EMMA'S ALLOTMENT DIARIES / PLANTING SPRING BULBS / SEPTEMBER 2020

Guys welcome back to my allotment diaries my name is Emma these are my allotment diaries. A couple of disasters this morning when I left the plot last time I must have knocked over a paint pot because now I have got a load of paint all over my shed floor which is just great. Not entirely sure how I'm going to clear that up but there we go. I brought my spring bulbs with me Here they are. I planted some up in my back garden and so I've got quite a few left and I'm going to plant those up today I think that's what I'm going to do. The plot looks pretty happy today. A few more things have died. It's funny this time of year how quickly everything changes and now it's like every time I come here it's like what's died today? So today broccoli is really dying now and the dahlias are not doing as well as they were doing last time and it's funny because I only came here like three days ago and now they're all starting to die off a bit so we must have had a cold snap but I didn't realise or whatever. But the runner beans are doing amazing. Look at this. I know I don't have that many growing up the arch but they're absolutely beautiful and the flowers on them are just stunning. I'm definitely going to grow these next year like properly grow them like not just whack a couple of plants in and hope for the best I'm actually going to grow them properly because I think they would have like covered the entire arch and they're just beautiful. The flowers are just stunning. Where's the flower? There they are. They're absolutely beautiful. You know how I love my flowers guys but yeah I'm going to grow these properly next year like properly. I don't know what that means but it means something. These are starting to die back now I need to cut and deadhead them again but I think they've sort of had enough. Do you know what I mean? They're sort of they're coming to the end. I can feel it. I can feel it. Cosmos is still taking off though. It's just gone mad flowery mad which is lovely but the dahlias again I mean they're doing really well but more of them are dying now than before so I really must sort those out. And there's something down here that I haven't really checked for ages. I don't really know why. Oh screen's all dirty sorry guys. Something I haven't really checked is the cabbages. I haven't even uncovered them for like ages so I'm going to uncover them now. Hope for the bloody best. Really healthy much healthier than the broccoli. I don't know how it grows a cabbage. I thought cabbages were like balls but I don't know. I don't bloody know. What am I a plant expert? No. It really makes a difference when you cover them because obviously I've got no well I've got a tiny tiny little bit but most of the leaves are intact so this has just done really well. I'm really excited to eat this. I actually really like cabbage which is quite a weird thing to like isn't it? Most people don't like cabbage but I love it. So cabbage doing good. Broccoli not so good but that's because I didn't cover it. Child is going mad now. I don't really know what to do with it to be honest. It's just like a monster sort of taking over. First thing I'm going to do is plant some daffodils. I'm going to plant some of them around the pond. That's the first place I'm going to do it and I'm going to do it in clumps so I get little like bunches of daffodils around the pond so I think the pond would be an ideal place. Someone else suggested the pond. I think you're right. I think that'll look really nice with daffodils so that's what I'm going to do. That's my first job. I did this in my back garden like I said yesterday so I'm a bit of an expert at this now and daffodil bulbs need to be planted about 12 centimetres deep which is about that deep and about 15 centimetres apart so just give them a bit of room between them and it's best to plant them in clumps I think personally because then they sort of come up a bit more natural looking so that's what I'm going to do here. It's nice to know what I'm talking about for a change. It feels really good. Right another quick tip. Give the bulb a squeeze and if it's like hard it's a good bulb. If it's all squishy it's probably rotten. Don't plant it. I'm giving tips out and everything now. It's a good day. Then you just water it so that's it really. I'm just going to plant the rest around the pond as well maybe a couple in some of the beds at the sides and that's it really. That's all there is to it. Easy for once. Right there is one more job I want to do that I completely forgot about and that is I want to cover the pond with some kind of net before the leaves start dropping into it because obviously when that happens it's kind of game over and I don't want to have the algae problem. I think this would be all right. Yeah I think so. There's no bloody frogs in there guys so it's not like I'm going to kill a load of frogs. Maybe I'll get frogs next year. I don't know. They just don't seem to like me. I don't really know why. I wouldn't say I'm like a frog fan but like I don't hate them and I've created an area for them. You know I've been as welcoming as I can be but they've just not really been interested. Right I'm gonna put this net over it and then I'm gonna put rocks around the net to keep it there. Oh god I think that's right. All right okay sit you over here. I don't think this is going to do anything. I don't think it's big enough but I'm using the net for the bloody cabbages. So this is all I've got. It's like some kind of weird hammock I've created for frogs. I wonder if frogs are going to try and cross it like some kind of weird bridge. Like an obstacle course for frogs. There you go. That's why they don't like me you see. I create all these weird things for them like the house that collapsed and now the hammock slash bridge. They probably just don't trust me. They're probably just thinking what's up with that weird human? Why does she keep creating things that are going to kill us? For god's sakes. That felt really therapeutic doing that actually. There's something about planning for the future at an allotment that just makes you feel so happy and calm and peaceful and this is the time of year where we're thinking about spring and like you have to plant your spring bulbs out and your garlic and your onions and stuff so you really are kind of like planning for the future and and putting things in the ground for next spring and it's a really nice feeling. It just sort of takes you out of your head if you know what I mean and forces you to like think about the future and not think about the now and to plan and to think about where you're going to be next year and it's just it's just a really nice thing to do. That's the thing you know some things are really uncertain like lockdown and coronavirus we just don't know what's going to happen everything's changing all the time but some things are certain and putting daffodil bulbs in the ground is a certainty that next year if old foxy don't dig them up I'll have daffodils and they'll grow and they'll just carry on and that's just a really nice experience it's a nice feeling you know just to know life goes on and some things aren't going to change and that is a constant and it's just really nice and that's what I kind of get reminded of when I come here to the allotment. Well I hope you enjoyed the vlog today um thank you for sticking around if you have been watching all of them I'm going to try and do more regularly now it's autumn time there's lots to do and yeah hopefully I'll have some more up this week as well but yeah thank you for continuing to watch them thank you for subscribing thank you for giving me thumbs up and leaving comments below I always read them even if I don't have time to respond and hopefully I will see you next time hope you enjoyed it today guys take care bye