RAINY DAY JOBS AT THE ALLOTMENT / EMMA'S ALLOTMENT DIARIES

Hi guys, welcome to my allotment diaries. My name is Emma. These are my allotment diaries that you are watching right now. I'm so happy that you clicked on my video. And if you did click on my video, do consider subscribing to my channel. I put up lots of videos all about my garden at home, my allotment here, my progress, my ups, my downs, my ins, my outs, my all arounds and roundabouts. I haven't been here for three days because I got the migraine from hell and have barely been able to get out of bed, let alone come down to my allotment plot. So it's just been rubbish. But today is Thursday today. This is going up on Friday. I keep saying Friday, but it's Thursday. And I wanted to get down here, even though it is absolutely peeing down with rain and check on the slug and snail situation. Dave's gone into work today for the first time in about a year and a half, which means that I've sort of got some time to myself as well today at home. The kids are in school. It's all good. So it's just a really, really, I just feel really positive and happy today because, you know, I'm on my own. That sounds awful. That came out all wrong, but I think you know what I mean. It feels a bit more like normality is back today, which is just excellent. I brought some bits with me today. Now, prior to my last video about slugs and snails, I had so many comments about slugs and snails. It seems that they are just such an issue for everyone. And I'm writing a book at the moment about my allotment plot. Cue the helicopter. I'm trying to sell something, of course. For God's sake. See, they're chasing now. Right, he's gone. I'm writing a book at the moment about my allotment plot adventure and my adventure and struggles with nature, which is quite amusing, but also making me realise how much I like nature now, which is just so odd for me. A big part of my chunk of my book is going about slugs and snails because I think it's such a huge part of gardening, slugs and snails. They seem to be the biggest annoyance, the biggest pest. They attack everything, that's why. They're like the universal bug, but then we have other bugs as well. So it's, anyway, a lot of people saying that the eggshells don't work for them because eggshells, if you've got a bit of residue of the egg left, it does actually attract slugs and snails, which is like the opposite of what we're trying to achieve. So what I did today, I brought some straw. I'm gonna buy a pack of this to do my strawberry separately, but I'm gonna put the straw around other things in the hope that it kind of helps to protect them a little bit. So I'm gonna do that as well as eggshells. Oh, I better put my allotment coat on. This is absolutely peeing it down. Of course it is. Oh, absolutely, I'm going for it today. Here we go. No excuses not to go out in the rain if you've got a rain jacket, is there? Right, I've got a little bit of explaining to do about my cabbages because if you remember, last time I came here, my cabbages were fairly safe because I had literally swamped them in eggshells and I'm convinced that eggshells work for cabbages. However, what's happened, and you'll be able to see quite clearly, is my fleece thing I put over them has fallen down, creating a little bridge for slugs and snails to be able to climb over the eggshells onto the plants. And you can see one of them's got it, got this leaf. I haven't managed to get the other ones because obviously it didn't fall quite where it's supposed to for them, but they did get this one. So I am gonna cover these ones as well now. I don't really know what the answer is about this, to be honest, because I'm doing everything I can. I don't know. It's like double trouble for these cabbages because obviously I don't wanna leave them uncovered because the cabbage fly things will get on them. Well, the cabbage butterflies will lay their eggs on them and then the caterpillars will hatch and just eat them all. But at the same time, I don't want the slugs and snails getting to them and this fleece thing keeps flying away. So I'm sort of like buggered, really. I could staple gun it. I think I'm gonna staple gun it. I'm gonna do that. Said it before many times. I'll say it again. If you haven't got yourself a staple gun and you've got an allotment plot, go and buy yourself a staple gun. Multiple jobs to be done with staple guns. You can even fix shed windows with a staple gun. Did you know that? No, probably not because nobody else does it but me. But there you go as a quick tip. So long as you don't want it to last more than a week, but you know, it's up to you really. Right, okay, staple gun it is. Just stood on a rock, twisted my ankle. I'm all right. Don't worry about me. I'm all right. Don't panic about me. Right, staple gunned it so it won't fly away now. So hopefully that will also help the slug and snail infestation because it won't fall down and give them a little bridge anymore. I don't know if I'll ever be able to get it back up again, but we'll come to that bridge when we cross it, which hopefully the slugs and snails now won't be able to. Right, next up is my sunflowers