GETTING THE ALLOTMENT READY FOR SPRING! / ALLOTMENT GARDENING FOR BEGINNERS

there is Einstein I do a lot of weird things here if in doubt throw a bag of compost on it it make you feel like a [Music] gardener good morning everyone I'm back welcome back to my lopment Diaries if you are brand new to this Channel and you have just found it because maybe you're hoping to start your garden in 2024 or maybe you've got a new allotment plot and this is your first year on it and you want to know what to do or what an allotment plot kind of looks like maybe don't judge me on that one but this might be the channel for you so I'd love for you to hit the Subscribe button follow along my journey I will be vlogging three times a week every week throughout the year 2024 showing you all of my allotment journey and how it all progresses um and hopefully giving you a few tips and advice as well but I can't promise that because I'm not an expert I just come down down here and just do it you know I'm just a doer just before we go any further I just want to say a massive thank you for all of your New Year wishes I hope that you had a lovely New Year's as well and a lovely Christmas if you celebrate it um and thank you so much to everyone who purchased one of my allotment planners you can still purchase them they are still up on Amazon it's a great time to purchase a planner we've had some terrible weather so maybe planning is the way out of it of you received a planner for Christmas and it was so lovely to see all the pictures come up and I really hope that you enjoying them and that you love them the link to my planner is below in my description bar if you haven't yet got one and you would like one um it is nice like I said when the weather's not so great and let me tell you something we've had about eight storms here um in a row and the last storm that we had was actually particularly bad um there's some scaffolding near where I live um in the High Street and the whole thing just came down thankfully no one was hurt but I was so grateful that I did not come down to the allotment plot in fact I haven't really been here at all um over the Christmas and New Year because I just wanted a bit of a break with all that said I am back today to assess the damage looking around the site there's not that much damage um from the storm so I'm really glad everyone's shed seems to be standing um a few of things have blown away but that's that's nothing really let me show you around and show you where we're starting 2024 from so this is my original allotment plot I've had this one this is my fifth year with this allotment plot um very minimal damage in the storm I think that fence over there fell down so I can just pull that back up um but yeah this plot is always looking pretty ready to grow in to be honest and just okay this is my new plot which is right next door to it uh and again this one's actually looking all right you know I'm actually pretty pleased with it at the moment so we're starting to get the Pathways in we're starting to get the raised bed sorted uh we have the archway ready for the pumpkins which will have to be done soon um and then the back just needs a little bit more clear ing but luckily it has all died back unfortunately the squirrels and the wind have had this now my lovely little bird feeder has uh become that so let's sort this out first haven't seen Einstein yet but maybe this will perk him up a [Music] bit that is not safe for wildlife but at the same time I don't know what else to believe him do with it like it's oh there he is I can hear him oh that's that's a lot that's a lot of worms there for you Einstein he definitely recognizes my voice if I come back a bit he'll definitely eat that now won't you there he is gosh so weird how he recognizes me now and he's so like confident there is Einstein say hello to everyone did you have a nice New Year say no you didn't come and feed me like you promised I know Einstein took a break it's busy got to fend for yourself sometimes mate right so first 20 minutes of the Vlog is just me didd dling around with a bird feeder now if you want to get your garden sorted for 2024 the biggest job that you can do right now in January is to mulch over any raised beds that you haven't mulched over or even just fill them up if they're new so over Christmas I acquired a lot of cardboard and I think that cardboard makes a great base for raised beds because um if you put it down and then you water it watering it helps it to break down quicker the cardboard acts as like um so it represses weeds um it what else does it do what else do you do can't remember it helps with the structure of the soil because it's obviously a brown material so it's a kind of thing that you put in your compost bin um and it also retains moisture that's it it retains moisture so it's really great to put CBO down and um if you've got Low's over Christmas great time time because you you could just use it now so that's why it's a great time okay stop talking let's just do it