earlies and these will be ready probably in another few weeks. And then we can eat even more potatoes. Right, it is getting a little bit hot now so I think I might have to call it a day there. What is that? What's happening? Do you know I've had this sort of cauliflower growing here for ages and ages and I was going on about how it wasn't making a cauliflower. Oh my goodness. Look at the size of this cauliflower. That's my hand. What on earth? Where did you come from? Oh. Wow. For the longest time that was not giving me any cauliflower. It was giving me the biggest leaves in the world and no cauliflower, not even a tiny one. When did that happen? I've only not been here for a few days because of the heat wave. Is that a result of the heat wave? Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness, that is absolutely monstrous. I've never grown one this big and it's perfect. There's no slug or snail damage. There's nothing. It's the most perfect cauliflower I've ever seen in my life. That's unbelievable. I'd better harvest that today. Oh my goodness. I'd better pick it today in case it bolts. The last thing I want it to do is to bolt. Oh my gosh. I think I need shears. Right, I think these will work. I've got it. Let go of him, tomato. You can't have him. He's mine. Wow, wow, wow. Look at that. We'll be eating cauliflower for a year. It's bigger than my head. Oh my goodness. The size of it. The sheer size of it is unbelievable. I'm going to have to take all these leaves off. I'm not going to be able to get it home. Oh my goodness me. I can't get over it. I'm going to have to take the leaves off because I'm not going to be able to get it home. This is just... I really didn't think I'd get any kind of cauliflower from that plant at all. This is absolutely insane. You should see the amount of photos on my phone of this cauliflower. Honestly, I've taken like 15 million. My storage is filled up with pictures of a bleeding cauliflower. But look at it. Look at my head. And look at that cauliflower. It's so heavy. It is so heavy. Oh my goodness. And it smells incredible. I can't believe that. I can't get over that. I thought I was going to end the vlog and then I saw this. Oh my gosh. Right, I'm going to take my gigantic cauliflower home now. I hope you've enjoyed this vlog. I'll be back again on Friday with another one. Tidying up, sprucing up, planting out, doing some bits and bobs. Hopefully finding some hidden gems like this cauliflower. So I'll see you next time. Thanks so much for watching. From me and my cauliflower, goodbye.