SOWING BROADBEANS AND MAKING BIRD FEEDERS / DECEMBER GARDENING

Morning everyone, welcome back to my allotment diaries or I'm in my garden today so I guess my garden diaries maybe? My name is Emma, thank you for joining my YouTube channel. I'd love for you to hit the subscribe button which over 14,000 of you now have and I'm just so thankful to every single one of you. I cannot believe that my channel has now got over 14,000 subscribers and my Instagram I'm about to hit 50,000 followers as well which is just mind-blowing so thank you so much. If you have hit subscribe or follow on any of my social media or on here you've just completely made my year and I'm just so so thankful to you and I don't really say that enough so thank you. I wasn't actually going to be back before the new year but for some reason it's warm in the UK now, look at me, look at me, I'm not wearing a coat and I'm in the garden and literally three days ago the garden was covered in snow and then it just suddenly started raining and now I literally cannot believe it but it's blue skies, sun, it feels so warm and lovely that I just want to get out in the garden and so I'm doing a bit of a clear up, a garden refresh today after the snow because we had quite a heavy snowfall so probably had about three or four inches of snow all over the lawn, all over everything to be honest so I really wanted to get out here and just clear it up, sort it out, get some more bird feeders on the go for over the winter months, sort out a little bit of sowing as well, I've got a few seeds to start today which again very exciting because it's only December but I just can't wait to get going and I just thought I'd just bring you all with me because why not? So here's a little cheeky vlog just before Christmas, it's probably going to be my last one before Christmas but there we go, we weren't expecting one at all were we? Right we're going to start by clearing this area here now, what I was doing, I'll just quickly show you actually, it'd be so much easier just to show you, so along my little paths here, not paths what they called, my little flower beds either side, I used to have some wood and the wood is over here, these are what I picked up, these are quite cheap from B&Q and the problem with them is that they started rotting so you can see this one here and falling apart, they're not very good, they're very cheap to buy and just whack in but then they don't have very much life in them really so they've all just had to come out because they're just falling apart, they're also slug and snail magnets as well because they love the wood, the soft wood and it gets really wet really quickly and they just love hiding in there which hasn't been good for my plants so I ripped all of that out and then what I've done is I've actually made my beds a little bit bigger so I've just dug them out probably half a foot, a foot, something like that and just made them a little bit wider so you can probably see here that I've made my beds a little bit bigger and obviously taking out the wood has meant that the grass now goes to the edge, I quite like that, I wouldn't mind getting some rocks and stones or something and putting it along but I think it actually looks better without anything to sort of define the borders but I've extended them probably by about a foot on both sides and then I've got this lovely semicircle over here and I planted a load of spring bulbs in there so that should be really beautiful and then just behind me here I have another semicircle and I have some of some of these growing I can't remember what they're called they're not lupins but they look like lupins foxgloves, that's what they are, they're foxgloves and I got a great big pack last year from B&Q, I whacked them out but they haven't died in the snow now I know that some types of foxgloves are annual and some are perennial I think these are perennial ones which which is like an even better deal because I think I've got them in a sale I think they were like 50p for like a pack of six and so I've got three here which are still very much alive making me think they are probably perennial or at least hardy to some degree maybe biannual something like that and then what I did before the snow came is I moved a few over to this bed here so I've got one two three the autumn is a really good time to move things like perennials and actually it's the best time to move perennials because they're kind of go dormant and so they're not actively growing so as soon as you see them in the autumn time stop actively growing and you cut them back that's the best time to move them so I've moved them to this bed here so literally just dug them up whacked them in the ground they look fine and then what I did was I cut all my other plants back so this is like an Acer I know so it's not an Acer it's an Aster and then I've got this little one here which I cannot remember what that one is that's my lambs ear which I've had to really cut back because it just goes crazy we've got another fox glove look at this this is even the clematis the snow hasn't even killed off the clematis completely how insane is the hat but yeah I've been sort of jiggling things about a little bit