THE FIRST PUMPKIN HARVEST! / SEPTEMBER 2021 / EMMA'S ALLOTMENT GARDEN DIARIES

Good morning everyone. Welcome back to my allotment diaries. My name is Emma. These are my allotment diaries. I'm standing in my own crap right now. Not literally. What I mean is the shed is just disgusting and I need to clean it at some point. I'd love for you to subscribe to my channel. I just put up loads of vlogs about the allotment plot. That's what I do here. That's what I do. I should say that's what I try and do here because you never know how it's going to go. I brought a friend with me today. A new friend. It's my new autumnal scarecrow and he's looking very nice. Got little dungarees on, new little hat, hair's not falling off. Looking very worried about being on my plot. Don't blame me mate. It's all right. Chin up. Have a beer. I know what you're thinking. Why have I got two scarecrows and no Good question. I didn't buy him. Someone brought him for me. He was a gift and I can't say no to a scarecrow. How can you say no to a scarecrow? And also I think Sally deserves a boyfriend. So he's got no name at the moment. So if you want to think of a name for him I am all ears. You guys came up with Sally which I love. Sally the Scarecrow. This is the boy version of Sally so I don't know. Don't know. Could be something completely crazy. Could be Brian or Ian or even crazier like Caterpillary. Caterpillary. Caterpillary was the first name that sprang to my head was Caterpillary. That should tell you everything about my mental state. Right so we'll put him up in a minute. I want to get on and talk about pumpkins as usual. When do I not want to talk about my pumpkins? Like is there anything else here growing? Nothing that matters compared to the pumpkins. So concern has been steadily growing for the safety and welfare of the pumpkin plant at the end which is a Jack Be Little pumpkin because it started to die off. Had so many comments from you guys. I have fed it and it's still dying but a lot of you have said that's when it's ready to harvest and I didn't even didn't even compute in my brain that these might actually be ready for me to pick off the vine which explains why only this one is dying and these ones are still alive because these ones were slow growing and it just makes more sense now that you've said it so I think they're ready to pick. So you can see the plant has just died off and I've got these lovely great big I mean big they're miniature pumpkins they're Jack Be Littles. Got quite a few got a few down there as well the whole plant has died but you're right these are orange. I mean there aren't any other coloured ones so I'm assuming they're ready to pick. So today we're going to pick them and I think also that will help out the other plants because what I'll do is I'll remove this pumpkin plant, pick the pumpkins, remove this plant, give the others more room, more light, more air, more soil, more water, more whatever else pumpkins need and they can just go on living. So yeah I'm going to pick these ones. That's what we're going to do. How am I going to pick them though? I think right okay let's find some tools. All right what I'm going to do is take it off with a bit of stem on it and I'm going to take it home put it on my windowsill and wait for it to harden up so it can sort of ripen and harden at home. Right I'm going to chop it with a bit of the stem on that's what I'm trying to say. We all with that? We all got that? Yes we've all got that. I'm trying to figure out how to catch it when it falls because I don't want it to hit the floor. How do I catch it when it falls? Right I'll make a hammock under it. Watch this, this will be genius. It'd be absolutely genius if this works. Watch this guys. Oh oh well there's one. Right that didn't work. Are you surprised? Let me know in the comments if you're surprised that that didn't work. Actually don't because it'd just be overwhelming I know. Right that's it that's my little pumpkin harvest. I've got four Jack B Little pumpkins which are all a really decent size, look really healthy, there's no nibbles on it, slugs and snails haven't got to these, either they don't like them or they've just eaten everything else. That's probably the one to be honest, probably full up. Yeah I've got four, this is the biggest by far. I've got a few ideas of what to do with them. Firstly I'm going to photograph them like no tomorrow because I'm so flipping proud of them. Beautiful little pumpkins and secondly what I was thinking of doing is creating a pumpkin spice soup but using these as bowls so basically chopping the top off and then having this as like a bowl and because I've got four it's one for each of us at home so I'm making up a little one. Yeah I love them, I'm so happy with them, I'm so excited to harvest my baby boos. I don't think I've got any more Jack B Littles on the plant, I'm lying I have, I've got two growing but they're growing a lot slower than these did so I've not got as much high hopes for those as I did for these. These have just done extraordinarily well, incredible, but I need to harden them off because they are they are hard but I think they could be harder, if you'll excuse the pun, yeah I think they could be harder so I'm going to harden them off first. I'm going to remove that plant now and give the other plants some more space so let's do that. Oh my little baby boos, I mean Jack B Littles, pride and joy of my life. Oh my god I think I'm destroying the arch, tried to yank it, oh god, oh