WINTER ADVICE FOR NEW GARDENERS / EMMA'S ALLOTMENT DIARIES

Hi everyone, welcome back to my allotment diaries. My name is Emma, these are my allotment diaries. I've just got to the plot. I haven't been here for a few days just because it's been really rainy, cold, miserable. I don't know if you've had a storm where you are but we had a bit of a storm. Luckily I took the advice of my viewers and I didn't put any structures up so nothing's fallen down which is quite good and a lot of things have started to grow. Tommy, no that's our old Christmas tree Tom. Tommy's here with me today and he actually noticed everything that was growing before I did so he got to see it first which is fine, you know, it's fine. Yeah, naked Christmas trees. I think firstly I just want to show you before he impales me with Christmas tree. My garlic's coming up, I can't believe it. I've been waiting for this to come up for a long time and finally it's started to come up. Look at this, I mean, it's like nothing happens for ages and then all of a sudden everything just kind of explodes into life. Look, they're amazing. The size of these ones, oh my god, I just want to touch them all the time. I just want to keep touching them. Oh, this is so exciting. I feel like I've been waiting forever for these garlic to come up and then all of a sudden it's like they haven't just started to come up, they've like come up like three foot or something, well, you know, three inches. Also, got a lot more broccoli. My little broccoli cover fell down so, but the birds, they haven't had it yet so, you know, they're a bit slow really. But look, look at this, so much broccoli. Got one here, it's amazing. Got a really big one here, got one here, got a few on that one, it's amazing. Then not to be outdone, the broad beans have just like blossomed, they're just coming into their own now. Look how massive they are, like you can actually see them now properly and look, the ones that are covered, they're not even any blooming bigger. Might as well uncover them all because look, they're the same size as the ones that have not been covered. But yeah, these are I know, are you amazed? No. No, well, I am. Why is he inside the wood? It's so funny because we had like the worst couple of days weather-wise, storms and stuff and I've come back, it's all bloody grown. I didn't even realise that it would grow. So yeah, it's a really nice surprise actually coming here and seeing everything grow. Daffodils are coming up now, tulips coming up, it's like, why has everything started to grow? Like when we've had the worst weather, normally that happens when we've had some sun, but we haven't even had any blooming sun, look. So, don't know, don't know. I don't know where they all are Tom, maybe someone said that it was a little bit too early in the year for frogs, but somebody else also said, why don't you have a look at a nearby pond and see if there's any frogs born that you can kind of nick and put in your pond. Is this a good environment for pond? I'm going to say yes, because I've got really good coverage now over the whole thing and frogs like to hide Tom, so all this coverage here, this is excellent for frogs. This will just only get bigger and bigger and bushier, got loads of stuff growing around the side, so I think it's a good environment. Yes, I think this is a good pond for frogs, but I haven't got any frogs, so I'm going to go and see if I can steal some frogs, and it's not the best thing to do, but at the same time I really want frogs, and I think my neighbour's got a pond, so I'm going to go and have a look if he's got any frogs. Come on then, because no one's here I don't think. No, no one's here Tom, come on. But it's not really stealing if it's a frog is it? You can't steal a frog, it's frogs are just nature aren't they? I brought a little tin with me, it smells of tomatoes, the frogs better like tomatoes. I don't know what frogs like to be honest, that's why I haven't bloody got any, but where's he gone? He's already gone, oh god, look he's halfway there. No fear that boy, no fear. It's really hard to film myself stealing something when I'm actually trying to be inconspicuous, it makes me a bit conspicuous, but let's do it. No one's here, I don't know why we're so scared, but hey Tom, you just walked straight past the pond, come here, not a very good thief are you? Right, here's the pond, look, look at his pond, it's under a net, that's quite clever to stop the leaves going on it, but this is his pond, I don't know if there's any bloody frogs in there I can have. This is clever, this is like a little frog house in there, that's clever isn't it? There must be some frogs inside. He's got those rude things as well that I've got, but I can't see any frogs spawn. I can't see in there though, I'm just gonna film in there and see, I'll have a look back on the camera, see if there's any frogs. I think frog spawn is like little bubbles with little black hole things in them, but I can't see any, I can't see any frogs spawn, but he always has loads of frogs, so where are the frogs? There's no frogs spawn, how does he get frogs? You know what, I'm gonna have a little look around there, Tom will you cover me? I can't see any bleeding frogs in here and now I feel like I'm encroaching on someone's territory, so he won't mind though. Right okay, I don't think there's any frogs in there, so we're not gonna steal any frogs today. No, no bleeding frogs, so empty-handed, that was an unsuccessful mission, never mind. Just so you know, I am only kidding about stealing it, he doesn't mind if we have frogs, he's already said I can go and have a look, so I was just doing it for dramatic effect and because it's quite funny to see this one, I've got another job, so I've been collecting tin cans, like much like the one I just showed you, and I've got loads of them in here and the idea is we're going to make a little bug hotel and stuff them with things that bugs like to live in, and I thought you could do that for me Tom, so I'm going to give you some pots, there's two more in there and you're going to fill it with things, like they need to be different things, so you can fill one with like stones, one with sticks, one with leaves, yeah, things like that, try and find different materials, so that keep him busy. Right, that should keep him busy for a bit, I say a bit, probably like five minutes before he's back to me again, but that's kids innit. Over the weekend I was asked by someone to answer some questions on my Instagram for a little blog post they're putting up about helping out first-time gardeners and allotment holders fair their first winter, and like giving them like the advice that I would give to them for like how to get over their first winter and what to do, and so I sort of gave all this sort of quite generic advice, you know, make sure you wash your pots, get your seeds sorted ready for spring, make sure your wheelbarrow's not got a broken wheel, and get your tools all in order and stuff, like kind of like normal advice that you've heard a hundred times, and I sort of sent all these answers off and stuff, I was quite happy with my response and she was happy as well, and I still am quite happy with it, but I realised after I sent it off that I was sort of talking about winter like it's something to avoid and something like you have to get over and you have to get through, I sort of realised maybe that's that's the advice I would give someone, but actually it's not the advice that I think I should be giving, what I wanted to say I think really is don't see winter as something that you have to get through, because if you start looking at any season like that it's just not a good, it's just not good, it's not a good place to be in like your mind, gardening is beautiful in every single season, and yes there's less to do in winter, and yes there's less jobs to get on with, but that doesn't mean it's any less beautiful. I don't need to tell you that especially if you've suffered any kind of loss in your life, or you've even just had young children, you know that life is short and it just slips through your fingers so quickly, just get outside in the air and just enjoy your plot and just look around, just see the beauty everywhere and just maybe take stock of that and enjoy the garden in the winter, because before you know it spring will be here and it will look completely different again. Winter doesn't have to be this horrible thing that we just have to keep our heads down and get through, it can be beautiful. Obviously that's really hard to put into writing which is why I didn't write it, but it's kind of what I feel and it's sort of what I wanted to say. I hope you've been enjoying lockdown and your allotment plots and your outdoor space as much as possible. I know it's really hard at the moment but winter is beautiful and getting out here, just getting in the fresh air with my kids helps so much with my mental health, so if you can get outside and do something with your hands it'll make you feel a lot better. Hopefully I'm not a doctor but I'm just a human. I hope you're all well out there, thank you for subscribing to my channel if you have, if you haven't do consider hitting the subscribe button and I will see you in my next video guys, thanks for watching, bye!