OUT OF CONTROL TOMATOES! / EMMA'S ALLOTMENT DIARIES

Gosh, it's absolutely, absolutely ginormous. I've never experienced it, this is my first time. It might be my autumn plan. Good morning, good morning guys. Welcome to my little greenhouse here in South London. My name's Emma, these are my allotment diaries. I have an allotment plot here in South London, where I just grow my own vegetables. That's really what I'm all about, trying to grow my own food, flowers, and create a really nice garden space that I can enjoy. As you can see, the tomatoes are going a bit crazy. I've actually lost my scissors this morning, I can't find them. That's actually quite unusual at the moment. I don't know if you've noticed, but I have stopped losing stuff because I'm actually making a conscious effort to put stuff back and put stuff away when I leave, which means that I haven't lost things very often. But I've lost my scissors today, which is very frustrating. I think it might have been the tomatoes that hid them because they know, they know that they need a trim on the top because they are literally trying to conquer the world. You know, don't you? You know that I'm going to cut their heads off. They know, they know that. So they've hidden them somewhere, which is really rude actually. I haven't managed to get down here for about four days and unfortunately we've still had no rain. I think we had maybe 20 seconds where a little bit of water fell from the sky, but that was it. Nothing significant. However, these seedlings are still alive. I actually can't believe this. I thought they'd all be dead this morning. They've all survived. It's absolutely amazing that the pots are still damp and it's all to do with these trays that I put underneath. I will never sow seed without trays again in my entire life. And also the only ones that have sort of failed and by sort of failed, I mean completely died are these ones at the back, which I actually can't remember what on earth they are, to be honest. I might water them. They might come back. The leeks have survived, but these do not have a tray underneath and these are the only ones that haven't survived. All the others are doing so, so great. So this is good news, but obviously because I've not been here for four days and we've had no rain still, the very first job is to water and I have to water those pumpkins and I have to water in here as well. So that's the very first job. And then I will find my scissors and you will be decapitated. The pumpkins are alive with absolutely no damage because obviously we've had no rain. So there's no slugs and snails this year. And so there's no damage. They are getting bigger. I really feel like they're going to be okay, you know. This is the first year I felt really quite positive about the pumpkin situation. Obviously we're in August now. So they've got August, September, October to grow up the archway and give me pumpkins. Plenty of time. Plenty of time, guys. Hope you're listening to me. But yeah, they're just doing amazing. I wish that the nasturtiums hadn't all died. They've definitely not been happy with this heat wave. I mean, all the heat waves that we've had. We've had more than one. We've had about five, I think. They're really, really unhappy. Oh my gosh, is that grasshopper. Do not jump. There are so many grasshoppers this year. Tell me if I'm wrong, but I have literally seen more grasshoppers than I've ever seen before. I can hear them. I see them hopping about everywhere. I think they must be loving the weather. Or maybe because everything's died back this year because of the heat wave, we can just see them more. I can also hear the bird somewhere up there. Yeah, I can definitely hear him and he's not clicking at me. He's not clicking. He's singing. He's up straight away now. This is crazy. Back to the old days. Let's see if that is in focus. I think it is. Okay, off you go then. How cool was that? I don't even think the old Einstein would let me do that very often. Very occasionally, he became a little bit more confident with the camera. He knew it wasn't going to eat him or something. That was a pretty cool shot of Einstein, I think, if I captured it okay. Anyway, it's very difficult knowing what to do here at the moment. There's a lot of seeds that I've sown that have just not come up and I think it's because of the heat. They've just dried up and died. I don't want to put new plants out yet because we've got this intense heat still and no rain. New plants are going to need so much help, so much watering that I just can't keep them alive. I'd rather keep them in the greenhouse and plant them out later. So what I can do here is a little bit limited. I have noticed that there are a few areas of the allotment that have completely died this year. The strawberry bed being one of them, the strawberry bed is no more. It's gone. Not only does it not even look like a growing bed anymore, actually looks like part of the pathway, but also my strawberries have completely died and I know they could come back from this, but I feel like there's not much of a chance. Do you know what I mean? A lot of them have just completely disappeared as well, which is such a shame. Falling over. The strawberry bed has always been something I've struggled with. It always gets away from me. It always dries out and once the strawberries are finished, I sort of don't know what to do with it. It goes dormant and it just turns into a bit of a mess. I love strawberries though. I absolutely love strawberries. I actually don't think it's worth growing strawberries at my allotment anymore. I'm going to grow them at home where I can look after them and I think I'm going to grow them in like hanging baskets or something. I think that'd just be so much easier, protect them from slugs and snails, protect them from birds, keep them watered because they'll be right outside my kitchen. So we're going to