I think I am chatting [Music] [Music] away [Music] [Music] surprise surprise New Year same problems I can't find my scissors so I'm going to have to open it with a saw which is a very strange thing to do but I do a lot of weird things here I mean I don't think it's weird but a lot of you think it's weird sometimes so I think it's very [Music] clever Fitness level is an all time low too many minut [Music] highes got a few comments on a couple of my old videos about people getting a bit frustrated that I haven't put my raised beds together yet but it's all still a work in progress guys it's still even though I've just filled that raised bed it might still move do you know what I mean like my brain doesn't work the same way as yours probably you know I'm all over the place so that might change and then I'd have to take the bed apart so I don't know I mean these beds are really big and they're taking quite a lot of compost so that's I need another bag in there which is quite frustrating cuz I've still got this one to fill this one here and then these two pumpkin ones and then that's not I haven't even cleared the back yet so it is taking quite a lot of um compost and like stuff in it you know just a little word on the compost that I'm using so I'm using the be Q multi-purpose compost from be Q it's pep free um and it's about £ 12250 for a bag of um how much is this I think this is 100 is it 100 lers how many liters are you can you tell me please how many liters are you I think it's 100 L though it's quite expensive it's not that cheap um and a lot of you have commented and said that you've had problems with the beq compost the ones local to me I just don't have that much of a problem with them um I have used better compost before but like I said it's more expensive this is the cheapest stuff that I can sort of get my hands on and to be honest I just want to fill up the the beds at the moment um and have something to grow into so yeah it's not the greatest quality I don't find any plastic bits in mine or anything but I know a lot of you have you know compost is expensive the best thing thing to do is to make your own but I haven't quite figured that out yet so that's what I'm using for now I'm going to do that little bed there now same process oh it's the fox that's why I heard all those birds just now I thought it was a weird bird you know I love weird Birds but no it's the fox probably just making them all jump all coming out to see me today he likes to get quite close that fox I'm a little bit wary of him I don't know I'm always wary of foxes I don't trust them something about them don't [Music] trust I'm having a thought can you tell that I'm having a thought I'm having a thought and I'm thinking I'm running out cardboard and actually this bed might not be a bed that requires as much cardboard but that that bed needs the cardboard more yeah I'm making an executive decision of CEO of my plot to move it I'm really sorry bed you're not going to get that I think this bed here and I'm going to tell you why there were more weeds coming up here and I can already see weed starting to grow in here which is concerning and I think because there's weeds already growing and there isn't any weeds growing in that one already I think this bed here needs more mulching so I'm going to use the cardboard here just in case I don't get any more I'm sure I will get more but I'm going to put it in here a lot of a lot minting is just guess work guys I don't knowed that's all I've got that's it there's no point doing half a bed like that I might as well do a whole bed if I can do a whole bed yeah that doesn't make any sense okay right back to plan A back to plan A sometimes the first plan is always the best plan [Music] no trying to escape compost is desperate to escape it's like no no not this alotment please anywhere else it now now we are thinking spring we are looking oh there goes foxy off he goes now we're looking at these and we're thinking yes we're going to be ready for spring this is fantastic it's definitely making me realize how unfit I've got over Christmas though I'm absolutely worn out done two beds normally I'd be like running loops around this plot but not today alas no I'm exhausted what should I do about this bed I'm concerned about this bed so my problem is there's a lot of weeds in it and a lot of bind weed probably it's also very uneven I know this is like technically a no dig allotment which is just because it's better for the environment and also easier to do but I feel like I should dig this bed out I feel like I'm going to dig it I know a lot of people be screaming saying you don't need to dig you don't need to dig and I know but I think I'm just going to dig I think I'm just going to do it um and try and get all the bind weed out and stuff let's do it if I dig a lot of those weeds out I might not need to put cardboard down you see that [Music] good I think it was a really good idea to dig it over actually I've got a lot of bind weed out a lot of nasty um sort of