A SIMPLE PALLET STRAWBERRY PLANTER / SEPTEMBER 2022 / EMMA'S ALLOTMENT DIARIES

Good morning everyone, welcome back to my allotment diaries. My name is Emma, these are my allotment diaries. I'd love for you to subscribe to my YouTube channel if you're not already a subscriber. There are other ways to follow me just down below in the description box as well. I'm at my allotment plot today, we're in the we're at the end of September now and I'm gonna work on my strawberry planter and that's my job today. I'm not feeling 100% today, I woke up with a bit of a headache and a sore throat and so I'm not going to stay here that long but you know what helps when you're not feeling well? Nature and being outside and just being at my allotment plot to be honest. So I knew it would make me feel better today to be here so I'm going to get here. I'm going to do something basically I want to paint it today and I'm going to paint it this colour, it's the same colour that I painted my shed, it's called Sweet Pea it's by Coopranol, is that how you say it? Coopranol? Sweet Pea is the colour and so that's what I'm going to do first basically, let's go and paint it. So this is going to be my new strawberry planter basically and I've just basically emptied out this bed because the strawberries kept going crazy they're all quite happy here in little pots and a lot of these are runners as well so they're probably going to be quite not giving me a lot next year but they will give me a lot eventually so this bed's now free, that's going to be my planter I think the first thing that I'm going to do is get rid of some of these because these are ornamental grasses, they're a nightmare they just seem to keep popping up in my allotment plot so I'm going to try and get rid of them first they're such a nightmare to get out if you've got anything like this it's like a reed, I think it's like a reed I call them ornamental grasses because I don't know what they are but the roots are insane, insane and they just multiply like crazy next thing I'm going to do is just try and secure it to the shed a bit using one of these just so that it doesn't fall down or anything and then what I'm going to do is use poles but that's another story, I'm going to use the drill first so wish me luck I don't think it's going to go in there, is that all attached? yes Emma, that's all attached, okay fine, that's good, okay I'm just checking come on Emma, you know what you're doing, you know what you're doing, I'm not an idiot make sure it's in the right position before we start, oh shit it's secure and it's, okay good, right, talking to myself is really helping actually, I feel more confident now, right, let's get it in there we're in, we're in, it's blooming in though, I know it's cracked a bit but it's in it's in, it's in, right can I just take this time, just add a little disclaimer here, I actually did that perfectly the other side and I didn't film it, that's why I filmed that one, I thought you'd be super impressed, this one just went in, look, that one's absolutely flush, it's completely fine, it went in no problem at all and I just thought, oh brilliant, I'll do the other side and film it obviously the other side doesn't go right at all, it cracked it's cracked the wood, it's not gone in properly, it's not flush typical right, I do know how to do it, it just always goes wrong when I film it, honest there we go, isn't that lovely, if you like pink of course, if you don't like pink it's awful isn't it, terrible right this is how it's looking now, so it's all nice and painted less some of it rustic because why not, it sort of blends into the shed, I quite like that now, I'm happy with that, so while that's drying and these are quite happy sitting here, I thought I would just show you a couple of things that I'm quite excited about that are growing one of them being my sweet corn, now if you've followed my journey you might know that I planted my sweet corn out really really late I actually started them at home in like a container and they all died so then I direct sowed them kind of in July maybe, in July they're not very big, they are a swift variety so I know that they don't get very tall anyway but they're actually turning into sweet corn by that I mean they're getting these little things at the top which are the flowers which need to pollinate to create the actual fruit and they're all getting them, I can't believe it even this teeny teeny tiny one is getting a little flower on the top now I'm not getting any corns yet, is that what they're called, cobs cobs or corns, these might be the start of them, these little things here but I'm not entirely sure because I've never sort of, I've never been on sweet corn watch before, do you know what I mean, I've never sort of like watched them and seen where things come from this year obviously I'm fascinated because I can't believe they've grown this could be one actually, is this sort of where they come from from here, this could be the start of one which is quite exciting, if I get one from these plants I'll be absolutely amazed but to be honest I'm just thrilled that they've actually grown and they are beautiful beautiful plants aren't they and then if you follow me over here so many aeroplanes