SUMMER RAIN IN THE UK / JUNE 2021 / EMMA'S ALLOTMENT DIARIES

Good morning everybody, welcome back to my allotment diaries. My name is Emma, these are my allotment diaries. I'd love to have you along, I'd love you to subscribe to my channel. You can look back at last year's videos as well to see what my plot was like last year because I assure you it was doing a lot better than it is this year. We've just had rain in the UK, it's just been rain, rain, rain. The sun has gone away, like completely. We don't know when we're going to see it again or if we're going to see it again and the plot is suffering, like it's just not where it was last year. Last year was so much more overgrown and things were really coming into bloom. My sunflowers were like above me and this year everything's like half the size. But hey ho, I guess that's how it is. I mean this is only my second year on the plot and I do, I did say last year I got lucky and I think I really did get lucky. But I have been lucky this year because I haven't been here all weekend and there's good news, there is good news. This is where I climbed with my Brussels sprouts the other day. Actually I say the other day, like five days ago and I didn't protect them from slugs and snails and I didn't protect them from butterflies and they're all still alive. They've left them alone and I'm a little bit worried about it actually. I found myself this morning thinking where are all the little slugs and snails, are they okay? Not that I care but apparently I do. I was just so incredibly shocked and surprised to actually see Brussels sprouts left. I mean this one's had a nibble at but I think he'll be all right you know and these ones, look they're great. They're just brilliant, they've just left them alone. I don't really know why. I am growing rocket here and I'm wondering if they like the light rocket or not. I think they probably do like rocket but you can see now I've got two rows coming up which is just thanks to all this rain and wild rocket is just delicious so this is great and also it flowers as well and I'm going to let some of it flower for the bees. Yeah I'm so incredibly surprised to find that a lot of my Brussels sprouts are still here. So yeah I really should protect them now because I just feel like I've been lucky and I've got to keep my luck going you know. My dodgy horizontal growing tomatoes have really bushed out as well. I mean they've obviously loved the rain and they've been largely left alone. I can't say the same for my, what are they called, marigolds because the slugs and snails went to town on them, they're all gone but the tomatoes are looking a lot healthier. Look at these, I mean they're really big bushy plants now. I'm sort of trying to manipulate them to go up now because like I said they were going horizontal. Hopefully it'll be able to sort of wrap around the stick I'm hoping and keep going but yeah I'm gonna have to start taking the suckers off of them now I think because they're really going for it and it's really good, it's really good news. Unfortunately look my marigolds all been eaten, every single one of them. So we might get whitefly now but I don't know about that. I don't even know what whitefly looks like. I'm sure that's something I'll find out, something to look forward to as usual. Yes that was my face of pure excitement and wonder because my freaking pumpkins are growing up and last year if you watched my vlog you'd know I had a lot of issues with the pumpkins growing up and I've stressed so much about it. This guy wants to go up. I've never seen a plant more eager to go up in my life. Look at him, he is absolutely desperate to go up. He wants to go to the top of the arch and I completely support him and I think these guys are probably going to want a copy because that's what plants are like, they like to do the same as their mates. But look at this, look at this, it's growing up. I mean can we just take a minute because I'm so shocked. Last year people just told me pumpkins don't grow up, it's never going to grow up and they didn't grow up and this year I've gone with a slightly different variety and they're kind of like mini pumpkins and it's desperate to go up. I mean, I just can't believe it. Just a little tip of something that I've learned for when you tie any plant in is do be aware that the stems are going to get thicker so if you tie it too tight and the stems grow, the stems will grow around the string and then eventually snap and break and die and that's almost what happened to my sunflowers last year because I tied them on too tight. So what I tend to do is tie them a little bit looser, give them a little bit of slack and do check them and re-tie as and when needed because that's the last thing you want to happen is for it all just to snap at the bottom and then it all just dies. That's an accomplishment, I mean that's it, that's it, I've done it this year. I've, success, finished, completed it. I'm so thrilled. Pumpkins on the other side are a little bit smaller. Who looks like something's crushed these? I wonder if that cat's been sitting in my spinach again. I did catch him the other day sitting in my