THEY ARE BACK! / ALLOTMENT GARDENING FOR BEGINNERS

Sorry. I'm sorry, Robin. See, he makes me jump. There are definitely some spiders that have made their webs right across here. Oh my God. Is that one of them? I wish I could, wish I could find a stick or something, but there are no sticks. It's that time of year where the spiders just love to make their webs right across everything. And I just can't get through. Anything that's too close together, I just get really panicky. There's a big spider and they're not little. Here's an example of one of the spiders. Yeah, guys, look away if you don't like spiders, but they're not little. They're massive. If I walk through one of those, I'm going to scream so loudly that everyone within a five mile radius is going to call the police. I think I'm being murdered. Anyway. Hello. Welcome back to my YouTube channel. These are my allotment diaries. My name's Emma. I film all about my allotment, my allotment plot. I'm definitely going to need a stick for this bit. Just a second. Found a stick. All is okay now with a stick. Brilliant. I just look like this going through Avada Kedavra. It's Harry Potter this. Harry Potter it all. It's all good. Expelliarmus. Bugger off. All that. Anyway, what was I saying? Oh yeah. Welcome to my allotment diaries. I'm feeling quite inspired and motivated to come to my plot more recently. I always go through phases of really loving it. Avada Kedavra. Right. I think we're safe. I always go through phases of really loving my allotment plot and not being able to get enough of it. And then sort of needing a little bit of a break and walking away for a little bit, which I think is just normal. I wrote a blog post a little while ago talking all about allotment burnout, but I think it applies to kind of anything, any hobby, anything you love, anything you do, you're always going to experience that little bit of burnout or just need a bit of a break from it. You know, it doesn't matter how obsessive you are with something or how much you love it. Everybody needs a break sometimes. So why would you, why would you build your web there though? Why? Why would you do that? And why is your web so massive as well? It's massive. You're so small ish. Smaller ish. Don't flinch. Please don't flinch. I'll leave you alone. It's kicked me out of my shed. So, I mean, I don't really need to go in the shed to be honest. I only just sit there. So it's all right. He can have the shed. We'll just give it all to the spiders. They can have it all right. Plots looking pretty good. Pretty happy with it. Uh, at the moment, actually, it's looking very autumnal, which is quite funny because we're about to get a massive heat wave in the UK this week. So temperatures rise into like 30 degrees, which is unheard of at this time of year. I'm not unheard of, but rare, rare. Um, all right. Borage is doing good. Bees are loving this borage this year. This has done really, really well. Just behind it, we've got the pumpkin archway and that's sort of dying back a little bit now. It looks very autumnal, very, very beautiful. Might need to pick a few of the pumpkins today. Um, yeah, looking lovely. Right. I think the first question to answer of the morning is have the tomatoes gone red? Um, Oh, I forgot to bring a banana. I was going to bring a banana skin and whack it on somewhere, but it's not the sort of thing you remember to take, you know, allotment key, allotment drink, allotment bag. Oh yeah. Just that old banana skin there too. You know, it's not, it's not a normal thing to remember. So I keep forgetting to bring it, but I really should. Um, yeah, I'm going to try it. I will bring a banana. Right. Let's open the tunnel. We've had it closed because somebody told me it's heat that turns tomatoes red, not sun. So let's see. Easy thing to get confused with because obviously the sun equals heat. I never thought in my life that I would be this happy overseeing some tomatoes turning red. And the thing is, it's like you said that as soon as one or two turn red, they send a message to all the others. Yes. Yes. So I don't know if you can see, actually, it's very dark in here. It's very hard to, um, let me open the tunnel better. Yeah, a little bit more light. But, um, as you can see these giant ones, I think these are the beef steak tomatoes or something. They're starting to go orange, which is a good sign that they're going to go red soon. Fantastic. And then like I said, once some tomatoes go red, apparently they now release this chemical which tells all the other tomatoes to go red or yellow or whatever they're going to go. I mean, these are obviously yellow tomatoes. So I've been yelling at them to turn red and the whole time they, they, uh, they're actually yellow. So that's maybe why they got confused. But