NEW GOODIES FOR THE PLOT / EMMA'S ALLOTMENT DIARIES / NOVEMBER 2021

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 channel and follow my journey of my allotment plot along with me. This is my end of my second year now, so going into my third year next year, that's mad! Which means it's the third time that I've managed to kill a bunch of garlic and onions and it's the third time that I'm probably going to kill all of my broad beans but hey, it's all a learning journey isn't it? It's all a learning experience I suppose. I don't have too much to do today because I don't have the stuff to do it with so what I wanted to do was just basically come down here and enjoy the fresh air because it's a little bit milder today. I don't know if you can see my breath, it's a bit chilly but it is like, it's not as chilly as it has been. I need to sort out my shed this winter, it's a bit of an urgent job really because it's just falling apart and I don't want that to happen to my lovely shed. I also want to think about the layout of my plot and stuff like that anyway. Like I said, I don't have the resources I need to do my shed but here's the old shed looking beautiful and pink with the bunting up and everything. Some people have asked why I've got the wire over the windows, it's to stop people from breaking in basically. Somebody tried to break into my shed here a little while ago, I don't know if you can see, the window was sort of pushed through so I've put this over and it sort of has a deterrent basically, it won't physically stop them but it has so far so there we go. Right so as we enter the shed you can probably see what my issue is. This is mainly my issue on the floor, all this stuff, the shelves are falling apart and the whole shed is just sort of falling apart very very slowly. What I basically need is a new shelving unit that's a little bit lower that I've got like a table surface on which is where you are right now there. I've got this storage, this hanging thing here, that hanging thing there, that's all right so if I had the shelving thing there and a chair there it'd be good to be able to have the wheelbarrow outside the shed because it takes up so much room I just don't want it to get stolen. Someone on the other plot has got a bike chain thing and they sort of chained it to a post, that might be an idea for my wheelbarrow just to get rid of it I need some storage system there, maybe a drawer system that I can just pull things out. Yeah there's a lot to do in here, I don't have this stuff to do today but I really want to get it done soon so I really need to think about it and also seed storage. If you've got any ideas to seed storage I'd love to hear it. This is how I keep my seeds at the moment, it's just all in a tray, it's so unorganized I never know what I've got, there's empty packets in here as well, random duct tape in there too, let's get rid of that. But yeah if you've got a really good solution to seed storage, is it a drawer? Is it something you brought from Wilkinson's? I know a lot of people go to Wilkinson's. As does something, I don't know, wherever you've got it from please can you share it with me? Because I really need like a good solution for seeds and what I mean is something I can label and stuff but it's not an actual seed storage. I don't know if you know this but if you actually look for a seed storage specific thing the prices are astronomical so if you have like a cheaper alternative that still works as a seed storage that would just be great. Anyway I'm rabbiting. Well unexpected first job is that I've got to find my blooming scissors so this is what I mean about my shed, the state of my shed, it's just ridiculous, ridiculous. You know it was quite comical at first and I used to have a laugh looking around and going look at me and now it's just damn right annoying. Oh god I've really got to do something about this bloody mess. I just found a load of cloche and a glove. This is ridiculous, I think next week is going to be shed week. Right if you haven't managed to guess from my beautiful demonstration as to what I'm doing I'm getting married to the Brussels sprouts. No of course I'm not, I'm actually netting because the pigeons are hungry. It's that time of year where the birds get really hungry because their food is in short supply and so any brassicas or sprouts things like that just need to be netted and kept away from the little rascals because they will just come down and just eat them all and now that I'm actually getting sprouts I'm actually more protective of them. I don't know if this netting is quite big enough, it doesn't quite cover it. The reason why I like this netting for birds is because they can't get stuck in it unless they physically go underneath it so if you actually manage to cover it all they can't get tangled in the net and I hate that. I hate it when birds get tangled in nets not so much because of the actual bird but because I'm the one who's got to get the bird out and I don't want to do that because I don't really like birds. I don't really want to be close to them, do you know what I mean? They're all around us but that's close enough, it's close enough guys. There we are, all protected from the birdies. It's not the neatest thing I've ever done before but then what is to be honest? Yeah I think that I keep little rascals away for a little bit just while the sprouts develop. Right broad beans doing great, really happy with them, amazing. Look at these, gosh it looks like I actually know how to do it doesn't it? Some of them have been nibbled on and eaten, this I think can come off now actually because this was to stop animals walking on it, not anything else, just literally animals. In theory it should be quite easy to get it off but then theory and practical is a different thing isn't it? That's all right I think, there we go, right that gives them a chance to grow without getting tangled, brilliant. Really really proud of these, really really proud of them, doing really good even with a little bit of slug damage. I've planted so many, sometimes there's safety in numbers you see. These beds have just had it now, so rickety and they're just rotting. Garlic and onion is all coming up as well but I'm going to keep these on because there's still quite a lot of stuff not come up. Oh god I've killed that one now, look at that, oh yeah and the fox and cat will just come and use this as a toilet, like a communal toilet area so I'll keep this on for a bit longer so they don't dig in here but they're all coming up, they look quite happy. I don't know what's going on guys but I just feel like everything that's growing at the moment is just really happy and healthy. I will show