LOTS OF ALLOTMENT VISITORS! / ALLOTMENT GARDENING FOR BEGINNERS

Oh, my scissors. Always find my scissors in weird places. What are you doing here? I'm like, what are you doing here? Good morning, everyone. Oh, look at the state of it. Hope you're all doing really well. My name is Emma. This is my allotment diaries, and I rolled out of bed this morning and just turned up at my allotment plot. That's all I did. I didn't brush my hair. I didn't eat anything. I just rocked up. I felt like I just needed to come down here and be here for some reason. Don't know why. Honestly, as I was walking here, I just had like the biggest smile on my face. Like the whole time I was walking through the allotments, I was just smiling. I think it's probably because I saw all the sweet corn that's like almost ready to harvest everywhere. And then loads of people have got pumpkins. And you can just see this bright orange balls of delight in everyone's allotment plots. And it's just put a massive smile on my face. So I rocked down here today. I do have a couple of things to mention just before we go into this allotment video. So I'm really happy and excited to announce that mugs on my allotment store are now available to buy. So if you go just below this video, you'll see a little strip of like mugs and jumpers. One of the jumpers I'm wearing now, as you can see, it matches one of the mugs. It is a little bit cut off just to let you know. It's a little bit of a cropped kind of jumper. If you weren't aware, I also do it in a t-shirt. There's lots of other clothing on there too, but the mugs are now live and they are below. I have a whack it in mug. I have this mug and then I have an allotment life mug. So whichever one you fancy really. And this is the second bit of news. For today, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, it is free shipping on everything from my store. So you will not pay a delivery charge on anything. I just explained to you what free shipping is, but I'm sure you know what free shipping is. But anyway, very exciting to launch these now. So if you fancy grabbing one for your autumn cups of tea or maybe for a Christmas gift or something, now is the time to do it. This weekend with free shipping. So there we go. Very exciting news. Unfortunately, I don't have any tea here because I don't have a kettle here right now. I used to have a kettle here actually, but I took it camping and I never brought it back to the allotment plot. So what are you gonna do? Right, it's the 1st of September. Happy September, everyone. Happy, we're going into autumn time, everyone. Let's go and have a look what the allotment plot is looking like 1st of September. Disheveled, messy, rough around the edges, falling apart a little bit. And that's just the condition of my hair. Yes, the plot is falling apart a little bit, yes. It's looking a little bit overgrown, a little bit disheveled. I tell you what though, this is my favourite time of year. I think it might be just because that moment between life and death when everything's kind of spilling over and just going wild, it's almost like it's grasping onto one last bit of freedom, like bit of life. Do you know what I mean? And it's all going a little bit funny and I just love it. I just think it looks beautiful. It looks perfect at this time of year. This is my favourite time of year. So pumpkin arch looking a little bit dead. I think some of them are finishing. Some of them are still growing, but just absolutely stunning. And then look at all of my pumpkins hanging down up here. So exciting. I really wanna harvest them all, but I also wanna take a load more pictures of them and stuff. So I'm not gonna do it just yet. And then we've got the sunflowers which kind of look half finished, but they're still standing tall and they're still happy. And it's just my favourite time of year. Just love all this sort of half dead stuff, you know? Not sure what that says about me really when I keep going on about liking stuff when it's half dead. But there we go. I think you know what I mean in the garden. A couple of exciting updates just to share with you super quick. So first of all, we've got a cauliflower ready for harvesting, which is always an exciting thing, isn't it? Here he is looking so happy. And do you know what I find really unusual and actually really good this year? This one has been completely untouched, but because I've left this one to the slugs, they have just absolutely devoured it and the slugs are all around it. But then right next door, they haven't touched it. And I just feel like they're on my side this year. And I just wanna thank them. But I don't know how to thank them because I don't want them to get too big for their boots. I don't want them thinking that they're free to roam anywhere. I've got a purple one over there, purple cauliflower, very exciting. A lot of this cabbage is now looking, don't you see what I mean? See what I mean? They get a little bit big for their boots when I say something nice about them. Very typical slug behavior that is. You give them an inch, they take a mile. It's what they're like. It's why we don't like them. You know, they just, they take the mick. And then this bed behind here is all brassicas again. Obviously, absolutely full of slugs. They are loving it in here. They're loving it. Do they eat brussels sprouts? I don't know. I hope they don't. Do you eat brussels sprouts? Probably, probably. Anyway, this bed is mainly brussels sprouts now. Mainly, mainly brussels sprouts. So what I'm gonna have to do is take the netting off and stake these and sort of look after them a bit. I think that's gonna be my job for today is caring for the brussels sprouts. Maybe removing a couple of these guys as well. Another fun development happening over here is that a couple of my calendula flowers have finally flowered. I don't know how long it's taken for these guys to flower, but it's been a long