MY TINY SUMMER LONDON GARDEN / GARDENING FOR BEGINNERS

Morning guys, welcome back to my gardening channel. How are you doing? How are your gardens doing? I hope they're growing really well. I was about to say, how does your garden grow? But then I thought, I think that's probably been trademarked, hasn't it? So I shouldn't say that. My name is Emma. These are my allotment diaries, but today I'm in my back garden and I wasn't going to do a vlog in my back garden this week because I just kind of wanted to stick to the allotment this month. But I have been showing you lots of snippets of my garden and it's in full bloom right now. So I thought it would just be tragic. I thought it'd just be tragic not to show you like an update of how it's going. How's the lighting looking here? I think it's okay. It's a nice sunny day today and we are due a lot of bad weather. So I thought I'd get out here as much as I could and just do some weeding and general maintenance and things like that. I've just been weeding this bed here and looking after my buxus plants and I've noticed a problem with one of my buxus, which I was really hoping wouldn't happen this year, but it has. So these are buxus bushes. Really, really beautiful. Really great for adding structure to a border. So I planted mine along the front of this border here with the intention of either making them a long kind of rectangular border or cutting them into little balls, but I haven't decided yet. There is a problem that you get with buxus that I got last year and I haven't had it so far, but I looked at this one and I was like, yep, I've definitely got it. It's actually really obvious what the problem is when you know it and when you've seen it a few times. So can you see how this one's sort of dying back a little bit? And also it's got a lot of like, it looks like spiderweb. It's not spiderweb guys. I'm going to show you what the problem with the buxus is. There he is. There's our friend or our, our foe, shall we say our frenemy, because everything's a friend and an enemy and the same at the same time in the garden. This is a buxus caterpillar, which was, um, which has been very happily making his home in my buxus plant, which means that there's probably a hundred thousand more in this one plant alone. And a butterfly comes along and he lays his little eggs in here and then he has a million caterpillars. They all hatch. Oh look, there's little baby ones up there. There's a couple of little, little baby ones just there. So they come along and they lay all their caterpillars and the caterpillars absolutely munch your buxus plant to death. But it is that bee just tried to land on me. Don't judge me. It just tried to land on my leg. I was like, no, not today. Um, but yeah, I've got buxus caterpillars basically, which is a really horrible, horrible thing and it's destroying buxus plants all over the UK. So there's a few things that you can do. Firstly, you can just pick them all off by hand. Secondly, you can spray them with a jet of water, like a really, really powerful jet of water and just like a tsunami, you know, just smash them all off. Um, or thirdly, you can just not grow buxus. It's a shame. It's a shame, but it's, you know, it's part of the garden. Sorry, mate. I'm sorry. Oh, I feel bad now. I feel like I should put it back. It's like it's, it's home and it's all it's got to eat. No, I can't. They'll kill it. They'll kill the plant. I need the plant guys. You can't do this. I'm sorry. Oh, I'm so sorry. My sweet pea teepee has done so good this year. I haven't just got sweet peas growing up, but I've also got some runner beans as well. And that's because when my sweet peas end and finish, which they do quite quickly in this weather, um, the runner beans will take over and I'll still have something climbing up it, which I thought would be quite nice, but I'm not quite ready to say goodbye to the sweet peas yet because they are so gorgeous and they smell amazing. If you sit in here, I wish you could just smell it. It's just incredible. So I'm cutting off some of the seed pods. So anything like this that's gone to seed and I won't just cut it at the seed pod. What I'll do is I'll follow the stem all the way down and cut it at the base of the stem. Another way to keep them flowering is to keep chopping off a spindle things. So you see these tendrils, they want to climb on and cling on. But apparently if you have too many of them, it stops the flowering process. So if you keep snipping them off and then actually tie them in or just let them sort of wrap themselves around something, it's better and they flower for longer. They also can look quite messy when you get too many, like I want to call them spindles. I think they're called tendrils is the actual name. So when you have too many tendrils, they look quite messy and not very nice. But apparently by removing them, you encourage