clear this bed and we're going to think about something new in here for next year. I've just picked up stinging nettles. I didn't realise what was in that. I've only got one glove on because I'm trying to move the camera about. I've just picked up all that stuff and I've just literally picked up stinging nettles. Absolutely fantastic. Somebody did tell me, do not quote me on this for goodness sakes. For goodness sakes, this is not doctor advice, honestly. I'm not a medical professional at all, not even in the slightest. Don't even come to me for a plaster. But somebody said that if you get stung by stinging nettles, it cures hay fever or it helps with your hay fever symptoms. Do not quote me on it. I don't know if it's true or not, but somebody did say that and I thought it was very interesting because I get stung by them quite a lot, but I still get hay fever. So what does that mean then? That's probably not a very scientific experiment, but just to let you know, I get stung all the time and I still get hay fever. Put it together. Look at this spiky weed. This is horrible. Look at the actual size of those thorns. Oh my goodness me. This is absolutely horrible, whatever this is. I'm going to have to dig this up. Take that one off, even with my glove. That was so much fun. It's really sharp. There, look at that. Strawberry bed is gone. It's empty. You know what? It doesn't even look like a bed at all whatsoever. It really doesn't. If I just take away the sides. Yeah, you know what? I don't think it's working as a bed. It literally just looks like the wood chip. It literally just looks like the pathway. Right, new plan. Why do I keep falling over here? I think it's on like a hill or something. New plan. You know those metal raised beds that I've got in my home garden that I show you sometimes? I might show you at the end of this vlog actually. I'm going to get some of those and I'm going to have a raised bed area, a metal raised bed area here. That's what I'm going to do. That might be my autumn plan actually, because I need some projects for the autumn time. That's going to be my autumn project, putting in some metal raised beds here. I think they'll work at the allotment. I think I don't get as many slugs and snails in them. I think they're smaller and more compact. I can fill them up to the top with compost and maybe grow salad crops in there and stuff. Yes, yes, yes. That's the plan for this area. That's going to look so good there with the shed in front of it and then the metal raised beds. That's going to look so amazing. I'm really excited about that. Then also this year, I really want to make a little patio here and clear out the shed, obviously. Obviously, we're going to clear out the shed this autumn, guys, because I need it, but I'm going to create a little sitting area here and have my little raised beds in front of it. I think that's going to be really, really nice. Yes, I'm actually really excited about that. I'm really excited about that. Yes, that's a really, really good plan. Then I wish I had a plan for that area over there. I really do. This area here really frustrates me because it just becomes so overgrown every single year. This is the part of the new allotment that I didn't clear. I sort of left. And this is what happens when you don't clear something and you leave it. It just gets completely overgrown. I think that's my neighbor's pumpkin coming around my tree there, which is quite sweet. But yes, I literally don't have a plan for this area. It dies back every autumn, winter. You'll see it all die back and stuff and you'll see what's under there. But yes, I don't know what to do with it. I don't know what to do. Oh God, there's bees everywhere. They're trying to get me. This fennel here, this is bolted. But it's got the most beautiful flowers and the bees and the butterflies absolutely love it. And they're on it all the time. So I'm going to sort of prop it up. I just stood in the middle of it and all the bees were buzzing around me like, don't you even think about getting rid of these? They are gorgeous, but they have just completely bolted. So it's a shame because I really wanted to get fennel this year. I'll just prop them up a little bit so they're not sort of falling down like that. I'm working, I'm helping. Oh, I tell you what, it really smells like fennel. It smells gorgeous. Gosh, I love fennel so much. I wish I could actually grow it. Even the flowers smell of fennel. That's absolutely gorgeous. That's such a shame that it's bolted. I really don't think there's any fennel there, is there? No, no, it's sort of got to a really small size and then sort of stopped growing. So I think it has just completely bolted. So I don't think we're going to get any fennel. And then these are the seeds next to it that I put in. I think I put in some spring onion and lettuce seeds and they've just come to absolutely nothing. It's just not the year, I think, for growing stuff from a seed in the heat wave. It's just not, dries out far too quickly and it's all just disappeared. So yeah, just no luck at all. That's what I meant earlier when I said that it's like, it's just not the time to be putting new seeds and new plants in. So what I can do here is quite limited because it's just impossible right now. Right, I'm going to keep watering and then I've got a couple of jobs to do, but I need to find my scissors. I can't do them without my scissors. Where are they? No, I can't find them. I can't find them anywhere. They must be buried somewhere in the allotment. Oh, are you stuck, mate? Oh God, here we go. Come on then, mate. I'll show you the way. Don't panic. Stop panicking. Stop panicking, mate. You're making me panic. You're making me panic now. We're all panicking. Stay calm. Calm down. Stay calm. Remain calm. Go. He didn't go. He stayed in. You've just made the situation worse. The door was just there. I don't know why you made