yeah, now that this one's turned yellow and this one's starting to go, they'll all go, they'll all go. So these are nice yellow. These might be those, um, sunshine, sun roast, something, sun, sun, something ones. Anyway, it's all about these ones now. So hopefully they'll get the message. They'll get the scent. I mean, it might just be me being a little bit optimistic now, but I can see a bit of a tinge on them. So I'm really hoping they do. And then these ones, they should go to, yeah, they should go red. Oh, and you, I forgot we had you. Look at you. Giving me little tomatoes there. Let's tighten you up. You need a stick, mate. You need a stick. That's not going to work. So this year to support my tomatoes, I use the string trick, which is where you basically plant string like twine under the ground with it, tie it to the top and then wind it around. But all the string, all the twine just snapped or came off, which just didn't work. Basically. I know it does work for some people. Like it's not a no, a no starter, you know, it does work for some people, but it just didn't work for me. Doesn't really surprise me. So I've resorted to sort of poking sticks in the ground everywhere now, which just works much better. I always, um, underestimate how heavy tomatoes get. I get really heavy and they fall down. Like this one's falling down too. He doesn't even have that many tomatoes on him, but the plant is so heavy. Is that my Robin? I think that's my Robin come to say hello. Um, what I could do actually with this one is tie you to, actually I've got these little bungee things. I don't know what they're called. I call them bungee things. Just tie that around to that. That'll keep you up. Just in case you didn't see then I used a bungee, I think they're called bungee hooks. I think they are. I mean, it's like the smallest bungee jump in the world. It'd be for like a rabbit bungee jump. You could jump from here, you know, I don't think they'd want to, but you know what I mean? Um, yeah, just use it to hook it on. They're quite useful. I didn't buy them for that reason, by the way, I bought them to try and secure my polytunnel. These little bungee rope things. Um, I was going to like secure the polytunnel, but when they came, they were so small, they just can't reach anything. Like they're just the tiny and they're really strong and they just kept pinging up and stuff. So that's what I brought them for. But they're little like bungee things, like stretchy. And then you just hook them around like that. They're quite good. They're quite useful. I found them useful for holding plants up and stuff, but not what I actually intended it to be used for, which was to keep the polytunnel up. So sometimes things find a better use, you know, just find a better use for stuff. Right. Oh, so happy they're going red. I'm so happy. It is my Robin. It is my Robin. Oh, look how close he's getting to me. Should I find you a worm? You want a worm? I like him, but I'm a little bit scared of him. I just don't want it to hurt when it lands on me, you know, not the worm, the bird. I don't think the worm will hurt. If it does, that would be awful. If worms had teeth. Oh no, stop it. Stop it. Oh, sorry. I'm sorry, Robin. See, he makes me jump. Always just makes me jump. You scare me when you just flap around with your little wings. We don't have wings, you see, so it's disconcerting to me, a human. Oh God, the way you run as well. Sorry. I know you're just being yourself, but you know, yourself is a bit scary to me. There's always hundreds of bleeding worms and the second you want to find a worm, you can't find a worm. Found a little mini potato there. I don't know what the hell that's doing in there. I can't find a worm. I've never felt so guilty about something in my life of not being able to find a worm for Robin. I can't find one. I've looked everywhere. I keep looking and I can't find one. I don't understand it because they're just, they're everywhere. I always find them by accident when I don't want to find a worm. I've never wanted to find a worm and now I can't find one. The way he's looking at me, like, find a worm, please. Oh gosh. I've got a million things to do and here I am digging for a flipping worm. I don't even want a worm. He wants a worm. He's making me work. He's so smart. He is so smart. Maybe I should call him Einstein. Right. Now that I've spent 15 minutes looking for a worm for a serial killer, I've just noticed I've got some more raspberries growing on here. I don't know how to support these raspberries. I thought they would sort of grow up some wire, but actually they look pretty self-standing. I don't need, cause I was going to sort of put them up against the wire and have them fanning out, but they seem to be sort of standing