A WALK AROUND THE ALLOTMENTS / LETS GET SOME INSPIRATION

Good morning guys, welcome back to my allotment channel. My name's Emma, these are my allotment diaries. I thought I would do something a little bit different today for today's vlog and I thought I would take you on a bit of a tour of the allotment site. I do this every so often and I think it's really nice to see other plots, see inspiration. I'm not going to show too much of other people's plots but little ideas and stuff, plants, things that I think maybe might inspire you things that inspire me I know a lot of us like to go for walks around our own allotment sites and just see what's going on it's a great way of getting inspiration what grows well on someone else's plot is likely to grow quite well on your plot because if you think about it even though we all have our own plots it's kind of a shared piece of land and so we've got the same soil type we might be tackling similar pests we might all have the fox problem and the cat problem and it's always good to get an idea of what other people are doing and how they're combating those problems and also just to see what's working and see if there's something someone's growing that maybe you want to grow on your plot next year so I thought we would go around have a little look so let's go so I've had my allotment plot for six years this allotment site is the biggest one in my borough I think it has over 200 plots here which have been divided up into smaller plots because this is London and so the waiting lists are really long and what the council do is they split plots up into smaller sections so they can give them to more people. So though I've got two allotment plots I actually have two half plots. Obviously this is my allotment plot so I'm not going to hang around here too long because I know you see it all the time but as you can see I've gone for the raised beds, the wood chip pathways, I've got a shed in the greenhouse over there and it's quite a big space I also have these beautiful trees in the middle of my plot which I'm so happy with and I hope will stay forever though if the council have anything to do with it they won't last much longer because they seem to be chopping a lot of trees down around here which is such a shame but um that's my allotment plot so I think we'll take a left turn this is the communal pathway which takes you right along to the end of the allotment site um this is sometimes where people dump rubbish unfortunately but it's it's also where i find all the treasures for my allotment and i do repurpose as much as i can sort of find on this on the site as long as it's on the pathways unfortunately there are still quite a lot of plots on our site which look like this which is such a shame this one is the one that's next door to me i'm not really surprised it's still like this and either no one's taken it on which is what i think has happened um or they've taken it on and they literally don't know where to start with it i don't think i would know where to start either um but it's such a shame to see plots like this but i do think the council should kind of get involved and try to um clear it for people because this is just a lot for anyone to take on what do we think this little tiny room in this shed was used for when it was sort of all made up i'm guessing toilet do you reckon this was a little toilet where he used to do his business in here oh my gosh i really hope i'm wrong with that i mean there's lots of nails on the wall so maybe he'd hang stuff up here maybe it's toilet roll i don't know what else would you use such a small space for got some poly tunnels coming on i've had a couple of poly tunnels in my allotment plot over the years unfortunately they do fly away so you have to really make sure that they are um tied down properly because it does get quite windy where i am love these teeny tiny fruit trees i think these are so great for allotment plots because you don't have to worry about you know growing a gigantical tree that you've got to keep pruning um i think these are patio these patio fruit trees am i being crazy with that i think they're like designed to be smaller um and just so perfect for an allotment plot i think yeah i think they're the kind of trees that you can put in a pot on your patio that someone's just whacked them into the ground but i'm pretty sure they give you a lot of fruit there are a couple of plots down here which have been taken on quite recently and i really want to see what they've done with them because they've i've seen them clearing them and i know that they're doing a fantastic job and yes they are my goodness so this is what they've done to the back of their plot behind their sheds look at this isn't this such a fantastic idea so it's always a good idea to have flowers at your allotment because it encourages a lot of pollinators obviously um but this is such a lovely idea for sort of behind the shed and i think it's definitely an idea i am going to steal for my allotment plot because I think that is just beautiful that's a really clever palette table isn't it it just looks so neat and organized doesn't it and so perfect and that shed is just lovely that color of that shed is gorgeous lovely sage green this is just lovely and look at that little green greenhouse down there I love that that is one nice greenhouse this is the pathway where I usually find quite a lot of things that I can take away obviously this is also where people pile up the rubbish that they find on their new allotment plots as well so but sometimes you do find some treasures another plot another new plot which has gone with the flower borders I think the flower borders are such a fantastic idea I don't know why I never thought of making borders around my plot filled with flowers this is just gonna look so stunning when it all gets going and gets like established i just think that's genius a lot of dahlias have done really well this year mine did absolutely terribly but there's a lot of dahlias on these plots which are just thriving of course i was always going to come across some overgrown plots some of the plots here have been cleared by the council but unfortunately the new tenants or they haven't been let or whatever's happened but they have become overgrown again i did find that there was actually less overgrown plots this time than my previous walk arounds which is a good thing. Forever one of my favourite allotments at the allotment site and one of the plots that I first saw when I got here and really inspired me. This is one of the plots that I would come and look at and it would keep me going with my plot because I wanted it to look like this. Like I said this is one of the plots that massively inspired me and motivated me to keep going when I first got my allotment. I love how she has repurposed so much stuff there is new things added to it all the time and it's just the most inspiring space and i really aspire my plot to look like this one one day i love this wall of runner beans that is so clever just an entire wall this would be better than those blackberries that i've got because i really do want to keep some privacy around my allotment so i can sort of film and stuff but i would like to utilize the kind of space around my borders more i think this is a really really great way of doing that runner beans are just so prolific aren't they they really do just grow like crazy and they do last like for months and months so it would give me kind of that coverage and that border that i'm looking for for months while providing me with flowers and food as well to pick i mean we're in october and it's still thriving like this and it's just beautiful i think i have grown this variety before i think it's moonlight moonlit moonlight um tastes the same to be fair but the flowers are white instead of red and they look gorgeous we're out at the front of the allotment now where you've got the all the building work and also the giant piles