OUT WITH THE OLD / EMMA'S ALLOTMENT DIARIES / JULY 2021

Hi everyone, welcome back to my allotment diaries. My name is Emma. These are my allotment diaries. I would love for you to subscribe to my channel. I upload 2-3 times a week all about my allotment diaries, my update here, how I'm going, what's happening, ups and downs and all around as well. So I'd love for you to subscribe. And I'll get straight into it today because I've ordered something online that I have never ever ordered before for my garden or my plot. And that is online plants. And they came in a weird little plastic box thing. And they all looked really healthy. And a plant that I've ordered is sprouts. Unless I've killed them in the bag on the way here. Here they are. Little sprout plants. And the reason I brought these online is because unfortunately most of my sprouts have been eaten now by slugs and snails and I really want some sprouts. And even though this kind of feels like a big cheat, which it kind of is, I just really want sprouts this year. So I've just gone to any lengths to get them now. And I've just had to order 10 plants online. And I'm going to go and whack them in the ground with some extra protection, which I'll also explain. So it's clear because I used to have 5 sprouts, I've now got 2 left out of 5, that my natural kind of protection ideas are just not working. The eggshells has done okay, but not to the point that I'd be comfortable leaving that and saying I'm going to get sprouts, because I don't think I am. Eggshells has not done, it's not done the worst, but you can see there is significant damage to this poor little sprout plant. And we're only getting more rain, so it's only going to get worse. The remaining 2 plants I've had buried or put under these big plastic pot things, I think this one's doing okay. You can still see quite significant slug and snail damage, so it might not be okay in the end. I wouldn't say this is fine, do you know what I mean? And this one in the middle, can't reach it, is no more. It is getting new leaves done, no it's not. I can't tell, I don't know, I think it's just dead. The idea with that was to create kind of the ultimate slug and snail barrier, but I didn't realise that slugs can actually come up from the ground. Snails can't but slugs can, and this is what slugs like. So I'm pretty convinced that they basically burrowed underground and come up by my sprouts and then eaten them all. So that's what's happened to my sprouts. We are going to talk protection now, because last year I would have got away with leaving them for a good few weeks, and the slugs and snails would have had a little bit of a go, but nothing too drastic. But this year I can't get away with it, I have to think immediately about protection. I think I just got lucky last year. And I'm going to use a method I have never tried before. If you watch this vlog weekly, you'll know that I try very very hard to be very eco-friendly here, and I don't like to kill things, I really don't. I cry when I have to rip up a dead plant. But I'm going to try a method which will kill some of them, and the reason is, I have tried every single slug snail friendly way of deterring these little pests, and they have completely annihilated most of my crops this year, and I am not going to get anything growing unless I try something more drastic. The weather's just not been on our side guys, it's not my fault. It's been very rainy, and mild, and they just love that weather. So I'm going to try the old beer traps. I got this from last night, it's a Bud Light, I hope they like that one. I don't know if it has to be like a proper beer or a light beer. I don't think they'll mind. I think the point is there's yeast in it, and they like the yeast, and what I'm going to do is bury a couple of containers in the ground, fill it with this, and hopefully catch a load of the buggers before they get to my sprouts. That's the idea, and I hate it. I hate myself, but I feel like I've run out of options. I don't drink beer so I don't really know how to open it. There we go, that was easy. Not for me. Oh it bubbles. I don't know what it's done guys, it's like bubbled. I don't really drink beer so I don't really know what it does. It's like all frothy and bubbly. Hopefully it will settle down, and they can get in there. Is it off or something? It smells awful. Is it supposed to be like that? Is it supposed to be bubbly? I don't know, I don't really drink beer. It smells awful, but apparently the slugs like it, so there we go, and lots of humans like it too. Oh yeah, the bubble's going down now. OK, it might work. Right, we'll do one on the other side as well. A little party. Have a little slug party. Just leave my bleeding Brussels sprouts alone. Right, that's about as much as I can do to try and protect them. This is sort of my last attempt at sprouts. Hopefully it's enough to keep them away and just make some of them grow, but we'll find out. My courgettes have just come into their own now. They are monstrous plants. I think they're a type of squash plant, aren't they? And all of squash plants seem to be quite monstrous and big and have giant jungle leaves, which is lovely. I think they just add so much to the plot already. There's only three plants here and look at them. They're just monstrous, monstrous plants. They're just lovely great big jungle leaves and they just bring the plot to life and make it look like it's alive. Do you know what I mean? Because let's be honest, this year it's mainly dead, but I think a couple of the courgettes might possibly be ready to harvest and I don't want giant courgettes. I really don't. I like them when they're quite small because I don't use that much and I tend to use just a little bit, so I thought if I just let them grow a little bit, yeah I'll waste less basically. There's one in here which has been completely eaten. Can you see? It's been