time, basically. Longer than I thought it would take. Nevertheless, here they are, looking absolutely stunning. I'm sure the bees like them. They seem more interested in the borage right now. This one's sort of going red. And I've got some orange ones there. All right, bees, I'm not attacking you. Just looking at the calendula. I grew them. Yeah, lovely flowers. Lots of purposes for these. Lots of things to do, which I'm excited to try this autumn time. So they're looking good. My potatoes are starting to get some flowers, which is a very good sign. Very good sign. I can't remember with main crop, I don't think you pick them when they're flowering. So with early crop, I think the flowers indicate they're ready. But with main crop, I think it's when the plant all dies back. I could be wrong. I might have to Google that or look it up. Anyway, they're looking really good right now and they're quite happy. So I'm gonna leave them to it. Maybe top them up again at some point. When I have something to top them up with, I really do look absolutely awful today. I do apologize. And then down here, this bed looks really good. Got all our chard growing really well. Got our purple sprouting broccoli still alive. We've got all of our sweetcorns looking good. And also the runner bean structure has not fallen down and collapsed. So this is an excellent, excellent area of happiness. Very good. Wow. Look at the size of you. Who told you you could grow that big? What am I supposed to do with you? Come on, think about it. Flower bed might need to be removed soon because these are looking a little bit disheveled. And then also my sweet pea flowers are ready to pick the seeds. This is what I was waiting for. This, this is what I was waiting for. So that is now ready. Oh, you can hear them. You can hear them shaking about in there. They're ready to pick and they are ready to be seeds for me for next year. But I know what the big question is. I know what you're all thinking. Have my tomatoes gone red? Well, the simple answer is no. Of course they haven't gone red. They're never gonna go red. Don't be silly. These will never go red. I'm pretty sure I've grown green tomatoes now. I'm pretty sure I have grown green tomatoes. They are not, there's no way they're going red. All green, all green, all green. Every single last one of them green. Definitely green, possibly getting a tinge. But to be honest with you, very, very green. I think I'm just getting a green tinge. Have to say it's been the most unbelievable year for tomatoes I've never had. How many plants have I got? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven tomato plants. And not one tomato has gone flipping red. I don't know what it is. My neighbor sent me a message and said that it's my polytunnel and that this green covering doesn't allow enough heat and sunlight and all the rest of it in. A lot of other people are saying it's heat not sun that causes them to turn red. So I need to make it hotter in here. And then other people say put banana. So I'm gonna try all three of those basically. I'm gonna change my polytunnel cover next year though because I can't do that this year. I'm gonna close the polytunnel door and try and make it hotter in here. And I'm also gonna bring some old banana skins as soon as I've eaten some bananas and just put them around the place. Apparently there's a chemical that gets released and it tells the tomatoes to go red and bananas can release that chemical and it tells them all to turn red. So maybe they just need telling. Maybe no one's told you. Go red. Red. You know what red is? Red. I can't pick you when you're like that. You need to go red. It's always the bleeding nasturtiums that get in the way, cause me problems. Right. My scissors. I always find my scissors in weird places. I never put them away. Anyway, so many questions. So little time. I'm going to weed this bed now and sort out my brassicas basically. And I'm also gonna try and get all the slugs off cause they're pretty gross. But I don't have any gloves with me. Or do I? Let's go have a look. Considering I'm sponsored by a glove company, I'm not very good at like remembering where I put them. Oh, there's right there. Oh God, it's that creature in there. It was. It's dead now. There he is. Mouse bird. That's what we'll call him. Mouse bird. Bird watching with Emma. We'll just make the names up. You don't need the real name of the bird. You just make it up. Every time you hear it, look. Cricket bird. Screamy bird. Getting rid of these little fat, slimy, ugly, horrible things. Oh, you're so horrible. I hate you. Right. Oh, you're horrible. You're horrible. Oh, you're a snail. You're not so bad. You've got a shell. Why can't snogs have shells? You should all have shells. Apparently they can find their way back home. So I figured what I'd do is I'd just take them on a bit of a, oh no, we're not going that way. Oh no, we're going this way. And then sort of swing them around a bit. Oh, they get dizzy. And then walking back this way. Are we going back to the plot? No, we're going this way. And then, ah, in there. I don't know how smart and intelligent slugs are. I assume they're quite smart because they've survived millions of years, but have they? I think they have. I don't know. I keep like, I keep coming out with slug facts and I don't know anything about slugs. I've never looked up anything about slugs. And yet everything I say about slugs is like, it's a fact. All I can say is I don't like them and they're slimy, horrible creatures. That's it. That's the only thing I know about them. But I assume by spinning them around like that, like surely they can't be that smart that they'll find their way home. If they are, maybe they deserve to come home because I wouldn't be able to find my way home if someone blindfolded me and spun me round and round. I'd be like, where am I? I'm lost forever now, you know? And I'm a human. Right, so at the front