the flowering process to keep going for longer. So that's something I learned on TV. I think, I think Carol Klein taught me that on her show. So I'm inclined to believe Carol Klein because she seems to know what she's doing. So I'll just keep chopping them off. Oh, and of course, keep picking the flowers. That's the one most important thing. Keep picking the flowers and then you won't get the seed heads developing in the first place. But if you do have seed heads, seed heads, chop them off. But I'm going to pick all the flowers now and put them inside and hopefully it'll keep them flowering for longer. I've also got loads and loads of ladybirds on here and a few aphids, but I think the ladybirds are just absolutely loving these. I've noticed this year in my garden, a massive influx of ladybirds, which is really, really good news. But yeah, there's absolutely loads on these sweet peas and I've noticed there's also quite a few little green flies or aphids, whatever these are, but this is what the ladybirds like to eat. So they're obviously getting enough food here and they're just loving life. Anyone else just like really bad at picking their flowers? Like I want them to stay in the garden. I don't, I hate picking them because as soon as I pick them, it takes ages for another one to bloom. Um, or is that just me? I don't know. Right in this veg bed here, everything's coming up really well. So I did sow some radishes and some lettuce about two weeks ago. I think just because of the amount of rain that we've had, I mean the radishes are doing amazing. I definitely need to thin these out this time because last time I had loads of like really teeny tiny ones. Um, and then the lettuce is starting to germinate already as well. I think that's because of the amount of rain that we've had, which has just been really good. The leeks are alive. Leeks are doing so good. I might actually get a good size leek this year, maybe just one, but who knows? That'd be better than none. Um, and then I've got my calendula here, my rainbow chard and the parsnips at the back. Just behind him is my cucumber plant and this is a called a crystal lemon cucumber, a crystal lemon cucumber. Let me get that right. I've got two growing up here, got loads more little tiny baby ones, but look at these two. I think these two might be ready. I think this one in particular might be ready to pick and try. These are so delicious. I promise you. So I didn't know that cucumbers come in so many different varieties. My neighbor at my allotment plot gave me a few of these to try. Um, because the hay grew so many, you said literally so many grew and this year I'm so obsessed with them. I just grew them myself and I can't believe that they've worked. They're absolutely incredible and so exciting. Right, let's pick this little lemon cucumber down here cause I really think he's ready and I'm so excited to try him. I bet he doesn't taste half as good as my neighbors. He's definitely, he's definitely really small. My neighbor grew massive ones, like really big and they look like, they literally look like lemons. This actually looks like a pumpkin. Right, let's try him. Right, the lighting's quite hard to get right in my garden right now cause it's so bright and sunny. I hope you can see me okay. So with the crystal lemon cucumber, you can eat the skin. So the whole thing is edible, which is just amazing. Um, same as most cucumbers, all cucumbers I think, except the knobbly ones, those ones you have to peel. Anyway, ignore me cause I don't know what I'm talking about. So I'm absolutely positive you can eat the skin. So if you eat the skin and you don't die, thank me later. Okay, here we go. So just going to chop him up a little bit. Oh, that bit there looks a bit weird. There we go. There's the inside of him. Just like a normal cucumber, lots of seeds, lots of water, very watery fruit. Oh, he looks absolutely fantastic guys. I'm going to cut him into a wedge. This is what I did last time. A bit like a lemon actually. Oh yeah, of course it's a lemon, a crystal lemon cucumber. Yes, it looks like a lemon. That's so funny. Literally so excited to try this. Mmm. I wish I could tell you something exciting, but it just tastes like a normal cucumber. It's just a cucumber. Don't let the yellow skin fool you. It just tastes just like a normal cucumber, but absolutely delicious. And because you've grown it yourself, you know, it's really fresh, really nice, really cucumber-y. Mmm. So we're due a really big storm tomorrow. Apparently the whole day is going to be miserable. So I'm just wondering if there's any jobs I need to get done in the garden before that happens. And I think down here, I've just noticed I planted in some more Maris Piper potatoes. I would sort of call these my contingency potatoes in case the ones at the plot don't work. And I only filled them halfway. So I think I'm