LOSING MY MOTIVATION / ALLOTMENT GARDENING FOR BEGINNERS

[Music] the middle is lovely it's just very very tiny my motivation is definitely draining [Music] away good morning welcome back to another day on my allotment plot in South London my name is Emma these are my allotment Diaries love for you to hit the subscribe button if you're new to my channel and if you're not new you might notice that these are a little bit out of sync with what's going on in the UK right now I'm filming them a week in advance yeah I took advantage of the two we break I took over Christmas and I filmed through videos um in advance so I'm three videos ahead now all the time so hopefully I won't miss an upload that's the idea so so with that said yesterday we had snow the weather has just completely plummeted here in the UK in London um and across South London yesterday we had some flowers of snow thankfully as you can see it did not settle uh which would have been a bit of a disaster cuz I would have had to have just stopped um can't really Garden in the snow I mean I could and I probably would would have tried to be honest but I'm glad I didn't have to uh battle that one so very very cold today it's just completely plummeted and I'm freezing and apologies in advance if I keep going on about the cold it is very cold that was like the loudest laugh and there are people here today so I'm going to try and get my voice down a little bit don't know what that was um right last time I was here I tackled that pathway didn't I let's go and have a look at it out the mud the mud's all dried up that's a good thing about the temperatures dropping the mud has dried up so what did we do last time we were here we cleared a bit the back there all looks excellent and we put this lovely pathway down which was like a bit of a swamp wasn't it um but it seems to work quite well and I've got the stepping stains so yes fantastic let's see if the ground is dried it's still a little bit sludgy but not anywhere near what it was before which is really good so this section is sort of being done now which is really good news I feel good about that I did quite a lot of digging out when I was here as well last time which was really really helpful I think what I'm going to do today I'm trying to think of something I can do that's not too going to be too muddy um cuz just don't feel like believe it or not I just don't feel like getting too muddy but I think it may have to be the way the way is the mud the mud is the way of it at the moment that's just January I think I think what I want to do is clear this bit here now it's like Mastermind we've started so we'll finish um I think we need to clear just a square of that start getting some stuff in there as much as I sort of want to swarm about swarm about you know like skip about kind of doing little odd jobs and stuff and fun stuff I do think that my time is best served tackling that back back bit before the spring really kicks in that's just the best thing for me to do so I'm going to have to grin and bear it a little bit cuz it is very cold and muddy and just get it done I need to reclaim my shed at some point as well it's getting quite ridiculous now I need my shed I need my shed back oh my goodness I need my shed back right I got my gloves oh my gosh why did I put the alotment key oh it's in there oh my God lose that again right you sit in the flower pot gloves on before I get totally caught up in mud um and just wrapped up in doing all the jobs I wanted to show you this cuz I brought this the other day this fleece here this is £35 from M&S I was walking through marks and spences and I saw it I thought that'd be great for the allotment plot it's really soft and nice the only downside about it is I got a white one I just liked the mustard color and the white together and then I when I got it home I was like oh that's not going to be good for the garden but I'm layering it up I've got Gill on as well under here and then I've got my uh Barber coat over the top right we're going to tackle the back let's do this or should I feed Einstein first oh god let's feed him I'm going to have to fix this properly at some point I really am I will fix this it might be better on there right here we go [Music] again that I found what is that is that like a pruning thing wonder if that still works we'll try that out later that's exciting Little Treasure [Music] find when it's solidified to the ground like this just to say how long this has taken me to get these ground sheets up down here you can see that the the roots of the blackberry bushes are grown through right so I'm having to sort of pull it up and then cut underneath like that just to get it up a little bit further and I'm just having to go along the whole thing and just keep cutting it out long difficult process but I am getting there now these are the last last view that's why I'm moaning about it cuz I'm on the last bit you know there's no point moaning normally cuz got load to go you can moan on the last bit that's fine oh yeah [Music] excellent [Music] [Applause] [Music] what I need is a giant dust pan and brush that can kind of like it's kind of like a claw it's like a giant claw and it's kind of got like a handle you know those um like dinosaur things or the little hand things you buy your kids they squeeze something