today to sprout bed, I was gonna say sprout bread, not sure about that, sprout bed is doing so well and I'm getting so many sprouts on the plants, literally all the sprout plants are doing fantastic and then just in here you can see the little baby sprouts forming and that's where they sort of form and even this little plant here he's got loads of little baby ones as well the only thing that I've done to these sprouts is nothing that's literally it, I've left them alone and I haven't just interfered with them and because of that I think they've just excelled and done really well but I've literally just left them alone, sometimes plants just want to be left alone I think, I'm starting to learn that, oh look who's look who's hanging out in here though, look we've got a little snail party oh I got a little snail party going on in there, let's let's get rid of these, come on off you go so while that strawberry plant is drying because I am going to try and finish it I need to remove some of those nasturtium plants away from my new pumpkin plants I've planted which are definitely going to die because it's too late in the season to be planting pumpkins but I did it anyway because you know me, I'm a rebel but you can see the nasturtiums have just exploded into nasturtium jungle considering that I did not plant a single nasturtium this year, not one not one seed did I plant and they've come up like this but they're kind of covering everything else so I think some of nasturtium jungle might need to push off basically I don't enjoy pulling out healthy plants and those plants they're really nice nasturtiums, absolutely beautiful gorgeous plants but I have got runner beans here that were getting a little bit smothered and are now sort of growing up nasturtiums instead of growing up the archway which is annoying but these are the moonlight ones you see the flowers, so so pretty made a bit of a mess of it now but I want these pumpkins to sort of survive and they're still growing so I'm quite happy with them and then I want the runner beans to sort of have more room as well these pumpkins never did anything did they even though they flower they're just teasing me now right it's not quite dry but we're going to move on because we can't be here all day I'm wearing a pink jumper anyway so if I get pink on it no one will know right right what we're going to do is we're going to use these old bags these old compost bags to make the inside of the planter I've got a staple gun there it is I've said it before I'll say it again if you've got an allotment plot and you don't have a staple gun you need to go and get yourself a staple gun pretty sharpish because this little baby comes in handy all the time for me everything everything is staple gunned at this entire allotment plot everything's just staple gun together except shed which is nailed mainly what we're going to do is we're going to staple gun this to the inside of it and cut around it it's very very simple let's do it right I've turned it inside out so you just see the black bit not the purple bit there's not a lot of skill to this you just sort of do it just put it in like that staple gun it can't have a staple gun there oh no we can we can just staple it in there right then don't forget to put some drainage holes in the bottom just cut them and that's it basically that's it I'm sort of slowly getting like more and more desperate to go home because I'm not feeling 100% and I want a cup of tea to be honest but I'm going to keep going and I'm going to get them in here today because I've made them a new home and I think they deserve to see it so I'm just filling it now with compost which is just from the strawberry bed because I think the compost is really good I know I will get some weeds in it but I think if I just consistently weed I mean I think you get weeds everywhere at an allotment plot even if it's in a pot so I'm just going to fill them up I haven't put the drainage holes in yet and that's on purpose I'll show you why quickly because I've made one of these at home before if you put the drainage holes in before you put in the compost it can be folded at the bottom and then when you put your compost in it like either creates a massive hole or it doesn't drain properly so now I've got my compost done it's like nice and like pulled tight so now I can just pop some holes in exactly where I need them so much easier I bet you didn't think you would be getting tips as well right finished done it that's my little plant and my little strawberry plant I'm so super happy with it let me know what you think of it in the comments below it's one of those videos where I've been here for hours but I haven't actually filmed hours so I hope you enjoy the vlog if you do do subscribe to my channel I hope that this has inspired you to get planting and building something in your allotment plot don't worry about how much experience you've got because I am absolutely useless when it comes to things like this and I think that looks pretty good to be honest I'm pretty happy with it so let me know what you think if you are new to my channel subscribe to my youtube channel for more allotment fun and I'll see you next time on Monday see you Monday guys thanks for watching bye