HAVE YOU TRIED EATING THESE?! / ALLOTMENT GARDENING FOR BEGINNERS

Are you doing a poo? Rocky no! Morning guys, how are you all? Welcome back to my allotment diaries. I've got my camera fixed so this is being filmed on my usual camera, thank goodness. I think the quality was okay on my phone but it wasn't perfect was it? But it's back, it's fixed, it's done so welcome to my allotment diaries. My name is Emma, these are my allotment diaries. Thank you if you are a regular viewer of my channel, I know I've got loads of new subscribers. I actually hit over 26,000 subscribers the other day which is absolutely incredible and of course I couldn't start this video without mentioning two of my biggest fans, Zoe and Theo. Yes, I know that you are big fans of me and you watch me after school and you're always asking if I've got another video on, well today I have and for those of you who don't know, I do post Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays so thank you for tuning in and thank you Theo and Zoe for tuning in for all my videos. I hope you're enjoying them, I hope they are bringing you a little bit of joy in your life and I hope they're encouraging you and inspiring you to get outside and whack something in the ground. Remember, you don't have to be a horticultural expert to be able to grow some really good fruit and veg or some flowers, just whack stuff in. Sometimes it just grows, just whack it in and see. You can't really go wrong with gardening. So my last vlog was filmed a few days ago, you would have seen it a couple of days ago but actually it was filmed about six days ago. A lot's changed since then so we had some really awful wind over the weekend and I'm happy to say there was minimal damage here but there was a bit of damage so I'm going to take you around and just show you what the damage was. Such a lovely day today, this is my favourite kind of weather to garden in where we haven't got that bright sunshine but it's still quite warm. I just think you can get more done basically. Look at that pumpkin arch, isn't it insane? Why is it growing so well this year and last year it was so rubbish? Oh I know why, probably because I promised a load of magazines loads of pictures of my beautiful pumpkin arch and loads of articles about it and then I couldn't get the bleeding thing to grow could I? Just a little update on it though, I'm getting some pumpkins, can you believe it? I'm actually getting pumpkins. Look at that one there, isn't he lovely? He's actually getting really big now which is just incredible. There's also some more somewhere, I've got loads of flowers. So some flowers give you pumpkins, some flowers don't. I'm not a massive understander of all this but it's basically some are male and some are female. I think the male ones have a little ball behind it which turn into a pumpkin and the female ones don't and basically they gotta get together or something which is what the bees do. Worst explanation of pollinate, pollinate, pollinating, I can't even say it and the worst explanation ever but it's something to do with bees pollinating all of your flowers or something. You can do it by hand but you know the bees do it so I just leave them to it really. I mean it's their job you know, I've got enough jobs, the bees can do something. Here's another one, here is another little one, look at that, fantastic and jack-o'-lanterns are sort of a weird shape, they're sort of not a circle pumpkin, they're sort of like a an oval kind of pumpkin so you can see them growing, they've got like ridges in them which you can already see, it's just amazing. Anyway, oh look it's another one, there's another one, oh wow I'm getting loads, I'm getting so many, look at the plasters as well, just literally saved this plant, it's just like four plasters but yeah it's like starting to spill over now which is a good thing, we want it to because we just want it to get bigger and healthier and healthier. I think my baby boo's got flowers as well, yeah he has, he's getting flowers coming, he's got this little, that might be the jack-b-little, oops, don't do that to your flowers, that might be the jack-b-little flower but these these ones here are definitely baby boos but yeah how exciting, I mean it's all just growing away like crazy. So my first bit of damage from the wind was down at the front of my plot here but I've actually fixed it this morning and I can't see too much permanent damage, basically this gate which is balancing very precariously here sort of fell down into my brassicas and flattened a load of them but you can see that so I've only just literally saved these and they've already popped back to life so I think they really want to live, you know that's a really good sign, that means that these plants are survivors, fantastic, well done guys and then over here you can see this is blown off, I don't know what the point is of this anymore though because the butterflies are clearly getting in, I mean they're covered in caterpillars, somebody said to spray them with something, with vinegar or something which I might try actually. These are my cabbages and they're being munched I think by slugs and snails now but everything else sort of looks okay so I know I've got caterpillars in here but you know they're not doing that much damage so utilising that old