completely nibbled. He's gone. What's that in there? This one is actually all right and he's quite small. I think he's ready to harvest for me. He might be a little bit too small in there. Where else can I see some? They're all hiding. You see there's one behind. There's one there that again that might be just a little bit too small for me at the moment and this one here I have my eye on, but again I'm going to leave him a little bit longer. So I've got one that I can pick today. I'll pick that one and I'll just have him in my lunch and just see what he's like, see if he tastes all right and stuff. So you know I prefer to have harvests little and often as opposed to a whole basket full of stuff because it'll just end up being wasted. Okay I'm going in, cutting about, there he is, there he is, look at him, he's fantastic. Oh he smells good, he smells really fresh as well. This is the perfect size for me, this is how I cook because I tend to use it within other dishes and stuff and he looks fantastic to me. This is absolutely perfect, so I'm absolutely chuffed with that. My first courgette harvest of the year, just one. I've ripped out all my broad bean plants, you probably just saw that. Two reasons, number one they haven't really performed the way I wanted them to. I haven't got many broad beans on them and to be honest they've just been bug traps. I've really struggled with them, I haven't figured out how to grow them without bugs getting on them. The beans have all been contaminated and gone black and mouldy and I don't really know why, so it's just a waste really. Secondly, I brought some potato seeds. I brought, I can't remember what they're called, maris piper or something and I'm hoping to get some Christmas potatoes out of them and I think this bed here will be the perfect bed to grow potatoes in. It's quite a nice little size and I just think they'll do really well in here. Also, because I'm going to be growing them over the winter months I'm going to have to protect them from frost and I've seen these little mini polytunnel things that you can get to go over a raised bed, so I'm going to buy one of them to put over this raised bed and essentially create a mini polytunnel here. But for now they can go straight into the ground, they are at home, but I do need to dig out this bed. So I think these here, I think these are calendulars, I might try and move these. I wonder if they're movable, well we'll find out, we'll just dig them up. We'll just dig them up and whack them in somewhere else, what's the worst that can happen? They all die. Boo hoo. We'll save some more. There's no point being too fussy about plants and things, you know, if you're in the wrong place, dig them up, whack them in somewhere else, they want to grow, they might grow again, they might die. I think sometimes, especially as a new gardener, I used to think about plants as being very vulnerable, like newborn babies, but like babies, plants are a lot tougher than you give them credit for, you know, they are born to survive, they are, they want to live. And in the same way, you know, when you pick weeds, people say don't just throw it on the soil because it will re-root itself and grow again. Well so can plants, plants are essentially, you know, weeds are plants, and if weeds can just pop up anywhere and just survive, then it sort of begs the reason that so can plants. So don't treat them like babies, because babies are tougher than you think, trust me, trust me, I've had two. You don't know until you try, do you? Just, I would just say, always give them a good old drink, that's what I've always done. If I move anything, if I irritate everything, if I plant something new, even if it's raining, always give the roots a good old drink, because they can't get enough water and it stops them from panicking, I think, and it helps them to get acquainted with their new home. Yeah, that'd be nice if I have a little row of calendulas along there, and then I've got the gladiolus, and then behind that I've got the dahlias, I've got one opening there, look, my first bud, and I've got one there, and I've got some cosmos in here as well, and obviously I've got my crazy tower of sweet peas, so yeah, the flower bed's doing all right, I think. It's such an escape to me, my allotment, it's a real place where I could just come and just be myself, it's like my complete sanctuary. Do you remember when you were a kid, it's so easy to hide when you're a kid, you go into your bedroom and close the door and you're in your own world, or you put your headphones on and it's like everything has just disappeared, but when you're an adult, it's harder to do that, because you've got responsibilities, you can't just disappear, you know, you've got kids relying on you, you might have a partner, a husband, a wife, you have work, you've got people relying on you, and it's not so easy just to switch off and disappear, but that's what my allotment does for me. The second I walk into the gates, it's like the outside world is just left out there, and I'm here in my little sanctuary, my little oasis that I've built myself. Like I said before, it's not about the end result, it's about what the plot does for me, and the journey, and the digging, and the gardening, it's just about being in nature, and it's just my escape, it's my complete escape here, and I love it. If you enjoyed the vlog today, if you did subscribe to my channel, do vote for me in the Grow Your Own Awards, I don't know when it ends, it's just not ending, it's like going on forever, but I'd love a little vote from you if you haven't already, if you have, thank you, thank you, thank you so much. I am currently writing my book still, and all of these little thoughts and things that I keep having are going into the book, so I look forward to that hopefully one day, fingers crossed, and I will see you in my next vlog guys, thanks for watching, bye!