going to top them up with some soil. Yeah, I'll do that. Oh, nice. All right, that was a palaver. There you are. They're all topped up a bit now. So this is just to stop the sun from getting to the potatoes and hopefully they'll grow a few more for me as well. But you can just like top them up with straw. It doesn't have to be like a compost or anything. So that was just an old bit of compost in a bucket. Obviously had a big pile of roots at the bottom, but they should be fine now. Hi again, guys. It's the next day and the rain has stopped. It rained so much yesterday. It was literally insane. Everything was just flooding everywhere. It's been sunny all morning and I thought, OK, great, I'll get out in the afternoon, do a little bit of more filming and finish this vlog. And I've just come out and look at the sky now. I mean, it's not really a comparison. This morning it was blue sky. In fact, it was like it is over there. It was blue sky and sunshine. Really, really warm. I've just come out here. It's about two o'clock. And look at that. This is UK summer at its finest. I've come out here to pick a big bunch of flowers because I think firstly, a lot of my dahlias, you can see behind me just there, a lot of my dahlias are coming into bloom, which is amazing. Also, this buddleia has come into bloom. But here's the thing about it. The interesting thing is it's supposed to be a tricoloured buddleia. So it's supposed to be purple, light purple and white. So it's supposed to have three different coloured flowers coming out at the same time. Last year it did just that. The year before it did that. This year, this is the colour of flowers I've got. Literally every single flower is white. And I've got absolutely no other colour, which is fine. I don't mind. I actually quite like the simplicity of just the white buddleia. But what's happened to all the other colours? Why is it just white? Anyway, there it is, my now completely white buddleia and the bees seem really happy and I really like it. So we'll just leave it as it is, I think. My dahlias have gone crazy this year in my garden. So I actually haven't planted any new ones. These are old ones that have been under the soil and last year they didn't grow. This year they've all grown. So it must be something to do with the weather and the conditions and stuff. And like any flower, once they start to die back, cut them off and then you'll get more flowers. But don't cut it there. Go right down to the end of the stem. Don't cut it right at the top like that. Because then what will happen, if I cut it there, you've still got this dead stem and it just doesn't look very good. And I'm pretty sure that's not good for the plant. Do you know what I mean? So go right down, follow the stem right down and cut it at the base. There we go. And just get rid of any of the dead flowers. It will encourage more flowers to grow. And then we're going to pick some now to put in a pot. So we're going to follow the stem right down to the bottom. We want some long stems. So these have actually given me really, really nice long stems. That is perfect for going in a vase. That is brilliant. So look at that for a stem on a daily. Isn't that insane? Such a beautiful one as well. I wish I knew what this one was, but I planted it like three years ago and I don't know. So if you do know, let me know. But the bees love them, but so do I. And I'm going to pick these ones so they can have the next lot. Can't have everything, you know. These dahlias here, these are pom-pom dahlias. Aren't they just gorgeous? These are the first dahlia plants I ever wanted to grow. I saw them on someone's Instagram account like four years ago and I was obsessed with them. And yeah, I mean, they're called pom-pom. You can see why they look like a little pom-pom. The only thing is with these types of dahlias is they're not that great for pollinators because they can't get to the centre of the plant. So you see how these ones here are very open and you can really get to the middle there so they can get their pollen and nectar and everything. These ones are more closed up and they don't really open that much more than this. So it's quite difficult for them to get in there. So not as good for the pollinators, but really, really pretty. Beautiful. Don't smell of anything either, but I still like them. Beautiful. Right. These are my giant, my giant daisies. I don't know what the technical term for these is. I'm sure there's a Latin name, Daisy Aurora Rebellis or something. I just made that up by the way. But yeah, these are starting to die now. So they're sort of finished really, but we might get just a few just because I think they might look quite good in the bunch. I think it needs a little bit of brightening up. So we'll pick a few if we can. This is a nice little collection of flowers, isn't it? I think this is quite pretty here. They