because this is the one that the slugs and snails got last time, like quite significantly. However, they haven't been back. Is that a bird? Nature creeps me out sometimes. They haven't been back again and that's quite common for slugs and snails in my plot that they tend to have a nibble of something and then they don't return again. So I don't know if that's the thing for you too, but I do keep note of what they're eating. But look, let me touch this one. And your tiny little bit. This one seems happy. That's the one that they got last time, but actually they haven't been back again. Haven't been back to this one again because obviously he's got new leaves in the middle now and these two are unaffected. And that one actually is getting new leaves. I can't believe it. He's actually getting new leaves. Maybe he'll regenerate like Doctor Who. And these are some that my plot neighbor gave me. These look a different type of sunflower, but he gave me these for free. So I'll plant these out somewhere at some point, which is excellent. I just thought it might be reassuring to let you know that I did not do this level of protection from slugs and snails last year. In fact, I did very, very minimal protection and it was mainly after loads of stuff had already been eaten and everything grew. It was okay. The ecosystem did sort itself out and I didn't end up with nothing. So if you feel like you're being attacked by slugs and snails, everything grew last year for me. So I wouldn't worry, like panic about it. Bigger things will come along and eat it eventually. And you just got to try and hope that not all your crop disappears. But plants have a way of coming back. Look at that sunflower, you know? So don't panic. Don't panic. What I'll do with the rest of the straw that I've got, because I've got a little bit left in this bag now, is I'll just put it around some of the strawberries that have got flowers on already, because a lot of my strawberry plants are now coming into flower, which is very exciting. But they will need protecting now from slugs, snails, pigeons, and just from the strawberries being on the dirt. Because if the strawberries develop on the dirt, they will rot and go disgusting. So look at all these flowers everywhere. This is very exciting. All looking really healthy now. I don't know if you, oh, I just killed a petal. Yeah, I don't know if you remember, but some of them look like this one here has gone black in the middle. That's bad. That means that frost has got to it. That will not develop into a nice strawberry. Yeah, can you see it's black in the middle? That means that the cold has got to it, the frost. One of the frost must have got to it. So that's a goner. But these ones, look, yellow. Yellow in the middle. Yellow in the middle means beautiful strawberries. Clearly I did not have as much hay as I thought I had. So I've only managed to cover these ones here. So I'll have to bring back a whole bag, I think. This is going to take a whole bag to do this, but it will be worth it. Definitely worth it, and it put my mind at ease. The only other thing I've got to do is net it to stop the pigeons. Now, I'm only going to net it when I can release this netting from zinnias and stop foxy digging in it, or cat, or whoever it is. I don't know if it's just worth doing, maybe in the coming weeks. It's raining now. So that, because when things are growing in a bed, if foxes and cats don't like to dig in it, and then what I will do is put that netting over the strawberries. I accidentally just broke Sally. Oh God, she looks even scarier than she did before, if that's possible. Yep, it's possible. Look at that. Oh my God, that is the freakiest thing I've ever seen. Oh Sally, I'm so sorry. I've just broken a body. Oh, it's really scary now. Oh God. Oh Sally. Oh, I don't like that on my plot. Maybe I'll staple on her body to her head. Sounds a bit gruesome, but remember she is just a scarecrow guys. She won't feel it. Feel it. I don't like it. Sorry, Sally. I really didn't mean to do that. Right, it's really peeing it down now. So I do want to go home and have a nice bath. I'm not getting my pumpkins out yet. I'm going to get my pumpkins out end of May because I just want them to get a bit bigger before I put them out. And this is such a big structure. It's such a big part of my plot. It's going to be my squash arch. I really want to make sure that the squash doesn't just die the second I put it in or get eaten or anything. Do you know what I mean? I don't really have time to sow them again. So yeah, they're going to go here. So I'm going to have one, two, three, this end and then one, two, three, this end. And hopefully they'll sort of grow all over this archway and it's going to be such a spectacular, spectacular, what's the bloody word? Spectacle. And I'll just be able to walk under it. I'd be really cool. But yeah, I don't want to put them out just yet because I'm a little bit worried that they'll just all die. So I'm going to do that at the end of May. I hope you enjoyed the vlog today. I'm getting soaking wet now. If you did, subscribe to my channel and I will see you next time. Thanks for watching guys. Bye.