WORKING ON THE NEW ALLOTMENT PLOT / ALLOTMENT GARDENING FOR BEGINNERS

Have I inspired you? No. I think I'm mainly just disorganized. I think it's just disorganization. Good morning everyone, welcome back to my allotment diaries. My name's Emma, these are my allotment diaries. I'd love for you to hit the subscribe button to my channel so you don't miss out on any of my allotment and gardening videos. Firstly, thank you so much if you have purchased a planner, 2024 allotment garden planner. They are now officially up on the Amazon website and I'm going to leave the link below in my description box so you can go and purchase one if you haven't already. They would make a great Christmas present, they'd make a great gift to someone who loves gardening or even just a present for you. It is more than a planner, like I keep saying, it's got lots of tips and tricks and ideas for you to do at your own allotment plot and yeah it's selling really well so I really hope that a lot of you guys are now receiving them and I hope that you really enjoy them and of course if you don't have an allotment garden they work just as well if you have a vegetable garden. A lot of the tips and tricks in there just apply to vegetable gardening in general, if you've got a vegetable patch, if you've got some containers, you know a lot of the jobs are applicable for that so you don't have to have an allotment plot to buy my planner basically. So you might notice no video on Monday, I am exhausted, I've got allotment fatigue, I think I went into that new allotment plot like all guns blazing, whatever the saying is, I think that's the saying, I just needed a bit of time to, what's the word, decompose, no not decompose, decompress, that's the word and I hope I'm not decomposing, sometimes I feel like it but there you go, yeah decompress a little bit and just step away from the plot and yeah hopefully come back a little bit more excited. I also like injured my arm but it's much better now so hopefully I'll be able to sort of get back on there and I mean I'm saying that but there's literally a tree sitting on it now, there's a tree so this is what I pulled down last time I was here, two massive tree branches, I mean there are a few more but these are the main ones and now they're just sitting on my plot, I mean the good news is they've died back really really quickly which is amazing so they're not quite so sort of big and tree like if that makes any sense. I did sort of ask what you think I should do with these big trees and a lot of your suggestions were to get a hire a wood chipper machine or something, I think there's some kind of machine you can get, I've got to watch my footing here because last time I fell, yeah there's some kind of like machine you can get where you put the wood in it and it turns it into wood chip, I think that would be perfect so what I'm doing now is I'm going to chop it up, keep it over in a corner somewhere and then hire a wood chipper and that's going to make all the wood chip for the allotment plot which I think would be amazing, so that's the plan for those trees there so there's now a plan for them so I feel a bit better because there's now a plan. So it doesn't look, I mean luckily what's left is kind of smaller branches which are much easier to get rid of, the bigger ones in the middle are gone and I'm really glad that I did that and I pushed through it and I kept going because gosh to get here today and for there to still be great big trunks there I think I'd have been a bit gutted to be honest, yeah but I'm sort of walking around it now I think maybe because we're in October and things are naturally starting to die back a bit it doesn't feel so bad today, I'm looking around it thinking you know what it's all right you know I feel like it's going to come together, I got a bit of a wobble last week and that's why I didn't come here for a few days but actually I feel like, I feel like we're going to get there, yeah I really do, the space is sort of naturally starting to open up now just where everything's starting to die back a bit and I've chopped it down, it's looking good. Right we're going to chop up this tree thing, make it a bit more manageable, a little bit less scary, the smaller it is the better. There he is, spot the Einstein, there he is, he's like what have you done to my home, don't worry Einstein I'm going to put it back together I promise, make you a nice little bird house, yeah it's like it's not the same, it's not the same is it mate. The point of that is to chop it smaller because when things are smaller they look less scary except spiders, they always look scary, doesn't matter how big a spider is, but with the exception of spiders and some mice and rats and possibly a lot of bugs and beetles, with the exception of all that and wasps, other than all that smaller things look, tend to look, sometimes look less scary, let's just forget that, that's absolute crap, small things are really scary but I feel like this is more manageable in terms of trees, in terms of trees this is more manageable and yeah this can all be like shredded up or like I don't know what it is, I've seen the tree people do it, you know the tree, people who chop trees down and put it in that machine, it all comes out as wood chip, we're going to get one of them, we're going to hire one from