sort of remind me like they're sort of sitting in assembly or something because they're so close together and they're like little friends. I've got a bee sleeping on it so I can't pick these ones I don't think. I guess just because they can't get to the centre doesn't mean they don't use them. I mean, I've seen quite a few bees sitting on the top having a rest like this. I guess it's like a big cushion, isn't it? A big puffy cushion for you to sit on. This here is one of my, I want to say successful cosmos, but I've got absolutely no flowers on it. But you see how big he is and bushy. So he's gone really big and bushy. I pinched him out. He's gone crazy. He's got all these like stems coming out of him. He's got so much foliage. Absolutely no flowers whatsoever yet. So I don't know if maybe we're just going to get flowers later on. Over here, this little cosmos here has been giving me so many flowers. I need to cut the dead ones off to encourage more. But he's a scrawny little thing. He's so scrawny. He's got hardly any foliage on him at all, but he's been giving me loads of flowers. It's such a weird contrast between the two cosmos flowers. But I think I'll just leave them to do their thing. Hopefully I'll get some flowers on this one soon. Right, this one here is my yellow dahlia, but it's not ready yet. I'm going to give him a bit more time. He might need a bit of a, yeah, I think he might need a bit of help. I feel like he's going to fall over. I don't want you to die, mate. Not like that. Hang on. Don't do that. I'm looking very fiddly. I promise it's not as fiddly as I'm making it seem. I'm pretty sure a normal person would be able to do this without it looking really complex. Shake it up a little bit. Okay, well, you could probably do a neater job than me, but the idea is to have the sticks and then have the twine going through it so you don't really see the structure that I've made. And then it grows through it and starts spilling over the top. That's the idea. I have not done it very well, but in my defence, this dahlia is being very difficult, so I definitely blame the plant. Zinnia flowers are, in my opinion, some of the most beautiful colours in the whole of the gardening colour palette. They look like little lollipops springing to life and they look so enticing with their different colours. They're just so, I don't know, just so beautiful. I absolutely love them. Would I love to pick these and have them in my home? Yes, I'd love to have them in a vase, but the thing is, if I pick these now, I don't think they'll grow anymore. I think this is it. I think this is my lot and I'd rather keep them, to be honest, because they are so gorgeous. I cannot imagine picking them and I'd definitely kill them if they're in a vase, so I'm going to leave them. But aren't they just the most beautiful flower you've ever seen? Right, I wanted to do this in my house, but it's so dark at the moment because it's just gone so cloudy and dark out. It's definitely going to rain in a minute, but hopefully we'll get it done in time. So, I've got this jug which is quite cottagey. I like this one. I think it will look good with this mix of flowers and I'm just going to take each one and spruce them up a little bit. We don't want any leaves to hit the water. I'm sure you know all this. And then the stem, what we're going to do is we're going to cut it at a diagonal angle like that, so that it's not straight across its diagonal and that's just so that there's more surface for the water to be absorbed up. I don't know if that works or not, to be honest. I've never questioned it. You don't question these things, do you? You get told this advice and you just follow it, willy nilly. You just get this advice and you just follow it and then you just end up telling everybody else about this advice. Yeah, it wasn't until I got my allotment plot that I sort of started to question advice a little bit more and like throw seeds in when the book said you weren't supposed to and then stuff grew and I was like, oh, I'm not sure if this advice was like what it was based on, you know, because advice changes all the time, as we know. And yeah, it's good just to try things out sometimes and give it a go. But I do find that sometimes I'm given advice or told a tip and I just do it automatically without questioning and without experimenting myself. I just think, oh, yes, they figured that out already, so I'll just trust that. But should we? Should we just trust it? I don't know. I've been working really hard recently on my book and I have been rejected. I kid you not, because I was looking last night at my emails, I've been rejected by 35 publishers. A few of them I got really close to like the final stages and they kept saying, oh, yeah, we think it's going to be a yes. We think it's going to be a yes. And these are really big publishers as well. And I got so close