EMMA'S ALLOTMENT DIARIES / TALKING TO PLANTS / JUNE 2020

Morning guys, welcome back to my allotment diaries. My name is Emma. I'm documenting my first ever allotment plot. I'm a complete gardening novice and this is my masterpiece that I'm creating, so I would love for you to subscribe to my channel if you are new. Right, I'm at the plot this morning. I didn't come yesterday because it was just too damn hot and I just left it too late. I'm here today at eight o'clock in the morning. It's already 24 degrees. It's going to be... what's it going to be today? 31 degrees today and sunshine all day. Absolutely no break at all, all day long, so you can guess what I'm going to do really, can't you? I'm going to water everything because I didn't water everything yesterday and I kind of need to get a move on because the sun's already getting really hot, so I know you shouldn't water when it's really hot. Also, I don't know if any of you still watch Tony C Smith. I'll link his YouTube below because he's one of the allotmenters that I watch all the time constantly because I just, I find his videos so entertaining, so informative and I just, I don't know, I just really like them. I can't even put my finger on why I like them. I just do, but he basically brought some copper tape to put around his raised beds to keep slugs and snails away, so I'm going to give that a go. I'm going to give that a go and put it around some of my raised beds. It's quite thin. I didn't mean to buy such a thin one. I might put two layers of it, but it's supposed to deter slugs and snails, so I thought I might as well try it. Might as well try everything to keep those blighters away. Right, let's go and water everything. I'm worried, I'm worried about the plant. Bloody sun. That is everything kind of watered that needs watering, so now what I'm going to do, I'm going to mulch under my pumpkin plants a little more because I can see down here, pumpkins are kind of forming over here, which is obviously on the mud and I don't want it to be on the mud. In fact, I don't really want any of the plant to be on the mud, not since I had that blight scare. I want everything to be off the mud really, if I can help it. I think next year what I'll do is I'll put down some weed membrane and I'll cut a hole in it and plant a pumpkin in the hole, so that the soil won't get to any of the plant at all, but for now I'm going to use hay because that's all I've got and I don't know, I think it works quite well and it looks quite good as well, hay looks quite pretty. Right, I also, I cut some of the grass at the back the other day and I used the grass clippings to go around the tomatoes as well, just to give a little bit more mulch, so that works as well I think, I hope. As long as I don't put any bindweed in it, can you imagine? I bet I did. Bloody bindweed. There's going to be so much drama, this little plant down here is just going to get murdered. Sorry, sorry marigold. Oh, what's this stuff on it now? Why is there so much drama with these bloody pumpkins? I think it's mildew, it must be that mildew stuff because it's white and it looks like a fungus growing on the leaf. The thing is, the last time I sprayed on it, I sort of burnt all the leaves, so I don't want to do that again, but I think that was the fungicide I brought. I don't know if it's worth just leaving it because not all of them have got it. I don't know what to do now, I don't want to burn all the bloody leaves again. I'm going to get out of there that way because I've got a plant there. Sorry mate. Right, I've changed my mind, what I'm going to do is I'm going to spray some baking soda mix on it. Just thinking, when I sprayed baking soda on it, baking powder, it cured it and it was fine, and then what I did was I got really panicky and I sprayed this stuff on it, which I brought from Spain, like I'm on Amazon, and it's like a fungicide stuff, and when I sprayed this on it, this is what burnt all the leaves. So I'm going to do the baking soda and just see if I can keep that mildew at bay. I'll just put a little bit of that in there, I say, tipping the whole bloody thing. Right, oh no, I'm covered in baking powder now. Oh well, at least I won't get any funguses growing on me. All right, let's spray some of those leaves. Spray like that. I don't even know if it is mildew to be honest, but whatever it is, I'm obliterating it. Hopefully that'll have time to dry, because obviously when it's wet, the sun's on it, I think that's what's going to burn it, the sun. Ah, interesting. Oh, the old sun. Yes, hopefully that'll dry quite quickly. It's not that hot yet, so fingers crossed they don't burn all the new bloody leaves, because they are looking so much healthier now, and they're growing up. You bloody believe it guys, actually growing up. Mainly because I've like forced them up, but you know, same thing innit, same thing. Look, someone's using the toilet. Yeah, come to the community bed toilet of you mate. I'll see ya. Don't poo in my tomatoes, all right. Look at him. So my hair's like getting worse and worse throughout this video. I'm going to do the copper tape now for the slugs and snails. Right, I'm going to do it around the strawberry bed, because they seem to like this one. I don't know if it's going to help or not. I think the best thing to do is just to try everything, try as much as I physically can to stop slugs and snails. So I'll do the, see you bird, I'll do the bramble sticks, and then I'll do the copper tape, and then I'll do something else as well that I've read about. Oh, the eggshells and stuff. I'll just do everything. One of them might work, or combined they might work together. I don't know. Anyway, it's getting really hot now. I'll just show you my snap peas quickly, because these are thriving. These are so happy. I planted these straight into the ground a few weeks ago, and they've just come up lovely. They're not holding on though. Some of them are, but it's like, I want it to go that way, that way, that way. Okay, but yeah, look how much they've come up. Crazy. And then I've got like a random one here. I must have dropped that pea. I might just let him grow and stake him or something, because I feel sorry for him. I must have dropped him, and he must have got confused and started growing. Anyway, am I the only one who talks to my plants like they're real? Like I talk to them, don't I? I just realised that I literally talk to my plants. So weird. Right, I'm going to leave it there today, because lots of people are arriving now to enjoy their plots and stuff. I don't want to be rabbiting away to myself like some kind of natter. So I hope to see you on Monday. I hope you get to your plots this weekend. Hopefully we get some rain soon, because, you know, we could all use it. And I will see you in my next vlog. Thank you so much for watching. Don't forget to like, subscribe, leave me a comment, let me know, follow me on Instagram, all the below. See you later, guys. Thanks for watching. Bye.