HEATWAVE IN THE UK / SEPTEMBER 2021 / EMMA'S ALLOTMENT DIARIES

Good morning everyone, welcome back to my allotment diaries, my name is Emma, these are my allotment diaries, I would love for you to hit that subscribe button just below, hit the bell as well and you will be notified every time I put up a new video. Kids went back to school this morning um so I didn't get much time in the morning, I was sort of like running around fapping about trying to grab everything that I completely forgot they needed, so I've just got to the plot and I picked a little handful of blueberries for my breakfast and they are just so sweet, you know sometimes blueberries can be quite what's the word, like sharp, um because I've left these so long um I think they've over ripened and they're just really really sweet, I hope they're not fermented, I'm not gonna get like drunk on them, some of them are a little bit, some of them are a little bit sharp, that one was really sharp um but a lot of them are really nice and sweet, I can't believe I've got blueberries this year, it's amazing um so I've just arrived here, I'm a little bit confused because the next two days in the UK it's going to be a massive heat wave and I think we're predicted like 30 degrees brilliant sunshine all day long um and so all the autumn jobs that I kind of had lined up ready to go I'm kind of putting on hold just for a few days um until the heat wave passes um so because all the autumn jobs are really like hard work like mulching and redoing paths and stuff so I'm not gonna do that today, so I'm gonna have a look around and see what I can do, I think it's going to be a clean up job today and that's probably what your allotment plot is feeling like too, clean up job, sometimes I feel like at this time of year it's almost like your plot has had a party that you weren't invited to and now you've got to clean up after them all, you know they've all had the time of their lives growing and then you come in and you're like oh I guess I'll clean this all up then um that's what it's like having an allotment plot, you're just the cleaner, the supervisor, the facilitator of nature I suppose, all right so it looks like most of the slugs and snails have got most of my lettuces here which I planted which is a shame because they actually did well for quite a long time before the slugs just completely got them so I've got one two three four seven left out of about 15 so what I'm going to do is put down some of this stuff which I don't think really works, slug gone it's like wall pellets but I'm just going to whack it down anyway just in case it just saves a few of them, some of them have actually multiplied though so I might try and move them, obviously I don't think a lettuce plant can just multiply itself what's happened is I've got confused and planted what I thought was one plant out and it's actually turned into several plants um so I might just move them around a little bit, spread them out right okay let's try and multiply, I mean un-multiply, de-multiply, re-multiply, I don't know stop speaking at nights early in the morning, right I don't want that one, you can stay I need you, that's it, yeah got one, yes, pass the skills this is, oops I can't get them though, that's two, yeah got two, excellent, three, great, okay, oh four, oh that's going to die, distribution project, so what we'll do is we'll redistribute it, do one of you in here and redirect you, there you are, you're in there, need to dig really, just whack them in like that, my prize and joy of pumpkin plants are looking a little defeated at the moment, I don't know if it's because they're finishing, it's only September though, I sort of want them to stay till October but they won't listen to me, they don't do that plants, they don't listen to people um but yeah they're looking a little bit, I don't know, this one's now got mildew um but I know that's pretty normal on a plant like this um and the pumpkins look okay, they look happy but I don't know I'm just feeling it's looking a bit sparse, do you know what I mean, but that might be because I hacked it but it also might be just because it's finishing, it's like dying now, this one in particular looks a bit sad and I've only got one pumpkin on him which is quite small but you can see he's sort of dying, I don't know if that means he's finished or if he's just thirsty, I have fed him now but we'll see, yeah it's just looking like the pumpkin arch is slowly like becoming like finished, do you know what I mean, slowly becoming finished, great English there, yeah it's just finishing, it's just such a shame because I love it so much, I just want it to stay for the longest time but um that's why I'm thinking about what to plant out next because I just don't want my plot to be empty again, so I've got the cabbages and the cauliflower coming out next week or at the end of this week because I don't want to do it in the heat um I've got my kohlrabi out and I've got my brussel sprouts so yeah oh gosh I don't know what else to plant really, if you've got any other ideas of what I could just plant out now that'd be great, I've got carrots on the go, radishes, lettuce, yeah we'll see, how's the pond doing? A lot of you have been asking about the pond, um it's doing all right, it needs to top up actually, I better top that up. These things flowered and they're absolutely beautiful um and the bees absolutely loved them, oh focus, there it is, um but I will have to pull them up when they're done because they're a bit scraggy, um all the pond plants you can see, it's moving that weed out the way, they're all doing fine, those are irises, they flowered, they're beautiful, just need to top up the water, it all just needs a bit of tidy up my plot at the moment, I wish I could just hire someone to come in and tidy it all because I really don't feel like doing it but I do know that it needs doing, um I think I'm going to start with this, the dreaded bed that I've been putting off for weeks, oh the strawberry bed, what I'm going to do though is just weed it basically and try and make it look like strawberries and nothing else, do you know what I mean, um and I'll just see how I go from there and how I feel, all right let's just get on with it. I just realised that my scarecrow, the new one, is uh facing the other way, that's weird that isn't it, I didn't put him that way, I'll put him the other way but he's turned, you know what the scarecrows they just, they scare me more than they scare the bloody birds, I always get freaked out by them and think someone's standing on my plot, especially when I put a new one in and the kids just put the other one in the garden and um every time I go in the garden I think there's a stranger standing in the bloody garden, I don't think, I think the birds are smarter than that, I think they know, I think they know the difference between this and that but I just, I just, sometimes I just think we don't give animals enough credit, we think that they're going to think that's a person, it's nothing like me, look at its nose, it's literally a triangle, why would a bird think that that's a human, look at its face, I can't do that with my mouth, I've got to give birds more credit, you know, they're due more credit, I think, they're smarter than they think, they know more, right, it's absolutely by no means done because it needs a hell of a lot more sorting out and I need to like move things about and give everything more space but just wait for the helicopter, it's all right, we'll wait, I'm sure you will agree, um especially if you saw it before as I showed you, um it does definitely look better, it's only got strawberry plants in it at the moment, so what I basically did was remove all the weeds, try to remove as many dead leaves as I could but you can still see there's loads in there and it took me ages, I also cleared all of this bit here um which is just the front of my plot which had just become overgrown um and yeah now what I need to do basically is um sort out where the little runners are and just start spreading them all out, putting the beer bottles to better use, recycling, see there we go, recycling, sorted, might trap the slugs up there too, right that is the top of the plot, top of the plots, top of the plot done um for now, so I've done the first two beds basically and what I'm going to do every day is just move down my plot slowly, clearing, sorting things out, tidying, weeding and then eventually mulching um and yeah just sorting it out bit by bit because it can feel a bit overwhelming at this time, my plot's definitely gone a little bit wild um but that's okay, that's all right, we'll sort it out, we'll figure it all out, it'll be done in time um and then I'll get some other things planted out soon as well, so I do hope you enjoyed the vlog today, if you did do subscribe to my channel like I said, uh follow me on Instagram, I'm doing an Instagram live tonight on someone else's channel, can't remember the name, um I'll link it below and if you go and follow her and eight o'clock, 8pm GMT time, GMT is that what we are, are we GMT? I think so, yeah 8pm um I will be live answering questions and things so join me there, um if I don't see you then I'll see you on Friday, have a lovely few days gardening, bye!