THE NEW PLOT IS COMING TOGETHER! / ALLOTMENT GARDENING FOR BEGINNERS

It's just unkillable, it's like the cockroach of the plant world. I thought it was a dead hedgehog, I actually still thought it was a dead hedgehog. How am I digging wrong? Is there an art to digging? Hey guys, welcome back to my allotment diaries. Can't even bring myself to do a proper introduction today because I've had the morning from hell and I feel like crap. It's just not the morning, not the morning that you want for a Thursday so I've come down here anyway because my whole plan was to come down here today and I don't want to waste it. So I'm going to get some work done on my new plot and hopefully it'll cheer me up a little bit and just bring me out of this mood now. But you know when you just get a really bad start to the day and you have a really awful morning, that's what my day started like basically and it just doesn't set you up right does it at all. So hopefully being out here in nature and working on my new plot a little bit will do something. I don't know what it's going to do but hopefully it's going to bring me out of this mood a little bit and cheer me up. Though looking at it it's sort of making me feel more sad. I just seem to be acquiring mounds of earth now, just mounds like giant mole hills. I don't know, anyway I think the plan was what I wanted to do was move that over and try and sort this bit out under there and then smooth this out and start putting the ground sheet down to stop it from growing back. That's the plan. That is the very rough, basic, don't know what else to do kind of plan. So we're going to do that basically. That's what we're going to do. That's what I thought I was going to do is that's what we're going to do. Right okay. Right I won't talk too much in this vlog because I don't want to be a downer. Or what I'll do is I'll try and cheer myself up and then I'll chat more. But it's Friday, it's Friday guys. Don't want to be a downer on your life. So let me just get on with some hard work and then hopefully we'll talk later. Right job number one, move all that off of there and put it there. Just intervening here. I know it's been like 25 seconds for you when I've cut this up but for me it's been like 15 minutes. Just a couple of things just to let you know quickly. First of all I thought that was a dead hedgehog, a dead baby hedgehog on my plot. Scared the absolute daylights out of me. My god is it a dead hedgehog? No it's not. I still think it's a dead hedgehog even looking at it now I'm realising. I think it's part of a sunflower. Even then when I said I thought it was a dead hedgehog I actually still thought it was a dead hedgehog. The way it's curled up like that, that looks like a dead hedgehog doesn't it? Right so that really freaked me out and I was thinking oh my god not a dead hedgehog that must be such a bad omen for a new plot. I was like oh my god I've had the morning from absolute, I've had the morning from absolute hell and then I find a dead baby hedgehog on my plot. I mean that is like pushing it, do you know what I mean? Secondly somebody left a comment saying that I'm digging wrong. How am I digging wrong? Is there an art to digging that I don't know about? So I'm gonna dig and tell me what I'm doing wrong. I don't understand if there's another way to use a shovel. I mean guys come on constructive comments only I think. I mean I didn't go to shovel school. Right so how am I digging wrong? Normally a comment like that would just go straight over my head it's like water over a duck's butt or whatever the saying is. I think that's the saying. Yeah normally it wouldn't bother me but obviously the mood I'm in you know I'm like come down here and tell me that I'm not using my shovel right. I'll tell you what I'll tell you what I'll show you how well I can use a shovel. Of course I wouldn't do that of course I wouldn't do that but I might so don't come down today because I'm not in a good mood so right let's just keep digging. Obviously that was not right okay I know that was not right I fell over ignore that bit. Right gosh I'm sweating already. Every time I come here I put on a big jumper thinking it's going to be cold and as soon as I start working I'm absolutely boiling. This is where we've got to if I come back here. So I've taken, I'm filming on my phone as well, I've taken a lot of the ground sheet up at the front now which is what I wanted to do work in sections so this front bit here is now all just literally mud and dirt so we've got no ground sheet. The ground sheet is in absolutely terrible condition it's fraying like crazy a lot of it's ripped off and there are bindweed roots and stuff coming through it so which are so big there's just torn holes in it so some of it might not be able to be reused again which is a shame and then underneath you can see the bindweed so we're going to get all this up now. I don't know why this looks so gross it's basically bindweed but it looks like worms it just is I just find it really gross stuff so this is bindweed this is the root of a bindweed it's white it's long it's flexible has little roots all coming out of it like this it's the sort of thing you might find at this time of year when it stops growing and you find all the roots