a wood chipper shop and I'll research it don't worry, I'll google it and then we're going to do that and make our own wood chip here which I think will be excellent, so that's the plan, I'm holding one in my hand look, look at me go, super girl, so unfortunately I put that all over that bit there which I didn't really want to do but I don't know where else to put it, we have, oh gosh it's just so, somebody said to me in the comments do you have ADHD, I don't know maybe, I feel like my brain sometimes just fires up like all cylinders, like everything's just go, I think I'm mainly just disorganised, I think it's just disorganisation, so we'll start that, we'll do that one, so I mean I can't even decide, I think we're going to dig this out and get rid of this, yeah okay, let's do that, let's do our second less favourite activity which is digging, first being sawing. A soil hoover, just stick with me for a second, a hoover specifically designed to suck up soil and then to distribute it where you want it, it's like a hoover but the tube will be a lot bigger and it's kind of made of that metally like aluminium foil kind of stuff and then you basically put it where you want it to go, push it into the soil a little bit, turn it on, sucks all the soil up and then you wheel it, obviously it's on wheels because soil is very heavy and then you put it where you want it to go and it goes in reverse, fills up a raised bed, soil hoover, suver, no not suver, I don't know, we'll work on the name but what do you think, dragon's den, yeah let's do it, right these beds take me hours to dig out, I'm walking around because I just need to move a little bit, I've been in a static position for so long but they take me so long to dig out, they're a nightmare, but having said that right, this is going to sound really weird, what is his problem? Einstein is making that noise like I'm a danger, anyway what's really weird is this plot has never looked so good, I've never seen anyone come onto this plot in my four years of being here and do the kind of work that I've done on it and it has to count for something right, for all my complaining, for all my moaning, for all my you know this isn't fair, this isn't right, the work that I'm doing, I'm putting in so much work, it's got to count for something right, it's got to mean something, it has to, if I just keep going slow and steady, just keep going, keep plodding on, there's no way that this plot will not be ready for spring, I've just got to keep going you know, keep moving, all right let's see if we can pull a bit of that ground sheet up, so it turns out the reason why I'm struggling to get these ground sheets off the ground is because they have been really pegged in, these great big metal rusted pegs and I don't know what that is but that's pinned it down as well, yeah they're really being pinned down into the ground, thing is I completely understand why it's been done right, it makes so much sense and obviously it has kept a lot of the weeds down despite the fact that it was let go, the ground sheet does cover pretty much the whole plot and you might think for a second well why on earth am I pulling it all up, like surely I should just leave it down and build over the top of it, the thing is, the thing is this plot's been rubbish for like four years since I've been here and it's had like three owners over that time and no one's been able to maintain this plot, I just think that underneath this ground sheet is so much weed, so many roots, like bindweed roots, like look under this one here, that to leave it all under the ground sheets it's all just going to grow back, I just won't be able to to look after it, I feel like what this plot needs is literally stripping back to the bare soil and then building on, it needs like complete back to basics and that's what I intend to do, I am going to keep all the ground sheet though and I'm going to use it under my pathways and fold it over so it will be used, none of it's been thrown away, obviously it's a lot of plastic and it's already starting to fray and stuff as well, which is a little bit annoying, so yeah anyway that's the reason why I am pulling up all the ground sheet, I did that bit today, once again I feel like I'm leaving this plot looking worse than when I first got here but I just think it's going to be like that for a long time until I start getting it all in order, but this was good I think, it's good and then what I'll do is move that over, do that one under there, start pulling all this ground sheet up here, I just have to accept the fact that it's not going to get done in a day, but I think once all that is sort of cleared, once all that is sort of cleared and I've sort of made it all level, I actually think it's going to be like quite quick then, the raised beds will go in, then all the wood chip will go down, then all the soil will be filled, I'll put all the soil in, it'll be good then you know, it'll sort of move quite quickly, which I think will be really good, it's already a hundred times better than it was about a month ago so I'm really really happy with it to be honest, so I'll clear it all out and then it will start to move quite quickly and we'll put the plot together again basically. Sometimes you have to take things apart to put them back together again or something, I don't know, I'm