you my cabbages as well, cabbages and cauliflower, it's all hiding under here. Oh it's a bit flattened, oh dear what's happened in there? What's going on guys? Right let's put it up. I can't seem to do cauliflower at this bloody plot, it's so frustrating because cauliflower is the one thing I'm absolutely desperate to grow because I genuinely eat it like all the time, I spend so much money on cauliflower, I love it, I love grating it, using it as a pizza base, roasting it, everything, I just do it all the time, can't seem to grow it. The purple ones are red cabbage, red cabbage seems to be doing okay, it's had some slug damage but I reckon it'd be all right, that one's flat, I don't know why that one's flattened but the cauliflower, look at it, it's never happy at this plot, never happy, there's only one that survived, I planted about five, only one of them has survived which is really frustrating. Red cabbage is okay but it will not be ready for Christmas, no way, I might be able to eat some of the leaves or something but there's no way that's going to be ready for Christmas unless it's a Christmas miracle and by Christmas miracle I mean it grows faster than I actually read on the packet and then it suddenly grows, that's what I mean by Christmas miracle but who knows. Right let's cover it back up from the pigeons, if they haven't already got to it, I think that's the problem, bloody birds. So oh hello, hello, oh hello, haven't seen you for a little while, where you been, what you been up to, hey, what you been up to, oh gosh, you haven't been around for a little while, I was worried about you, you look thinner, look thin now, what are you doing, oh god, there's nothing in there, no I used to have tuna here for you but somebody told me not to feed you so I'm not feeding you now, you can blame them, you can blame them, don't blame me, yeah he hasn't been around for a while though, I don't know, I've named him by the way, I've named him Rocky, Rocky, Rocky, it's very clearly not his blooming name because he won't respond to it but it's what I call him so when things come onto your plot I just feel like I've got permission to name it so I've named it, otherwise it's just cat isn't it, it's just cat, we're going cat, oh it's Rocky, right he's, he's happy, he's all right, right now this table, this is my old dining room table but because I've left it out here it's getting all warped so I thought what I would do is put it up, I really want it to go in my polytunnel but I haven't got my polytunnel yet, I've dropped a load of hints for Christmas but hopefully I'll get one, you never know if my husband knows, it'll probably be like a sock or something but anyway let's not digress, it's getting warped so I'm hoping by putting it upright it will stop getting warped, you see what I mean by the wood's getting like, I need to treat it really with some paint, I'm going to get some paint today I think but let's put it up or let's try and put it up should I say, rather should I say, it's a bit big isn't it, it's a bit big, it's bigger than I thought it was, looks small in our dining room, looks really big at the plot, I don't really know what to do with it, I just think it'll stop warping so much if it's upright, I don't want to bung it in my shed because it'll never come out again, you know I'll never see the light of day again if it goes in there, I don't know, what do you think? I think what I'm going to do is I'm going to go and get some paint and paint it and I'm going to come back here another day and paint it and treat it so it can stay outside and that's what I'm going to do so I will see you again in a minute, now basically because I'm going to pop home and get the paint now, so see you then. Right guys, so I have had to order the paint for the table because I want to get the same colour as it is for my shed and it hasn't arrived yet so I'm not going to be painting my table just yet and I'm still undecided as to whether the table's going to stay outside as more of like a potting bench or if it's going to go into my polytunnel and I will just decide that at a later date. I thought before I ended the vlog I would just quickly show you how my things are going at home because a lot of times people ask me what I'm actually growing at the moment at home, if I'm starting anything in pots and I am, I'll show you. So these are cauliflowers that I planted a few, about a month ago actually, they're doing quite good, they're not getting as big as I want them to and I think I know the reason for that, I think it's because I've used really good compost and when you are sowing seedlings or seeds it's important to use a compost that doesn't have that much nutrients in it because it forces the plant to grow more because it wants to get away, it wants to find nutrients. When you put a really rich compost in with a seedling like this, the seedling's got no purpose to like get bigger and grow so it just doesn't bother, it just becomes lazy and that's what's essentially happened. Basically I've got lazy seedlings, however I have full confidence that once I bung these out they're going to get going at the plot. I'd like them to get a bit bigger before I put them out just to protect against slugs and snails so I'm going to wait basically. I'll show you what I've sown at the back of the garden as well. So you might remember a little while ago I sowed some mizuna salad leaves which I got from Kitchen Garden Magazine and also some winter salad leaves as well, which I can't remember what they were, they were just called green salad leaves I think and they're all coming up, look at this. These I believe was the green salad leaves and this in here was the mizuna, that might be the complete wrong way around but I do think this is mizuna, I think so, but yeah look at it, look at it, it's just alive, it's alive. Absolutely love growing things, especially at this time of year when you think you know like things are dying back and stuff, to see seedlings coming up is just so exciting, I'm sure you can tell by the sound of my voice how excited I am. I haven't cloched these, I haven't done anything to these until I haven't covered them, they've just come up so despite the frost, the rain, the cold, the wind, everything, they're growing, so what great crops just a whack in a pot right now, mizuna and salad leaves, oh actually I've got them here, oh I can tell you, Valen winter gem, Valen lettuce winter gem, right brilliant, okay oh the wind's picking up now, I hope you enjoyed the vlog today, if you did do subscribe to my channel, check out my links below to my blog as well, and I will see you next time, next Friday hopefully, same time, see you then guys, bye. It's raining!