so to get rid of bindweed you have to get the whole root out they can go like five foot under the ground they're absolutely awful and of course you can see all the little roots coming off of it that means that they can just like grow from anywhere on the plant so if I was to get rid of this but leave but if I left that under the ground it would just regrow so bindweed is a nightmare you have to get the whole thing out it's impossible let's just be honest guys it's impossible you're not going to get rid of bindweed like it's just going to live with you you're going to have to live with it it's just unkillable it's like the cockroach of the plant world quite a good analogy actually I'm proud of that one right come on oh my god look at that bit oh like an octopus I do tell you what though if we could eat bindweed we'd keep the whole world fed he doesn't agree he doesn't like me at the moment what's wrong right found some eggs now they look a bit ominous ominous eggs they're definitely not human of course they're not human I don't know why I said that um no they're not human eggs they are eggs I think they might be slug eggs correct me if I'm wrong they look like slug or snail eggs right slug or snail loads of them the thing is I don't want to get rid of them because obviously they're babies you know I sort of have a bit of a thing about getting rid of baby baby slugs also I don't think there's much point getting rid of them because there's literally hundreds they're all over this place I'd have to get rid of all of them to make any bit of difference and they'll all be back anyway they'll all be back so lots of eggs going on under there the next thing to do is I'm going to try and level this out as you can see well from the amount of times I've fallen over while filming these vlogs you've probably noticed that the ground it's a little bit uneven which I don't like I just don't think it's it's helpful to have ground it's really uneven like this it's all bumpy so we're going to try and level it right now I wouldn't say I'm a leveling expert but I have done it before so take from that what you will I just thought I saw the baby hedgehog again and got all panicking what is wrong with me today bloody hedgehog oh look at this we've got Einstein and just over there we've got Scooey Scooey the squirrel all coming to see today aren't they all very excited oh there he is can you see him oh my gosh look how red and hot and sticky I am my goodness I think leveling out is one of probably my favorite jobs but also one of the worst jobs it's very hard work but it's very very satisfying it's the first time the plot starts to look like an actual allotment plot again because you've got rid of everything and now you're just starting to flatten it out which is exactly what I'm looking for I just want a nice blank canvas to work with so we'll get in there I'm going to leave it there guys I have no idea how long this vlog is going to be I don't know if it's going to be worth watching but I feel like I've made quite good progress today actually surprisingly depend like considering my mood was so low when I got here and I felt so unproductive and like I wanted to just go back home again but actually it's been one of my most productive days who knew and I do actually feel a little bit better I wouldn't say I feel tons better but I do feel a little bit more with it now and like I've got kind of like the strength and energy to get through the rest of the day so that's that's a good thing I think I'll show you what I've done this is the end result of the day so now this area here is sort of it's almost like I'm trying to finish it and close it off so what I'll do next time is I'll continue leveling and then I'll start to cover some of the ground sheet over the top of it again until I've got the wood chip in the raised beds to start putting in but yeah this bit here is sort of almost completely finished have to get a bit more bindweed out and stuff but it's looking it's looking better here's another angle so as people come past now they're definitely going to know someone is working on this plot and making progress hopefully they'll be quite impressed actually because it has been so overgrown for so long um but yeah there you go so it's going to connect on to my plot carry on and then obviously we've just got that little bit over there oh yeah just just that little bit over there get there I mean we are getting there we're doing it we're literally doing it it's happening and uh it's looking it's definitely looking much better now I mean I'm really glad that I did that because it has spurred me on a bit and made me more motivated it makes me realize now that this will be a working allotment plot which is excellent so I'm going to track my husband down this weekend hopefully he can help me out with a couple of the the more tough jobs I say more tough jobs I mean there I am chopping down trees and digging out but I'll find something for him to do I hope you enjoyed the vlog today I hope you found it helpful and inspiring uh give it a share with someone if you haven't already um someone else got the first allotment plot maybe it will inspire them to uh stick at it and I will see you again on Monday see you Monday guys thanks for watching bye