just those kind of like perennial sort of weeds and all those roots and stuff they've all sort of come out so that's really good I think that saved me time in the future also got a lot of plastic out a lot of big rocks um and it's looking pretty good it's pretty good condition it's not terrible so this is this is an excellent start I think I'm going to throw a bag of compost on it if in doubt throw bag compost on it it make you feel like a gardener you feel productive oh there he is [Music] [Music] happy there we go three more mulched beds at the alotment so we've now got 1 2 3 four five five beds ready to plant into pretty much at the springtime which is amazing that sun is so nice it's so nice to see the sun we've had so much bad weather it's just lovely to see the Sun out um there is one more thing I want to do while I'm here because I might as well I don't know when the weather will turn again and I won't be able to get here so comes the wind it's this section here it's just really stressing me out um and I really want to sort it I'm going to try and sort it now I think I've really had enough of this section I hate looking at it I've had enough had [Music] enough [Music] [Applause] looking so much better oh gosh that's amazing so that's all the ground sheets that I can reuse this area has now been cleared there's a clear rubbish pile there and a compost pile and I think there's room here now for another raised bed right right here maybe right here is that too igy piggledy though do you know what I mean something I sort of got a bit bored of of my original plot is that it's so straight it's just a straight path of like paths coming off and I did kind of want that igy piggledy secret garden kind of vibe where you have to like weave in and out stuff um but I don't want to weave too much it's not easy figuring out where stuff should go you know that way well I'm going to do is I'm going to build them preliminarily and then I'm going to leave them in place and then I'm going to see how I feel about it and if I like them then I get used to them which I probably will cuz I'm a creature of habit I'll fill them and I'll put all the ground sheets around them properly it's not so much the beds I've got to think about it's the pathway how am I going to get through actually I really like it oh hang on a second standing back here immediately changed my mind I like it I do like it this is sort of what we've got going on there so we got the path coming here then you walk there then you can go straight through the pumpkin AR tray there's a bed there and there's a bed there I do quite like it it's a bit igy piggy igy Pig D let's try and walk it so we begin in the [Music] archway I'm marching now sometimes marching helps right so I know I said I was going to sit on this for a little bit and uh see what I thought but I immediately decided it was for me um I've started to put some of the Pathways in just to see what it looks like I need a little bit along here as well and then that will just be wood chipped over um and I've got a nice clear kind of line through the it's a poly tunnel but it's actually going to be a pumpkin Archway um so that's sorted there and then I've got two new smaller beds here which I think it's excellent I think it really works so if I come back in here now you can see what I've sort of done I've started to clear this area I was thinking of just getting a screen for that because I don't know what to do with it I can't get to the dump yet we just haven't had a chance to do it and it's so much rubbish um and then all these ground sheets here are still being reused I'm going to reuse all of them um they are fantastic quality and they're just making my Pathways so that is now that beit and that was giving me a lot of anxiety I'm really happy that that's sort of sorted now so just a little bit more compost and filling up and stuff and and clearing and and tidying and that front bit of the plot is ready for spring um so I can kind of relax about that now and that gives me time to move on to this end bit of the plot it kind of ends at the moment at the end of the pumpkin Arch Ray but all of this down here is mine as well it's just a section that just needs needs sorting out so um that's on the job for January it's on the list so it's just like an end bit just needs a bit of clearing um and then that should be another oh what what do you reckon that is like 1 2 3 4 5 6t 6t Garden maybe down here Absolut fantastic but for now all the front bit is pretty much [Music] done and that's it for me today I hope you've enjoyed my allotment Vlog I hope it's inspired you to get outside even though it's January it's beautiful weather today so whenever the weather's nice I'm going to try and run down here get some jobs done hope you've enjoyed it thank you so much for watching if you do like my Vlogs and um you think you want to watch some more do subscribe to my channel and I will see you again next time which will be on Wednesday see you Wednesday guys and happy gardening bye