of the bed here, we seem to have sprouts. We've got one, two, three, four, five sprout plants, I think. And they don't look like they need too much staking because they are growing quite well. Like they're growing up like a skyscraper and sort of staying up. I've removed some of the dead ones, like brassicas and a lot of the weeds as well. And a lot of the leaves, any leaves that look particularly damaged or slug-eaten, I'm just pulling them off because I think it's just attracting more slugs. I don't think any leaf that's not pulling its weight, like this one here, it's been munched by slugs and snails and probably everything else. I don't think it's doing any good for the plant. You know, it's not helping the plant. It's just causing the plant distress. So we'll just get rid of it and then just leave the good leaves on it. And then over here, I think I need to take out a lot of the nasturtiums because they are growing over. And also I think they're becoming like a bit of a slug hotel, which is not ideal. We don't want a slug hotel here. So I'm going to remove some of those and I'm going to try and leave all this borage because the bees love it. And I love it too. This is one that just came up by itself, by the way, but so many bees have been buzzing around. I just think it's great borage. Even though I've got all that over there, I just think you can never have too much borage. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, bee. I'm sorry. Oh my God, I'm sorry. The bees are not happy that I'm doing that. But to be honest, I need to get to my brassicas. So how do you explain to a bee that you need to get to your brassicas, you know? Like it's stalking me, that one now. Right, so this side now, we've got our broccoli and I can see it's broccoli now because we've removed all the nasturtium. So we've got some broccoli growing there. Got some broccoli there. Got a great bit of broccoli there, over there and here. So lots of broccoli growing, very, very good. So I'm going to just tidy them up a little bit, make sure they're healthy. And by that, I mean, just make them look good because if they look good, they're probably all right. You know, just take off the leaves that just don't look good. That don't look good. Hello, Robin. How have you been then? You okay? Wow, look how close you let me come. That is crazy. What is this song? So I've collected lots of my sweet pea seeds now. I keep rattling them because I just love the sound of it. Rattle, rattle, rattle. So I'll show you inside one. So these are obviously sweet pea seeds and inside, they look just like the seeds that you get in the packet. There we go. Except that these seeds here, because they have come from plants that have lived there, they will be perfectly adapted to live there. So they should do extremely well in the same place next year. So I'm gonna just try that and try them next year because apparently when you get seeds from a plant that's been in one place, they're just perfectly adapted to your soil type and stuff. So, hello. Oh goodness, where have you been? Have you been to London to visit the queen? No, of course you haven't. You're a cat. You've been having a good time. You know what? I didn't buy any more cat treats for you. I completely forgot. I'm so sorry. What I'll do is on my next shop, I'll buy some for you, okay? Is that okay, Rocky? So now that we've taken as many seeds as we want off of there, we're gonna pull it off the archway. Now, pulling stuff off an archway is always really difficult. It's not as easy as putting stuff on an archway just so it gets a bit tangled and stuff. So I'll do my best. Oh, Rocky, this has got to come off here now. You see what I mean? It never wants to come off. Where are you going? What is that? Ew, it's the fox. Did I catch that on camera or not? That's where the fox lives. Why is so much wildlife on my plot? Like, why do I just attract it? Do I seem like someone who wants a lot of wildlife around me? Hello. Is that where you live? That's just where you live, is it, on my plot? Yeah, yeah, you can come out. Why is it just coming out? Oh, you look really healthy now. He looks healthy, doesn't he? Maybe it's a different fox. No, please don't go in there. There's no food in there. There's no food in there, no. No, it's in my shed. It's in my shed. I wonder if he'll eat all the slugs. Why don't you eat all the slugs? Well, yeah, maybe he's getting to them. Maybe he's found all the slugs. Oh, goodness. Can't believe there's just a fox casually on my plot. This is just happening now. The absolute, just confidence of it, the confidence of it. It's like, I live here, this is my home. What are you doing here? I'm like, what are you doing here? Do you pay the rent? ♪ Fox is still here. I thought he'd gone. Why are you still here? I thought you'd gone. What are you looking for? Looking for some food, I think. I wish I had some to give him now. I feel really bad. Why do I feel bad? I don't even know this fox. Can you hear in my voice that I'm not quite myself today? I'm a little bit, I'm all over the place. Whenever I'm not feeling 100%, like mentally, I get a little bit all over the place, like a little bit, oh, what am I doing? Oh, what's going on there? What's this? That's what I get like. So, now you know. Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed my vlog today, my little Friday night vlog. Don't forget to go below and have a look at those mugs. And remember, it's free shipping on everything, including all of the clothing, all the jumpers. I've got kids stuff, adult stuff, men's, women's, you name it, bags. Go and have a look, treat yourself maybe this weekend. Why not? We're going into autumn soon. Nice to get a nice little allotment jumper and a mug. Subscribe to my channel if you're new and I will see you again on Monday. See you Monday, guys. Have a lovely weekend and happy shopping. See you later, bye. What is with you all today? Seriously.