up like little bushes. I think this one is ready. So I'm going to pick him and eat him. I'm slightly more guilty now eating this in front of the Robin cause I didn't find him a meal, but we'll try it. Cheers. Oh, that's so good. I taste like no other raspberry that I have. I have raspberries every morning with my porridge and they never taste like that. They sort of like, it's almost like they have a little hint of a raspberry taste, but when you eat a fresh one off of a bush like that, it's like pure raspberry taste, you know, like pure unfiltered raspberry. Oh, it's delicious. Now just, whoa. Is everything here always trying to kill me? That's a good stick. Look at that stick. That's a good stick. Getting excited over tomatoes and sticks now. What have I become? Oh, that's a good rock. Found a worm. I found a worm. Right. Okay. Let's go do this. Remmy doesn't blatantly want it, does he? He doesn't want it. He doesn't want it. What am I supposed to do with it now? Why don't you want it? If I put it there, Remmy just don't want to come to me. Oh yeah, look, he's coming now. Come on then, he's just there in front of you. Just there. Yes, it's for you. Go on, get him. I'm not being funny Einstein, but it took me hours to find him. Oh God. Are you happy now? Yeah. Don't ask me for any more because it took me ages to find that one. I tell you what, come to my allotment plot today. And I've spent more time looking after that Robin than I've looking after any of my plants. Oh my goodness. Right. I think what we're going to do is pick some of our crops now. So I'm going to have to come in here, but you're in the way, aren't you? Wildlife, wildlife, honestly. Well, I was going to start by harvesting this lovely looking cabbage, which I think is ready to harvest, but it looks like the slugs got there before me, as usual. I just wasn't ready for cabbage. And it does look like they've just got there before me and munched all the way through it. It'd probably still be all right, but I don't want to pick him now. I just don't want to pick him now. Nah. Maybe one of these Savoy ones will be ready though. I think these are Savoy cabbages, but it does look delicious anyway. These leaves look great, even though it's not a proper ball yet. I think one of these would be really nice. Is that one, that one there look a bit better? Yeah, maybe this little one here. Just woke up this morning and felt like I really want a cabbage today. I don't know why. I wonder if anyone else has ever had cabbage today. Probably not. I'm going to pull him up. He's not very big. Maybe I'll need two then. I don't think my kids will eat it though, so maybe it's just for me and me and my husband. I don't think they really like cabbage. I could try, but I'm not sure if it's worth picking another whole plant just to try. Take off some of the some of the more damaged leaves around the edge. I think that bit there looks all right. There's no slugs in there or anything. Yeah, I think that's all right. That'll do, that'll do. Just for a bit, just on the side of my dinner. Yeah. OK, right. That's the cabbage. I also want to pick a broccoli, but I can see that this one in the middle here I've let go too far and it's started to flower, which is really beautiful. Pollinators love brassica flowers, by the way. So if you can allow a few of them to flower, so good for pollinators. They love it and they flower for ages as well. I think they're genuinely such, such beautiful flowers as well. And all of these will open into flowers, every single little bit of it. And that's what a broccoli is. So here's a broccoli head. All of these bits here that you're eating are flower buds and they all open into beautiful little yellow dainty flowers. So gorgeous. Like I said, pollinators love it. This will get really nice and tall now as well. So I'll leave that for them. And I think I'm going to harvest this one up here because he looks like he's about to do the flower. I don't know if that's a thing. He's about to do the flower. Yeah, he is. So that's a fine little piece of broccoli for dinner. It'll only feed two of us, like I said. But there we go. I do have some shop-bought broccoli at home as well. But hopefully over the next couple of months, I won't have to buy so much of it, I'm hoping, because apparently, if you cut the top of the broccoli off, it grows side shoots and you get more broccoli. And I can see a couple of side shoots here with new broccoli on. So hopefully I'll get some more out of that plant there. So I'll leave him. Hopefully he'll grow back, grow some more heads. This one's looking promising. I hope he gets a bit bigger, though. We'll see. We'll see. If I think he starts looking like he's going to flower, I'll pick him. I was going to pick this one today. There's a blooming