the situation worse. Ready? Go. Honestly. Oh my gosh, that was the situation. Oh my gosh, I just found my other glove. Result. Where's my bleeding scissors gone? Oh yeah, that was the situation. We can't find the scissors and we're going to have to use shears then. That's a bit of an awkward job to do with shears, but okay, that's what we have to do. So I really want to sort out and trim this lavender because all the flowers have died and it makes it healthier. If you don't trim lavender, then it becomes woody apparently. So it's really important to keep it trimmed. Get the fine weed off it. Obviously, the lavender is something that's doing consistently well, so I really want to look after it and make sure it comes back year after year. We'll just chop it, I suppose. Right, I want to chop off the heads of my tomatoes. I want to decapitate my tomato plants because I think that when you do that, it focuses the energy into what the plant's already producing. So the tomatoes it's already got on the plant instead of like focusing its energy on growing bigger. So I think it's a good idea. It's just, can I find the top of the plant because it's all bent over now? Yeah, I think that's a good idea. Yeah, see that's already got tomatoes on it, so I don't want to chop that bit. We'll leave that bit just to bend over like that. If you want to bend over like that, you can, it's whatever. If it doesn't have tomatoes on, I'm sort of taking it off. It's just got some flowers and no tomatoes, but the top of that can come off. It's up to the tomatoes. And then maybe I'll start taking out some more of the foliage again. What do you think? I was just so aware that last year I completely lost control of my tomatoes. I really think there's too much foliage on it. We're going to take out some of those leaves. I won't do what I did last time and take out too much, but some of these leaves are going yellow anyway. So I don't think they're doing any good to the plant as such. See like that, that, I don't know what that is. So that can just come out. Just coloured leaves can come off. That's so annoying that you just fell down literally as I hit record, that fell down. Right, that's better. Stay there, mate. Um, yeah, I thought, oh no, I think this is better. I think they're looking really good. I will pick some today, but I just remembered somebody left me a comment and said that my cucumber plant has got spider mite and to get rid of it immediately. And I forgot. So I'm going to get rid of it immediately. But apparently this is spider mite. I can see the little webs now. Absolutely. It's definitely spider mite. I've never seen this before. I have definitely heard of it because anything to do with spiders, I've definitely heard of. But can you see all these little webs all over it? That is spider mite. I've never experienced it. This is my first time. So I'm going to get rid of it. And thank you for letting me know. What a gorgeous, gorgeous colour. Oh my goodness. These are some of my favourite tomatoes as well. Any of the orange varieties are my favourite. They are so sweet. And it's so, so beautiful to pick. I'm not sure these are quite there yet. I think these are romas. And they're not quite there, but they're almost there. They're all starting to slowly change colour. And hopefully they've got enough light now. Enough sunlight to change. I've got another one down here looking so good. This one might be ready. I think we can get away with picking him. There's a few little cherry reds down here. I'll pick those. They look really great. Now this here, this little round courgette, this is more like the size that I should be picking them. Actually, I think you might need to get a little bit bigger. Or can you not see him? You might need to get a little bit bigger. But this is closer to the size that you're supposed to be picking these courgettes. Because then you can sort of stuff them and slice them and all the rest of it. All the rest of it. Unlike this one, which is absolutely huge. And I actually think what I'm going to do is pick it. And then I'm just going to leave it for the animals or to dry up. And use sort of as a pumpkin for Halloween. Because that's just far too big now. It's exciting when vegetables do get to this size. But it's not very practical for cooking and eating. Gosh, it's absolutely ginormous. This is far too big for a courgette. Absolutely far too big. It's very, very exciting. Don't get me wrong. Growing any veg really big is like super exciting to pick. But practically, when you're trying to grow food to eat, it's not very practical growing everything really, really big. Also, it doesn't taste as good when it gets big. But they tend to sort of taste better when you pick them young. So when they get bigger like this, they kind of lose their flavour a little bit. As much as I love growing massive giant veg like this, I think practically it's just not the one. So I'm going to leave that other one to grow for a couple more days. And I'm going to just sort of leave this one in my greenhouse, I think, to harden up. We'll use it for Halloween or something. It won't go to waste. I'll use it for something. Or I'll just get the seeds out and use the seeds the next year. That's an excellent idea actually. Right, I think I'm going to leave the vlog here today. And not take you home with me. Because I don't really have very much going on at home right now either, other than watering. But we will be back on Friday. We've got some jobs to do Friday. I just had a sneaky look at the weather and it did say rain tomorrow. Whether we get rain tomorrow, I do not know. But I will obviously keep you updated and let you know if we do. If we get rain, it's a game changer. There's so many more jobs that I can suddenly do. Let me know what you're up to in your allotments in your garden. And I will see you when I see you. Thank you so much for watching guys. Bye.