dug everything over got the weeds out widened my borders and then it snowed so I sort of did a good job and I want to show you the buddleia as well a lot of you said that you can cut a buddleia right down to the ground which I did not know so I've sort of done it as much as I can this is a big blooming plant and this is really thick and I do not have the right tools to cut it right back but it was right up in the air and now it's right down there so hopefully this will make it healthier and then I'm going to try and keep an eye on it next year and not let it get quite so crazy big so I'm going to make a couple more of these little bird feeders because they worked so well and I actually had birds in them eating from them I think I had two robins and they just loved them I think they look super christmasy as well um oh there it is super seasonal they kind of remind me of like christingles you know when you do a christingle service but yeah I love them they look really pretty hanging in the tree so I'm going to make another one so I wouldn't say it's the sort of thing that massively needs a tutorial but basically you get an orange and chop it in half basically I'll do one anyway is what I'm trying to say I don't like oranges I absolutely hate the taste of them so what I've been doing is taking them out my family aren't massive orange fans either to be honest I'm not sure if anyone can be an orange fan or not I don't know I've been taking it out and then leaving it in a bowl for the squirrel um because I think the squirrel quite likes them so you just pop the middle out why does it never go right when I bleed and film it there we are right middle's out then when squirrel can have that what you do is you just poke a few holes now the best way to do the holes if you're wondering how to get it to hang properly is you do them quite near the top like one there and then you do one opposite try and make it as opposite as possible and then to the other side so like a cross shape and then what you need to do is you need to get your string and you need two pieces of string the same length if possible so probably like that much and here goes the opposite side oh god and it just keeps it steady when it's in the tree basically and then hopefully when we hang all that up together like that it's going to hang quite god there quite evenly like that and then you pop it in the tree and you just put some bird seed in it and that's it it's quite a nice sort of natural bird feeder so let's hang him up all ready to go and then if you see on this one down here I noticed when the robin came that you wanted to sit next to it and eat so I poked in this little um I think this is actually a chopstick but I think you could use a skewer or like a kebab skewer or something or some kind of stick basically and then you can sort of perch there and even when it's moving he's quite steady so it's quite nice I quite like them they're kind of like Christmas decorations in a tree just thought I'd show you down here just before Christmas comes ha ha ha look at these these are bulbs coming up starting to grow how amazing is that this time of year um I think these are daffodils and then I have planted a load of tulips in here this year too so fingers crossed for them for them coming up but um I did read online that oh god falling over bulbs actually do better when they've had like a really cold spirit a cold period of time so snow and frost and ice is like perfect so if you manage to get your bulbs out before it snowed or it got frosty then um apparently they should do better um next year so that's really exciting so hopefully all of the spring bulbs and tulips and daffodils just look beautiful next spring if you didn't there is still time to get it out you can just whack it out now you can whack out tulips right to the end of January and they still bloom in time for May there you go such a beautiful day out here today like as soon as I cannot get over it it actually feels like spring and it's just making me so super excited um I'm actually gonna sow some seeds as well which is just like oh my gosh is it March is it March no it's December it's like five days to Christmas and here we are sowing seeds um I'm gonna sow my broad beans um and I usually sow my broad beans directly into a raised bed but I haven't got around to mulch in the beds yet um and also I just think I'm a little bit too late because I just have a feeling it's gonna go cold again guys I have a bad feeling I just have a feeling it's gonna go cold again and frosty and possibly even snow um so I've decided to sow them into pots this year and then transplant them out probably end of January maybe beginning of Feb um and the ones that I'm doing are the bunny yards exhibition which are the ones I did last year basically and if you've watched my vlogs this year you'll know that um they did really well they just did amazing so I'm just gonna sow the same ones again and so very simply just going to get some pots oh these were my sweet peas and they never sprouted nothing ever happened I wonder what happened to them actually let's have a look don't know just didn't work just didn't work can't even find them maybe I didn't sow them I don't