slug on it. Oh, it's so annoying. Yeah, that's it. Go on, that one. I've left this one for them to eat. And he's had the absolute, he's had the absolute nerve to come over and try and eat this one. It's so annoying. I think he's actually still OK. If I give him a good wash, I think he'll be all right. There he is. Little head of cauliflower. It might be OK if I wash him up, to be honest. I probably won't show anyone what he looks like right now because I don't think anyone would eat him. But, I don't know, I will. I will eat you. That slug's slithering away. Bugger off. There he is. I want to say little Jack, be little, but I don't think he's that little. He's actually quite heavy. He's quite big. He'll be perfect for cooking, chopping open, eating inside. Fantastic. I wonder if they worry when I say things like that. Like I'm going to chop off his head and eat him. Anyway, if they do, they can't speak. There we go. But yeah, absolutely fantastic. He looks great. I might pick one more. Yeah, look, I can see another one here on the ground with a great big slug sitting on him. Oh, they're horrible things, aren't they? They're just horrible things. I didn't even check if anyone was walking past then. I could have just thrown a slug at someone's face. That would have been awful. I'd better check next time. Yeah, this is this is a prime example of why I think growing up an archway is so much more effective. I don't think he's quite ready, actually. He's not a very nice orangey. That's not good. He's not ready yet, so I need to wait a little bit for him. But yeah, prime example of how vulnerable pumpkins are on the floor compared to up the archway. It's not that they're not vulnerable up an archway because they can still climb. Slugs and snails are just fantastic little climbers and they're not afraid of heights. And I didn't know that until I had an allotment. But now I do. Now I'm passing on that knowledge. Slugs and snails are not afraid of heights. I do find they are just a little bit more protected up hanging on an archway than they are on the ground. They're also protected from rotting as well, because the ground can rot them. So lots of benefits to growing them up an archway. And not not just that. I mean, it looks beautiful. Look at that. Absolutely amazing. Stunning. Beautiful. So here's our little mini harvest today from the plot. We've got a little Jack B Little, a very small. I think it's a Savoy cabbage, but I could be wrong. A small broccoli and quite a large but half eaten cauliflower. I mean, that pretty much sums up allotment life, doesn't it? Everything's small. Most of it's been half eaten. But there we go. I mean, fantastic. I mean, any harvest, no matter how small that you've grown at an allotment plot is to be celebrated because it is just so difficult to grow anything like to get it to the point where you've gone from a seed to you've actually picked something and something like of that size is actually quite remarkable. So give yourself a pat on the back, even if you've grown a teeny tiny broccoli like I have. Amazing. Even if you've grown a cauliflower, which has been half eaten and covered in slug poo, give yourself a pat on the back. You know, it is a massive achievement. So well done. Congratulations. If you have grown even one strawberry, because I'm telling you, it's not easy. And if you've tried, I'm sure you'll know that already. I hope you enjoyed the vlog today. If you did, subscribe to my channel. Thank you to everyone who has purchased an allotment mug over the weekend. I was blown away. I think I sold like over 100 mugs. It's amazing. You might have seen on my Instagram and my Facebook that with the money that I'm getting from the merchandise that I'm selling, because it's all drop ship, it's not my products, it's products that I've designed and it's drop shipped. The money that I'm raising from that is going into starting my own gardening business next year, which is very exciting. It's going to be an online gardening business. You will be able to purchase from it. And I've got lots of ideas for it. It's very scary. I've never started a business before, but it's something I've always wanted to do. I've always been very passionate about working for myself, having my own business and all the money that I raised from my merchandise is going to go into my dream of starting a business next year. So thank you so much. I'm so grateful to everyone who supported me, supported this channel. And hopefully next year I'll be able to give back to you in the form of my business, and I hope that you'll find it very helpful and inspiring and enjoy everything that I do. So I'll keep you updated, of course. Until then, have a lovely gardening week and I will see you again on Wednesday. See you Wednesday. Bye.