saying, if it ain't broken don't fix it, you know just leave them to it, leave them to it, they'll figure it out. Plants have survived in this world for much longer than we've been here, you know they can sort it out. This is my second damage from the storm, Mr Sunflower here who sort of snapped and bent over but he's still together so what we're going to do is we're going to try and do the plaster trick on him and also stake him a bit taller. Right I've run out of plasters, they're supposed to be for me these plasters when I injure myself all the time so I've got no plasters left now, what I do have is duct tape, this pretty floral duct tape, I just got this off of Amazon. I'm going to wrap this around because I think it's the same concept, basically I want to strengthen the stem, keep him upright and fix him and also keep out disease so I think this will do the same thing, hopefully, I don't know if they're fussy about that sort of thing. Okay let's duct tape this bad boy up, I hope you don't mind duct tape Mr Sunflower, if you do, you know, complain to the management. This is the year of me fixing all my plants with duct tape and plasters isn't it, that's the theme of this year, let's get that leaf off because you're in the way, in the way of my repair. Right there we go, he is officially fixed with duct tape, his petals are going everywhere now, he's rebelling, he doesn't want to live anymore, he's like let me die, I'm aware that you're almost finished mate but I sort of just want you to you know finish properly and actually give me some sunflower seeds and stuff um yeah right that's one job done. I have managed to grow carrots successfully once at this allotment plot and that was on my first ever year here and I literally just threw in a row of carrots, I don't even think it was a row, I think it was a scatter of carrots and they all grew so I do know it is possible. It does look like I've got some carrot germination going on though, actually the whole bleeding row, the whole row is actually germinating which is just quite amazing. I'm getting a little bit worried about slugs and snails now though because if we get lots of rain and stuff they're going to come here, you know, lovely dinner for them. This is slugless, it's a like a natural sort of barrier for slugs and snails, what you do is you put it down like this and it it looks like pellets like that, it's made of all sort of natural things like eggshells and straw, eggshells, all that kind of stuff basically and what you do is you put it down like that so it looks like pellets and then you water it so then in about 24 hours it goes from looking like that to looking like this stuff so you can see it's a really good sort of barrier, it all goes, mashes together and they can't get past it. So here's the bag, slugless by Andermatt Home and Garden. Just a little disclaimer here, they did send me one bag for free to try out but I liked it so much that I've been buying it with my own money ever since, so just a little disclaimer to let you know I purchased this with my own money because I found it's really good and I really like it and I think it's better to put down something than nothing, I always think that's the case. Oh look who it is, hello Rocky, yeah where you been? It's been a while, it's been a while since I saw you, mind the bee Rocky. Got some cat treats? Yeah come on then, come on then, it's just my job to feed all these animals now. Where are their owners? That's what I want to know, where's your owner Rocky? Do you have an owner? Do you have an owner right, let's feed this cat so he leaves me alone, away from my camera. Rocky, Rocky, not cool Rocky, oh my gosh Rocky, just take them all then, she's Louise Rocky, you are just terrible. Cat treats gone now, get some more, look you've eaten all of them, that's too many for you Rocky, that's too many, I don't want to take them back because it eats me. Cat's eye, not even a thank you, look just skulking off, skulking off, that's it go and poo in my bed now Rocky, that's it, go and take a big dump in one of my beds. Bee just attacked me, that bee just flew right into my face and attacked me, I did nothing, I was just trying to get my wheelbarrow, oh my gosh, right we'll try that shot again, the reality of filming at an allotment plot eh. So as I was about to weed down here, I realised that there's actually something I've whacked in here and forgotten about, I think it's swede, so I whacked in some random brassicas around my plot, it's kind of like a deterrent for the slugs and snails, like a peace offering basically, it didn't work because they haven't touched them, well they have, I think the birds have, anyway in between them I whacked in some swede seeds I think and I've just left them, I haven't done anything and I think they need a bit of thinning out, so that's what I'm going to do now, thinning out is probably one of my least favourite jobs because you're basically just killing innocent plants and I kill enough by accident without doing it on purpose you know. So it might be a bit hard to tell, this is a brassica, this is a sacrificial brassica, this is another sacrificial brassica and this is another sacrificial brassica and in between that I sowed some swede, so actually is that a weed or is that swede, is that weed or is that swede, this stuff