of wood chip um and then that over there is the community allotment plot where sort of members of the public are invited on to do growing lessons and you know how to grow your own food and schools come and sort of learn how to grow and stuff with the kids so all of that over there is the community allotment this is our community wood chip pile and then the allotment plots will start on this side i'm just going to put it out there but i think my stick storage unit is better than just putting it in a bucket i've got a palette haven't i and i just sort of slot them in the palette i think mine's better probably the only thing i've seen that i actually think i've got right um there's not much else so this is one of my friend's plots and this great big pile of rocks here it's a really great habitat for wildlife but she actually did that because cars kept driving over the edge of her plot which was really annoying and she's also had to board up all of her shed windows because of vandals which is not great and it is something that we all struggle with here. I'd love to find an old sink like this. These are the new raised beds which are donated to the community allotment plot aren't they fantastic they're basically like the ones that i've got the metal ones but a lot deeper and they've actually filled them up to the top that would be like my ideal back garden um vegetable garden setup like if money was no option if i had the space this is what i would have i think having really deep raised beds like this just i think it's such a great way of growing you don't have to bend down i just think they're amazing this is where all those lovely sunflowers are that i always film every time i come into the allotment i'd like to build something like that that looks fantastic i'm not entirely sure what it's for there's a lot of buildings around here isn't there there's a lot of buildings around here i'm not entirely sure what they're using this for but this is the kind of pergola thing that i would like to build it's sort of got a plant pot hanging from it i suppose you could put some sort of wood across it and then you could have rope come string coming down you could have like tomatoes propped up in here or something But this is exactly the kind of structure that I would like to build. It doesn't look too hard, does it? Looks like they've literally just propped the wood on top of each other and then just drilled through it. This is a much better example of when I try to use the water pipe and put netting over it. This is a much better example of that. This is a lot neater. I think it's because they have stapled the water pipe onto this or like fixed it onto a wooden frame so it stays very, very still. and then you can put the netting over very tightly i think they've got strawberry plants in here so they're protecting it from the birds um but this is a just a really good example of how neat you can make it i think i might need to up my game a little bit yeah another really good example see people are putting me to shame now that is so fantastic that looks so structurally sound there's so much stuff on this plot that's been repurposed i'm not entirely sure what that is it looks like an old cot or something um but they're repurposing a lot of stuff for structures and i absolutely i absolutely love that um i think the more you can repurpose an allotment the better and they've got all this stuff here ready to sort of use up and like they're just bringing look at this old washing um thing what's it called a clothes horse that could easily be used for propping up some plants that is brilliant almost every plot that i've seen has got a flower bed And I'm really starting to think that's the inspiration I'm going to take away today Is that I want a designated flower bed along the end of my allotment plot Whenever I see anyone growing into a bathtub it really makes me laugh I think it's just brilliant There we go, a little walk around my allotment site I hope this has given you a little bit of inspiration I think it's so nice to see what other people are growing What's growing well on their plots I think the takeaway for me is that I need to up my structure game and make my structures more structurally sound because i think it makes a huge difference not just to the way the plot looks but also to how well you can protect your crops and also i love the flower bed idea i think i'm going to try to sort of put that into my plot over the autumn time make room for it somewhere i'm not entirely sure where yet i thought i was thinking along the back of my allotment plot here this seems to be where everyone's done it along the back side of the allotment plot so i could very easily make a flower bed right along here right back right along the back of my shed and maybe even at the back of my compost heaps as well um and i think it would just be really nice and i could make it all neat and i could grow things like they are i just think that's a great idea it's definitely something to think about you know that i love flowers and i do i do implement flowers like all around my allotment like in my beds where i'm growing crops and you know just all over the place um i don't sort of separate my vegetables and my flower beds if that makes sense however I think it would be really nice to have more of a perennial flower bed along the back there I could put lavender maybe some more clematis um rose bushes I've always wanted to grow rose bushes I think it would make a huge difference to the to the plot and I wouldn't have thought that if I hadn't seen other people doing it now that I've seen the difference that just that little row of like perennial flowers can make to the entire allotment plot I think it's well worth doing I really do I'm actually quite inspired and excited by that um there are chickens but there were people on the chicken plot so I didn't want to go over and ask if I could film but somebody is definitely keeping chickens here which is just the most exciting thing I don't think I would be able to keep chickens on my plot because I'm not here enough I'm too far away I can't guarantee I'll be here every day to feed them and also I'd be so worried about the fox and the cats getting into the chicken coop it is sad to see so many plots still kind of abandoned and overgrown um but i do think they're less i think there's less overgrown plots than there ever have been and actually you know it has been a really difficult year and i think you have to find the right tenants for the plot and find people that are actually going to be consistent and put in the work and the plots that have been taken over and are growing really well now they've been done so beautifully you can see that so much love and time has gone into them and you know that they're going to be back every year so I think maybe it's just a bit of trial and error of trying to find the right tenants finding someone that actually wants to put their stamp on the plot and actually is going to enjoy growing and I think you can really see that in some of the plots I don't know if that sounds because I don't want to like tell I don't want to be one of those people that kind of oversteps or anything but you can definitely you tell when love has been put into the allotment plot even if it's not finished even if there's still rubbish on it somewhere even if only half of it's been cleared you can really see when somebody actually wants it to work so it's sad to see so many plots abandoned but actually they are less than ever before and actually I think the right tenants will come along and hopefully make it into a fantastic space but yeah that was so fun to see all the different plots and to have a little walk around i hope you've enjoyed this vlog something a bit different from me um but let me know let me know what you took away from this vlog if you found any inspiration for your own plots and i will see you in my next video thank you so much for watching guys bye