sure there's a saying in that. Euston, we have a problem, we have a problem with the potatoes, the Christmas potatoes, so what was blight a few weeks ago and I sort of snipped them off, it's turned into full-on blight now, look at this, here they are dying, absolutely dying, every single plant has now got it and they are just literally completely dying, so what I'm going to do is pull one plant up and see if I've got any decent potatoes under there because I don't even know if the potatoes will survive this, like I literally don't know what's going to happen under the soil, so what we'll do is we'll pull a plant up as a bit of an experiment, see what on earth is happening, are there even any potatoes under there, oh my goodness no, okay hang on, no I wasn't expecting that right, I was expecting some kind of like potato looking thing, let's have a bit of a dig, okay hang on, that's one, smallest potato in the world, okay let's have a little, there should be some kind of potato under it, they've been growing for ages, where are they, oh that looks like a bit of a potato plant there, there's got to be a potato, oh it's a potato, oh thank goodness, right we have a potato, fabulous, one potato, oh two, one potato, two potato, three potato, that's it, three potatoes, are you joking me, are you joking, is that it, grow your own Christmas dinner with Emma, four potatoes, one each, one each, what's that, is that a potato, yes, that's a completely different colour potato, absolutely no idea why that's there, that's a complete, that's from the last lot, that's from the last potatoes, that's not even one of these potatoes, that's look, that's not even, that's not even the right colour, that, that's a pea, sorry, I find it quite hard to hide my disappointment sometimes, but you know, I have been growing them for months and that's pretty much all I got to be honest, that's it, that's Christmas dinner, do you want to come over for Christmas dinner, you can have half a potato, that's it, this is my lot, that's it, months of growing in there, that's it, is that blight that's done that, to be fair the potatoes look healthy, but some of them are from the previous batch, this is an early potato, I don't know what that's still doing in there, and these are supposed to be like Maris Piper, they're supposed to be massive, to be honest, I mean they're dead, they've got blight, they're dying, they all need to come up, I think I might pull them up next time I come, I've got a little bit more hope for him, this one here, see that really green one there, I've got more hope for him, I feel like he might have a few more potatoes under there, just because he stayed quite green, but I don't know, I don't know if that makes difference, I've no idea, but that's it, that's my lot, grow potatoes, have I inspired you, no, I mean to be fair I do have quite a few bits of successful things growing, because I've got lots of Savoy cabbages over here, I ate one of the Savoy cabbages the other week, it was absolutely delicious, honestly it was amazing, really great tasting, really fresh, lovely, and then in here I have another purple sprouting cauliflower thing, purple, no not purple sprouting, a purple cauliflower in there, and then the sprouts are doing good, I know the tops have been eaten by pigeons, but they've left all the sprouts alone, so I sort of think I'm going to leave them to it, they're looking amazing, I've let the, what are these called, broccolis flower for the bees, not that there seem to be many bees about, but you know, all the blue stuff's fallen down, this is my giant giant pumpkin, and it's actually still growing, so I'm leaving him in the hope that he does get nice and big and turn orange, the thing is at the weekend we are due like a mini kind of heat wave in the UK, it's going to get up to 27 degrees in London, it's amazing considering it's October in London, but it's just like a weekend, like a flash weekend of sun, so I'm going to make sure he gets lots of sun, make sure you can sunbathe, and hopefully that will sort of give him a bit of a boost, I think he's still got a chance of growing, but only because we're having this freak heat wave, otherwise I'd be like he's a goner, and then what else is growing here, parsnip's doing absolutely great, really excited about those, we've still got some borage, which is beautiful, we've got some calendulas there, obviously the potatoes need to come up, ponds looking all right, we won't dwell on that, and then we've got the spinach here, chard, our purple sprouting broccoli, that looks really good as well, so we do have a few things growing, anyway guys I'm going to leave it there today, hope you enjoyed it, as soon as I've done a couple of jobs there I'm just out for the count, I'm just done, because I don't want to injure myself, and it takes so much, like that was such hard work, do you know what I mean, I don't want to push myself, so slow and steady is going to win that race, I'm going to keep going, keep pushing forward, keep trying to stay motivated and take breaks when I need to, I hope you've enjoyed the keep going, get out there, keep digging away at your allotment plots, thank you if you have purchased my planner, and I will see you again in my next vlog, which will hopefully be on Friday, see you Friday guys, happy rest of your week, bye!