to the final stages and then it was a no. And this has been happening for like maybe a year and a half. I've been trying to get this blooming book published, which which everyone has said is really good. So all the publishers are like, we love your writing. The book is amazing. We just can't see it. How would market it? And we just can't see it doing well in the shops because they just don't think that allotment gardening has a big enough audience. And that's been the problem the whole time. It got to the point a couple of months ago where I was just like, I cannot send this book out anymore. I cannot cope with any more rejection is absolutely crippling me just to hear a no all the time. A lot of you know that I write for Kitchen Garden magazine as well. And I emailed my editor there, Steve, who is amazing, by the way, he's been so supportive of my writing. And I was like, I'm really disheartened. I just don't I don't know if maybe it's me if it's my writing. And he was really, really, really supportive. And just like, no, your writing is great from our side. There's nothing wrong with your writing. And I mean, obviously, they publish all my articles. So I'm guessing that my writing is quite good without blowing my own trumpet or anything. It's just been a little bit hard recently. And I was thinking about a lot about like rejection and what it can do for you. And I think sometimes it's good to keep going and be like, okay, isn't the end of the world, I'm going to keep pushing and I believe in it. But sometimes rejection can get you down so much that you do need to take a step back and kind of reassess things and kind of protect yourself a little bit, which is what I've done recently. However, I am feeling more positive now I have reread my manuscript. I know it's a good blooming book. And I know that you guys would love it. So I have two more options. Option number one is that I self publish it. And I just whack it out on Amazon and see what you guys think and hope it takes off hope that you share it. Just give it a go myself and just cut out the middle man and just do it which is looking more likely like my only option. My second option is that I'm going to go back to more publishers and I'm going to market the book in a different way. It's not going to be so much a gardening book as it is a self help book. Obviously, I'm not a gardener. And the book is very much a series of small essays contemplating life and lessons that I've learned from the allotment plot, which I think can be applied to life in general. And I think it would make a very good self help book actually, if you were to read it that way. So I'm going to go back to a bunch of publishers and brace myself for a tsunami of rejection again, and try that and if it doesn't work, I'm going to self publish this book next year. And it's going to be out and I'm going to do it and you're going to be able to buy it from Amazon and read my work. Yeah, I mean, I don't think there's anything wrong with self publishing. It's just I just wanted that kind of recognition that this is a good book and we're going to take it and publish it because we believe in it. And even though I've got all this like positive feedback about my writing and the manuscript, for some reason, it just didn't feel like enough in my head. And it's been really hard to kind of grasp and stuff. I don't know. Anyway, that's where I am with the book because I know a few of you do keep asking because I have gone on about it for a long time. I like to share my whole life and my whole process on this channel. Yeah, I'm working on a few things. But it's this blooming book that I really want to get out there because I've worked really hard on it. And I think I think it just is something I really just want to say and put out and just have out there. But yeah, I'm going to give it a go anyway. But that's where I am with it all thought I would sum it up while I was just arranging these flowers. How beautiful are these? It definitely needs some foliage in there. Like it needs some green. I don't have any. I don't know what to put in there. I feel like chopping a bit the tree off. But is that weird? Why don't we try that? Let's put some tree in it. I don't think anyone's ever done this before. I think this is really really weird. I think this is a weird thing to do but I don't know. Maybe it would be quite unusual. Is it just going to look like a bit of tree sticking in my... probably. That just looks weird, doesn't it? That just looks weird. Look at that. God's sakes. Look, he's had enough. He's like, no, get me out of here. This ain't right. All right, okay, now get out. Get out. I hope you enjoyed my vlog today. I'll see you again on Monday with another allotment vlog. So join me then. Subscribe to my channel if you're new and have a lovely gardening weekend. I'll see you on Monday guys. Thanks for watching. Bye.