writes itself you see, I don't even have to try anymore, I don't know if that's a weed or a swede, it looks a little bit different than these things, so I'm gonna say weed, bye, about to pull out a blooming swede aren't I, no it's a weed, right so what we need to do with these swedes is thin them out because you can see they're too close together and from what I know, oh look a spider, look at the colour of him, oh, so what I'm looking for when I do this basically is a big strong happy plant that I think's got a good chance of living in any small ones I kind of take out, so like this one here for example, sorry mate but you guys are just too small so they're out straight away okay, this one here he's too little, not a chance, not a chance, now the problem is that these two here are really big, that one's small, you're gone, sorry mate, you don't have to apologise to them all when you take them out but I tend to, sorry mate, because I just feel bad you know, well you can try and replant them but I just think I'll kill them if I do that, I mean I could try and just replant a couple, yeah we'll try and replant some of them actually before we just resort to death, you know we'll try something, we'll try everything, what we do, we'll weed out the little tiny ones, sorry guys, you're just, you're not going to live and no one in this world needs that much swede, they just don't, it's only little weedy ones, dig up, dig them up and then we'll kill them all, you can all die together, right, right he's got a fantastic root, fantastic, is that even a swede? No one knows anymore, these could be weeds, I'm sort of going to try and replant them, I don't really think you can replant swedes, I don't think it's the kind of crop that likes to be bussed over too much but you know, just try and save all your mates, that's all, right some of the swedes that I pulled up here I'm going to put in between my carrot rows, I wonder if a swede and a carrot would grow okay together, I sort of feel like they would, I feel like they would, so where's my carrot row, there and there, I'll put that in there. I've just been busy picking a few borage flowers, left loads for the bees though because the bees absolutely love borage but these are really good on a salad, I don't think they tasted much but they're nice and I've also picked a few nasturtium leaves and also flowers which you can have again in a salad, these have got more of a peppery taste, they're quite fiery, a bit like rocket and the smaller leaves I think are a little bit nicer than the bigger leaves actually but I don't have many small leaves but these are really good in a salad, you can eat these, they're lovely, let me eat, let me try one of these ones, this is a little one, I think it's slightly less fiery or is it more fiery, I can't remember, it's less fiery, the smaller ones, oh my god, it's not, it's more fiery, it's the bigger leaves I think that are less fiery, oh my goodness, my mouth is on fire, it feels like something you shouldn't be eating, like it feels like a poison or something but as soon as I realised it's safe to eat these it's actually quite fun, it's just like having, it's like someone pouring a layer of pepper into your mouth, which doesn't sound very pleasant but it is really nice in a salad, I promise you and you can even eat the flowers, oh gosh, I don't know what to eat to bring it away, oh my goodness, my mouth's on fire, maybe the flower is less peppery, let's try the flower, oh very sweet, oh my god, you know what, it's really sweet when you first start eating flower but then it goes really hot and spicy, I tell you what, it's fun though, it's a fun experience, if you're looking for a fun salad, that's a fun salad to have, it's like twice as hot as rocket, my throat is on fire, that's a good advert for nasturtiums, I don't know, I don't know, but anyway the point is you can, anyway I take these home because I think my husband will like these as well, probably won't give them to my kids to be honest, it's not going away, I don't remember them being that spicy, they're so spicy, my sweet pea archway grew back, which I'm so happy about, so last time I was here, which was about six days ago, I really chopped them back and tried to stop them from finishing and they've responded by just blooming like crazy, just absolutely incredible how long I've managed to keep these alive, by now normally I'd be ripping them all out because they'd all have died and then even on this side here, look, it's all just done really well, look at this bindweed, actually looks quite pretty and it's not, doesn't seem to be affecting it and what's this bee doing, sticking his butt out to me, what's he sticking his butt out for, is he having a little rest, oh they're just loving all these flowers at the back of the plot and that's another reason why I haven't removed my cornflowers yet, even though they do definitely look like they're on the way out, you can see, look, just so many bees, just absolutely loving them, it's just full of bees, anyway I hope you enjoyed my little visit to my allotment plot this morning, I hope it's inspired you to get out into your garden or allotment plot, whatever space you've got and get growing and I'll see you again in my next vlog which will be on Friday, see you on Friday guys, happy gardening, bye!