spinach, it looks like something's sat here doesn't it? Bloody cat. Yeah these pumpkins aren't quite as big but they are still growing and I think look he's going the right way to go up and that one over there's smaller. I've planted two new ones here now in the hope that they get going as well but yeah it's funny how these are smaller and those ones are so much bigger. I haven't done an update on my flowers for a little while and that's just because they're just doing what flowers do and growing slowly and I don't think I'll get any till sort of August, September time really because that's when they bloomed last year. I'm not really sure what to say, the cosmos is doing great and then I've got the three dahlias at the back, they're fine. Got all the gladiolus coming up, they're fine. There's another cosmos here, he's happy, they're happy-ish, I mean they're growing and they're bigger so that's a good sign. These have just all fallen over so I hope nobody copied these because they've just all collapsed on themselves and look a bit of a mess really but there you go. To be honest I've got so many sweet peas growing at home that it's so much easier to pick them from my garden and instead of like bringing them all the way home from here. But I don't have room for lots of dahlias and gladiolus in my garden so I'm sort of more interested in growing them here but I don't think I'll grow sweet peas here next year just for that reason. I prefer to grow them in my garden. Just been searching for sticks, I've got a couple from that tree here which is covered in bindweed now by the way because I've noticed that something's fallen over that I didn't know needed staking up because I've never grown it before or known what it is before. It's called borage. I've noticed because my neighbour gave me these and I didn't really know what they were, I've noticed a lot of people grow these on their plots around here and apparently they're really good for bees so I'm just going to try and prop them up a bit and stop them from dying. Like I said, I've never heard of this stuff before but apparently it's really good for the bees and lots of people have got it so I hope it's not dead. I've tied it all on now so I hope it'll sort of grow up again. It's all about growing things up isn't it? Things never grow up at my plot, they always want to grow horizontal. Why do you have to do that to plants? They should just know shouldn't they? There's hundreds of strawberries guys there's hundreds of strawberries. I don't know if we've all been eating I don't know why I'm getting so excited. I got stung by a prickle, that's not a good sign is it? Guys all I can see in here is red, all I can see in here is red, red, red. Okay some of them are gone, some of them are gone but hopefully there'll be some for me to eat. Oh my goodness there's hundreds let's pick them all. This is where they all last, that's why they've left my brassicas alone, they're all in here. Look there he is waiting for his meal Bugger off, go get your meal somewhere else. Cheeky sod there's loads of them in here. Look at all these strawberries I can't, look at all these strawberries. I feel like I've won the lottery. Right so I'm gonna leave it there because there's not much to do. I've got so much weeding and stuff, I mean there is a lot to do but I'm not going to do it in the rain. It's starting to rain and it's so wet and muddy everywhere. The thing is guys is gardening is not all about just waltzing around in pretty dresses and a beautiful garden that's all fully grown, you know it's really there's a dark side to it and it's muddy and it's vicious and it's like it's nasty sometimes and it's hard work and it's miserable and especially when you're out in this kind of weather and stuff you know but it's not it's it's not all about that it's about the process of it and stuff and it does fill you up and you've got to take the good with the bad and the bad with the good and it's just important to get out there even when it's this weather and it's such a shame to see like so little people here when it's not actually pouring and you know a lot of new plots that have been taken on that have just been abandoned because we haven't had a great spring summer so far and I think it's really sad you know get out there don't matter if it's raining a little bit don't do the weeding jobs and stuff just do the fun stuff just have a look at it see how it's going you know throw the snails away anyway rant of the day got quite a good little crop of strawberries here to take home the slugs did get some but I thought there were so many growing that they were never going to get through them all and if they did they must have been really hungry um but yeah so I'm I'm going to take these home and wash them and they smell amazing they actually smell like the freshest strawberries yeah I'm going to get these home now I hope you enjoyed the vlog today if you did do subscribe to my channel I hope you're getting some crops to pick oh no I hope you are getting some crops to uh to pick at home and um enjoy your garden guys and whether it's rain or shine and I will see you next time thanks for watching bye