no why is that happening, oh god, oh god, I've like bent it, oh bent it, I'm gonna have to reinforce that, all right let's remove this and then reinforce it, oh god. I'm gonna keep rolling because if this archway falls down not only is it going to be vlogging gold it's going to devastate me for life and I want to remember this stupid mistake I'm making for the rest of my life. I've got to document these things, takes away the sting, no sorry I'm not doing that anymore, right I've called the fire brigade to help me, can you hear them? No just kidding, I will um just stake it with another stick and try and strengthen the archway because I'm terrified now, absolutely terrified, right I'm getting frustrated now, sorry about that, I apologise, oh god, I've got a hammer so I'm going to smack it in instead, let's try that, oh bloody hell what's going on with me today, I'm all over the place, I didn't even drink last night, right here we go, that's why I should not be around these tombs, I can still use it as a stake I just have to tie it, I mean I think you'll agree I'm doing very good at like learning my lessons and when it starts to wobble I do reinforce it immediately and last year I know I wouldn't have done that and it would have just all toppled over, well it did didn't it a couple of times um but this year I'm really on top of it so I've definitely learned a lesson, I don't know what the lesson is but the lesson is learnt so let's just take that shall we, right okay let's have a sit down after that, oh my god what is happening, well firstly I've got a tree growing through here, oh god it's going everywhere, I don't know what that's doing, blind weed gets everywhere, right I need to have a sit down after that because that was um more stressful than I let on, I know I looked very calm and composed, don't let my cool exterior um fool you, I was very stressed in that situation but luckily I think we've saved the pumpkin arch and we've got four pumpkins out of it so excellent I'm happy all round, oh god it's completely blown my mind there because I had something else to do today and I can't flipping remember what it was, oh put the scarecrow up, it's like an extra job though isn't it, it's not really like the job of the day, I wanted to weed a bed and get brassica beds ready, yes brassica beds ready, right brassica beds, okay let's do um let's do the scarecrow first just because I need something fun and entertaining to do after that stressful thing, right okay am I selling gardening to you yet, Sally's looking a little bit worse for wear at the moment oh Sally, oh Sally, um I can spruce her up a bit before I introduce her to a new boyfriend bloody massive spider, what's up with them today, got it in for me today, they're after me I can feel it, sorry Sally that's gonna have to do because you're infected now, there he is, smart new lovely scarecrow with no name, please help me find a name for him and there's Sally, god she looks really bad compared to him doesn't she, you look rough Sally, rough night, he's doing really well, I might need a bit of water actually, these are my kohlrabi and they haven't really been eaten by slugs and snails, I think one of them has but that's it, probably too exotic for them, but the little mini greenhouses that I've created out of these um bottles, I just look, I mean look at that, it's amazing, they've just had these great, gross, but what's happened to that one, it's like that one's been eaten, oh for god's sake someone, why do you say it, that's all right actually, no where's that one gone, oh that one's been eaten, there's nothing under there, um this one's all right, yeah they're all right you know, I wonder if I need a bit of water actually, oh I've just crushed him I've just crushed him, get up, get up, get up, come on, just live, just live, just don't die, that's it oh god, I keep killing them, up you jump, up you jump, please, just jump up, pretty plants, I don't think I'll talk about these plants anymore, they were doing perfectly well before I came along and started meddling about with them, I think it's me, I think I'm the plant killer, I think the plants all cower away when they see me come to the plot, I'm the killer, I think I'm helping them and sometimes I'm just not, right that's where I'll leave you today because a lot of people are arriving now at the plot and I don't want them to think I'm any more of a nutter than they already think I am, so I chat into myself, um this is the wheelbarrow that Tommy actually sowed and I don't even know what seeds he put in here, I just let him go crazy with it, I think I could be wrong because I don't know very much, but I think these are carrots that he's planted and there's carrots everywhere, I think these are um what they call radishes and I think also he's planted some beetroots in here because I can see little beetroots coming up which is very exciting, but the whole wheelbarrow is just alive at the moment with Tommy's seeds, so he's just scattered everywhere and I'm very interested to see how this goes because all of the different plants are just mixed together, it's sort of just Tommy's experiment, so I'm doing my best to keep it watered for him and keep the blooming slugs away but it tends to do quite well in here because the slugs don't come here for some reason, they've got enough to eat over there to be honest, um right I hope you enjoyed the vlog today, subscribe to my channel if you did and I'll see you next time, thanks for watching, bye!