and then it kind of like opens its mouth like that I need one of those but on a larger scale just to collect all the stuff up and dump it if you're an inventor that's what I need that's the device that I'm missing it's very easy to use it doesn't have any instructions with it that's what I need all right I found a good a good shaped ground sheet here that I think could be really good at continuing the pathway through the trees I just got to get all of this stuff off of it look at this it's growing right through it what on Earth did you think you were doing growing through this this is a no plant see the way it's just grown straight through the ground sheet like it owns the thing look at it I think you can grow wherever you like don't you it's called trespassing I don't think so not today come on not today not today not today God I can't get you why are you not cooperating right just about enough of [Applause] you die bloody plants oh look at that blue skies and sun and the wind has died down a little bit isn't that lovely thought I'd just pause for a second and show you the blue skies and the Sun so we don't get that very often at the moment oh that is lovely oh and here comes the wind just to spoil it right let's get that pathway down then if we can if we can let's get it go it's going to go through those trees so I'm going to try and level that a little bit just a little bit and then snake the pathway around that's what we'll do what of try and [Music] do just lay it down cuz I don't really know what we're doing now it's this is quite complex entirely [Music] sure pin it in a way that sort of pins it the right direction cuz it's a little bit wonky I've never done a wonky path before it's always been a straight path so it's just blowing my mind a little bit you know can imagine I've been trying to reuse all these pins that I find always like because I just otherwise they'll just throw them away and but they're still good they're a bit Rusty but they're still good you know they do the job of pinning it so you know nothing's too old as long as it can do the job you want it to do nothing's too old to you nothing's too rusty too decrepit for me to use if it does what I want it to do in that there it's not going to do the bloody job on it to do now oh it did don't stab me then you will go in the bin mate yeah okay cool right there we go that's sort of what I meant so we got the pathway now going through the trees I just need to connect it to that one there and we're good to go it's sort of connected together it's not quite how I thought it would be but it's it is what it is um I've cleared down to there now I just need to clear this bit here I'm I'm my motivation is dwindling guys it's my I've come here now for over a week and the only job I've done is try clearing that back a bit that's all I'm doing and there's not many other jobs that I can be doing at this time of year but my motivation is definitely draining away um I'm just trying really really hard to stay positive and keep going cuz I know it's going to be worth it and when that bits cleared there and stuff in the spring I'll be so glad that I did it but don't ask me how to stay motivated right now I'm hanging on by thread I don't know why I'm still here how I'm still here what's happening I don't know I'm just keep I just keep going I'm just going to keep going as long as I can um I'm going to tackle this big horrible mess here reminds of like a hair knot you know when you get knot in your hair you know when you get like a tangled knot in your hair sometimes that's what that is to me that's a hair knot and I don't like it they needs to go stress me out just looking at it stress me out oh God I just don't want to do any more [Music] chopping gosh I keep doing that I keep whipping myself in the face am I bleeding oh they keep attacking they keep fighting back stop fighting me Knot's almost gone I can see the end the end is in [Music] sight right bit of raiky doodle and we're done zoodle bit a raiky doodle come on all right I've done a bit of digging quite a lot of digging actually if I'm honest I'm going to rake it over and see if it looks a bit better um yeah I we're getting [Music] there [Music] right I did dig a little bit of it out but I've lost I mean my back hurts my wrists hurt really weirdly my wrists hurt it's a weird thing to hurt really but yeah um I've just losing the motivation and the will to carry on it's not like me but I'm feeling re I feel worse about this area than I did before I started chopping it down and it's like a million times better now so there's clearly something going on in my head and it's telling me to stop I think I need to walk away from this area just for a little bit I keep losing track and sight of like how far I've come and how much work I put into this and how much better this looks now and I'm just completely focused on that bad bit of the back that's all I can sort of see and it's so silly cuz look at this look how much I've cleared it and I've come all the way up to here and I've just lost momentum digging these things out cuz they are just literally so much work um but yeah I mean it is looking a thousand times better so I think the plan like I said is to get a fence along the back get some raised beds here some little Pathways going to them this is a lot of