know anyway I've got those pots uh already filled with some nice compost so just basically gonna make a hole like that I have a feeling that they sort of go sideways see that little notch there that might be the roots so I think I might just sow them on each side to be sure because I'm not sure if you're ever unsure of which way a seed should be sown always just put them on their side because seeds in nature you know they don't have humans sort of sowing them for them so they are quite good at just twisting themselves around and finding the light hopefully they'll be ready to sell out soon if you like my gloves by the way I got sent these um I work with cool job gloves a lot and they always send me their new products which is amazing of them these are their new winter range I love the color the blue it's so lovely and stylish um they are gardening gloves but they're winter gardening gloves so inside them oh and they got the orange around the top as well which is just so cool inside them they are fleece lined so they kind of feel like wearing a winter glove but um they're obviously gardening glove this is a size small um and look how bendy and flexible your fingers are you know sometimes gloves can feel quite bulky are these just feel perfect to me um and keep your hands nice and warm not that I really need it today but you know it is still December guys we have to remember that it is December technically I'm also going to whack in this which is a salad leaf called a red army oh my gosh there is an a an m in it um yeah and it's supposed to be like a micro salad or a baby leaf I'm pretty sure I've sown it before um and it's for all year round so I thought I'd just stick it into this one here now I've got some bulbs in this one but I think some micro salad on the top will work fine it's just nice sometimes to use you know the space that you've got and also just to get stuff out as well and get stuff growing and pots or any kind of soil that sits dormant is just never really a good thing in gardening so if you can put something in the ground or have something growing you know even like green manure it's really good so we'll whack some of these out a layer over the top it's quite wet already and I think we'd use some rain again so I'm not going to water them just yet see if we can get some little micro baby salad leaves which is quite exciting oh I had a delivery I completely forgot that I had a delivery from a seed subscription company called seed craft which you know I've gone on and on about it's really great if you're not entirely sure what you should be sowing when and because everything that is sent to you should be able to be sown pretty sharpish so let's have a look what they sent me this time not to show my dress on camera again good times right so you get a little box every month from seed craft I'll leave a link below as usual if you quote me emma's allotment and then I think you get some money off your first box so seed craft there it is let's see what they've sent so we've got some strawberries oh strawberries from a seed I've never even considered growing strawberries from a seed before now I've got seeds um aubergines farmer's long f1 exciting um oh my goodness I literally don't know what that is habanero chocolate some kind of chocolate flavored salad leaf or something I'm guessing how exciting I'm definitely going to sow those um and we've got some cheville I've never heard of that herb it's an herb basically um I've never heard of that one before I should have a little instruction here on what they all are oh it's a pepper chocolate habanero habanero habanero it's a pepper of course now peppers and chili chilies need a really long growing period and so this is something that you usually start in kind of January February time I guess maybe you could start these ones in December why not how exciting yeah it says to sow indoors on a windowsill so definitely gonna be doing that and then strawberries really exciting so these are the alexandria strawberries how exciting you can sow them from a seed never even considered that before so there's some more things to be doing in the garden uh if you subscribe to seed craft get some money off the first box and then you can be sowing all year round without any knowledge right thank you so much for joining me today in my garden for a few little gardening jobs I hope you enjoyed this little vlog that kind of came out of nowhere but there we go um let me know if you want to see any vlogs before the new year me looking back on my allotment plot showing you what worked what didn't I know some people like that some people aren't so bothered by it otherwise I'm happy to take a break and come back in January I'm going to be doing lots and lots of work on my allotment plot then so I hope that you will join me do subscribe to my channel if you are new um and share with a friend share with someone it's Christmas share the love somebody who's getting into gardening um let them know about me that would be such a big help to me share it on your Facebook page or wherever you want to and I will see you again either before the new year or after the new year have a wonderful Christmas everyone and happy new year bye