ALLOTMENT PLOT DISASTER / I'M GUTTED :( / MAY 2022 / EMMA'S ALLOTMENT DIARIES

Good morning guys, welcome back to my Allotment Diaries. My name is Emma, these are my Allotment Diaries. I'd love for you to follow along by subscribing to my YouTube channel. There's also loads of ways below that you can follow me, including my blog. I've just released my first newsletter so if you're interested in receiving like a newsletter from me weekly, I'm going to do it every Sunday, just go onto my blog and on the sidebar you can just type in your name and email address and you'll sign up to my newsletter and I will send you updates on everything I'm doing because I don't just do social media, I'm also writing for magazines now and I'm being interviewed by people and stuff and it'd be great just to be able to update everyone and show you what I'm up to if you're interested. There you go, the things happened that I've been so bloody worried about happening and you know I'm doing this pumpkin grow along, you might be joining along with that, that's amazing if you are. Let's grow a pumpkin and my biggest nightmare was that my pumpkins would all be eaten by snails and slugs and I wouldn't actually have any pumpkins growing over my own arches and it's happened. Luckily I've got a couple of contingency pumpkins at home which I'll have to bring tomorrow and whack out really quickly but yeah I'll show you the damage. This was my absolute blooming nightmare from the start, the second I did the grow along I was like I bet none of my pumpkins grow, I bet they all get eaten this year. This is my Jack belittle, I don't know if you can see this properly but he has snapped, totally bloody snapped off so there you go, he might grow back I don't know, I'll leave him for a little bit but I've got another one of him at home I think he's a goner, brilliant. The one in the middle that I thought was dead is actually the one that's alive, I can't remember what the hell that one is but there we go it's there and then this one here, please don't say can't believe it, I can't believe it I can't believe it, I'm gutted, I actually thought he was all right but he's not so he snapped as well. If we go to the other side right this one here yeah he's been eaten as well, they've not snapped they've been eaten that's what I'm trying to say that he's been eaten as well fantastic, absolutely brilliant. This one here has been eaten down to his last, I don't think that's a pumpkin, I don't know I think he's gone, oh there he is, oh my god he's gone and there's the slugs, they're the culprits and then this one here seems to be all right at the moment so I've got two pumpkins left, two, oh my god absolutely devastating, absolutely devastating, I've got to start again basically and oh my god I actually thought I had three or four left but I haven't, I've got two pumpkins alive out of all of those, can you believe it? This was my absolute nightmare and it's happened I've got three pumpkins growing at home but two are patty pans and I don't think they're going to do anything, that's so frustrating I knew this would happen, I had this feeling when I was doing this grow along that this would happen, I'm absolutely devastated, I don't know if you can tell, I'm absolutely gutted, I don't think this one's got a chance of growing back, I really think he's just gone but we'll see, I mean I'll leave him because maybe he'll grow some more leaves or something, I don't know, oh man and this is the one I thought was dead, right everyone take a breather, here's what we're going to do, it's only the beginning of May so we're going to re-sow them, I'm going to go home today and I'm going to re-sow my pumpkins and we're going to whack them out there, I'm going to sow about seven and I'm going to whack them all out and I'm going to do double slug protection, I don't think it's too late to get a good pumpkin harvest because you can actually sow your pumpkins right up till May and you can actually direct sow them in June and you will still get a crop that year, so it is not too late and I'm not too gutted about it because this is what happens at Allotment Plots and to be fair though this year all my pumpkins have been eaten, last year it was all of my brassicas and this year so far they're actually doing really well and none of my beetroot have been eaten as well, so I think some years they go for pumpkins, obviously this year they've decided to go for them and not go for the other stuff so you can't predict what slugs and snails are going to go for, at least they've been fed and they're happy and to be honest everything else at the plot is doing really well so it's not the end of the world and I'm just going to re-sow it all and re-plant it all and I will have a pumpkin arch, I will, if I have to sit here all day and all night for three months protecting from the slugs and snails, I will have a pumpkin arch this year so it's okay, take a second to breathe, now we've got some other things to sow out today so we're going to get on with that to try and cheer ourselves up, I sowed these absolutely ages ago and these are, what are they, snapdragons, I've never planted, I've never sown these before but they are beautiful flowers, I've sown loads of them so I thought I'd just whack them out wherever I can think to whack them out really, so we're going to do that now and we're going to, we're going to breathe, we're going to breathe I think we'll put them all down here, I think it'll look quite pretty along here actually so we're going to whack them out along here like this, just in a little row, I don't know how much room I need yeah like that, all right wet gloves because I left him out, oh it's not, it's not going well today, we're having a terrible day aren't we whack these out, oh whack these out for the slugs, it's a nice meal for you guys you'll enjoy this one, bloody slugs eh, bloody slugs, what can you do oh gosh that's it I'm a snack mall, good god I'm having the worst bloody gardening week ever, it's only Monday, it's only Monday, can only get better right, right if those slugs come over to you you just tell