sun at the back of the plot here so that's going to be fantastic yeah I I don't think this has been cleared well certainly in the time that I've had my plot over there even when this plot was looked after this area here has always been overgrown so this is a massive massive Improvement and yeah I just feel so incredibly disheartened about it so something's clearly mismatched in my head there um I do have one bag one bag of compost left I think I'm going to put it into this bed here I was debating whether to do that but you see where I filled this bed up the cboard is poking through so there's very clearly not enough compost in here and that's just silly doing it half-heartedly is just silly I was trying to save the compost or something else but I'm just going to whack it in here this is a big old bed right as if that wasn't enough back breaking work we're going to bring the compost over now that's better that's better yeah properly topped up now I might put some broad beans in there actually I think that make quite a good broad Bean bed I can kind of see them now all coming up here um and giving me lots of lovely broad beans it's big enough as well for them fantastic that's definitely going to be a flower bed I think da is in there I think that looks so beautiful all the da is coming up maybe some corn flowers as well not sure about this one this one will be garlic and onion which will go in quite soon actually um and then I was thinking for this one one this is going to be brassas cuz it is quite in shade I haven't started anything yet and I haven't sewn anything yet I think I start planting a few things out in February um but I'm going to go quite easy on myself this year cuz obviously I've got quite a lot to do so I don't want to push it do you know what I mean um and then my original plot here is just looking it's looking fine I think I was thinking the other day it would be nice to be able to grow more than sort one thing so at the moment all I'm sort of managing is maybe one or two sunflowers now I've got all that space over there you know I can have loads of sunflowers next year it' be fantastic so also I've always been very um worried about sort of perennial plants I've got like the chard in and stuff and like the kale plant there I've always been wary of sort of putting in more sort of perennial plants because I think I'll run out of space and I won't be able to put the rest of it in but obviously now I've got the extra space you know I can think about maybe having some perennial kale um some more perennial spinach and sort of things like that right while I was here I was going to harvest one of my cabbages because I've just left them for months and months and um I need a cabbage for dinner tonight so I thought well I'll go and pick one then cuz I think I've got a few these ones here I think these are seavoy cabbages which is my favorite they have been quite munched they have been quite munched oh dear that one might possibly be okay in the middle I think maybe this one here is the greenest when you pick your brassicas as well a lot of people told me to leave the stems in the stalks in and cut them and because these feed the soil and give goodness to the soil so if you can cut them instead of pull the whole thing up it's supposed to be better for the soil just um something that people tell me that I thought I would relay back in case you haven't heard it so this is my SEO cabbage I picked so if I take off some of the the outside leaves are a little bit munched the middle the middle is lovely it's just very very tiny I think I might need another one little slug on him right well that's okay in the middle two little mini SVO cabbages instead of one big one but that's okay it's all right I've left these go over for way too long so I'm not really surprised what I'm going to do is I'm going to put the leaves back on the bed um there a sort of mulch I think the Slugs and snails be hungry they can have that it might feed the soil great brilliant okay so i' got a couple of couple of these this a do that's all right look at that lovely sun falling on the allotments isn't that nice to see look at all the Blue Sky oh isn't it fabulous guys oh I just love it you know what looking at it now from here actually I have done quite a lot of work today I'm quite proud of that I can actually see immediately the back is very clear the only thing I think is annoying me is that I've had to pile it up at the back I really didn't want to do that I really didn't want to I wanted it to be nice and clear and perfect at the back but it's never going to be perfect it is what it is and I worked hard to get here and I am proud It's just sometimes it's harder to see that when you lose lose motivation a little bit but I hope that these Vlogs are inspiring you and motivating you to get out there give it a go just go out and just just dig it but you know just know that you are more more capable then you give yourself credit for and that is absolutely true we're all more capable than we think we are you can do it don't get put off by all the hard work do it now in January February and you'll be flying in springtime and hopefully I will be too um but yeah that's it for today hope you enjoyed it I'll see you again in my next Vlog on Wednesday see you Wednesday guys and happy gardening bye