them, you bloody tell them, tell them to get lost broad beans have sort of exploded over the weekend I think maybe all the rain and then the sun as well and the warm weather has just made them explode but they are so tall now and I'm actually starting to get broad beans on them which is really exciting because I've never had, I've never been able to harvest broad beans before and because the plants either didn't grow or I ended up pulling them out before they had a chance to make beans because they just looked so awful to be honest I'm a bit of a plant killer sometimes I can be a bit ruthless but I can see broad beans growing and it's just amazing to have something doing really well on the plot for a change, if we delve in look here broad beans actual broad beans I was going to say actual human broad beans but that wouldn't be very nice look at these, these are doing brilliantly and none of them have been eaten yet I think they can get a bit bigger than that because they're like big broad beans and soups and stuff so that's amazing can't see any of the other plants producing them though maybe that's the only ones we'll get but at least we'll get some absolutely amazing but look at the size of them look at the size of the plants now just huge huge and so many flowers so beautiful so I showed you my onions and garlics the other day and somebody made a comment and said it looks like they've either been infected by some kind of onion bug which doesn't surprise me because there's a bug for bloody everything or they're ready to harvest so the ones that have fallen down I'm actually going to pick out now and just have a look what's going on with them because obviously I don't want any more crops to be eaten by bugs bloody pumpkins right let's dig up the onions by dig up I mean pull up and yank out the ground because I don't know how to dig them up to be fair this is the furthest I've ever got with growing onions and garlic before like they've never been this big and this healthy looking so we'll pull some of them up what is that right that's just gone a bit rotten so ignore that one oh no this one this one looks sad gone rotten I can't see any signs of well there are bugs on it that's a spider though I don't think it's spider onion is there an onion spider who's that oh it's just a bit just a bit dirt right that looks crap I can't see any bugs on it but I can definitely see that it's gone a bit it's got a worm on it is there a onion worm this is the one that's got the leaves that's gone a bit curly whirly so that one might actually be infected with something we'll get rid of that one I can't tell if it's good or not because I just don't bloody know do you know what I mean I just don't know it smells like an onion must be an onion I can't see any signs of any bugs in there like worms that are like a little maggot thing what's that is that an onion worm oh there's like a little thing in there is that an onion worm is that an onion bug I don't know I think the conclusion is I don't know um I think I'm just going to leave the rest of them and then when it comes to like June July I'll pull them all up and let them dry in the sun I'll just have a look and see if they're all right or not but like there's worms and spiders and stuff but I don't really know what an onion bug looks like so for now we'll leave them because I don't bloody know and I'm sure I'll find out when I come to harvest them properly is there a garlic worm as well I don't know better not be a garlic worm oh my god I really can't get them in I can't get them in oh spider spider don't you dare go away go do something else go there stand on my pumpkin eat the plugs I can't get it in I can't get it in I can't get it like a caveman now smacking this in with a bloody rock oh god we'll just crush them all now we won't even give them a chance we'll just crush them with cloche bloody hell I've got nothing nothing's working normally it doesn't get to me but I think with the pumpkin thing and now this it's just got on top of me and I just feel peed off I'm having to use a broken bloody spade again my netting's got holes in slugs have eaten all my bloody pumpkins I'm just going to let myself be annoyed by this for a minute and then I'm going to try and pick myself up and I'm going to go and check on my tomatoes and hopefully they'll all be alive and it'll give me a little bit of a a boost of morale I think that's what I need right now for some wine come on they're alive they're alive they're alive nothing's died oh yes look how big they're getting look how big they're getting beautiful beautiful look at this one absolutely gorgeous all alive all doing well come on this is what I needed right now this is what I needed I needed to come in here and see all my tomatoes growing really well doing amazing all staked all growing new leaves nothing's dead except that bit but we won't talk about that bit mostly they're all alive this is fantastic I've got cucumbers to come out here soon as well so I'm actually going to grow cucumbers for the first time ever this year and they are going to grow really well and they're not going to be eaten and they're going to do fantastic and I'm going to get loads of cucumbers so that's going to happen which is great news I'm going to go home and re-sew a load of pumpkins I mean like 27 pumpkins I'm going to sew I'm going to go pumpkin mad I'm just going to have them everywhere just absolutely bloody everywhere hopefully this will blow away and all will be good I hope that your plots are going well and that your pumpkins haven't all been eaten like mine fingers crossed for you and if they have been eaten don't be disheartened I'm going to re-sew mine now so if you're re-sewing yours we'll re-sew them together and we'll grow a pumpkin arch together still don't worry about it okay just chill and if you don't get a pumpkin arch you don't get a pumpkin arch stuff it try again next year do you know what I mean it's not the end of the world so onwards and upwards hope you enjoyed the vlog hope it's a bit uplifting at the end and I'll see you on Wednesday thanks for watching guys bye