IT ALL HAS TO GO! / ALLOTMENT GARDENING FOR BEGINNERS

yes yes yes which is not what you want on an allotment [Music] plot [Music] Einstein good morning good morning good morning welcome back to my lot Diaries my name is Emma these are my allotment Diaries I Vlog all about my two allotment plots which I am slowly bringing back to life and trying to join into one giant allotment plot so I'd love you to subscribe and follow my journey especially if you are looking at taking up gardening for the first time this year um it's a great year to do it why not every year is a great year to start gardening once you start you just won't be able to stop so follow my channel find out all the mistakes that I'm making and don't make them yourself absolutely freezing here today in South London so it's minus two everything is frozen over there's no way I can dig anything or do anything much um at this time of year to be honest it's not about planting and it's not about stying seeds it's just about getting your structures ready preparing the beds and you know making sure everything's strong enough to withhold the spring do you know what I mean so if anything's falling down secure it now if any trees look like they're going to blow over you know sort them out before they get all the leaves on and all the weight of them it's just very much a maintenance type of time of year um thankfully I've got like a new allotment plot so I've been working sort of on this one but you know if you don't have that chill out relax just do some planning so I have a couple of um things you know that I'm filming these videos like a week in advance to make sure that I actually don't miss an upload um that's my plan this year it's the master plan ha so um when I hear your advice it's like a week later basically and I'm a week ahead a lot of you have been very concerned about the tiles that I found um I've had so many messages thank you if you are one of those people who have messaged me to warn me that the lovely tiles that I found that I thought would be amazing in a pathway may very well be asbestos which is not what you want on an allotment plot um or anywhere to be honest soos is a really really dangerous material that they used to use in things like tiles and Paving slabs and um plaster and concrete and it's just really dangerous so it stands the reason that someone would dump it off at an allotment plot cuz it's really expensive to get rid of asbestos through the council it's like 4 500 quid here so bit of a nightmare it would be impossible to say for certain whether these are asbestos without getting a proper test done which I'm obviously not going to do but apparently I looked online there's a few warning signs so firstly the color the color being this dark color um is a warning sign that it could be asbestos cuz a lot of asbestos tiles were kind of Darker um secondly the size of it so I need to measure these because the tiles that were made with asbestos are usually I think it's 12 by 12 in 18 by 18 or 20x 20 so they were perfect squares and these are squares so I'm assuming it's going to be about 18 by 18 that looks 18 by 18 to me but I will measure it um and secondly when it smashes there might be some like fibers in the middle of it so obviously I've got gloves on so let's have a look at the way it's to be honest it looks like concrete to me it doesn't look fibrous it says supposed to have loads of dust and like little stringy bits coming out I can't see that personally but I'm not sure if I want to risk it I don't know um apparently Aus is not dangerous if the tiles are in one piece and if it's going to like stay so usually if it's on your ceiling or something and it's like all intact it should be fine but because I'll be walking on this over and over again I can already see a bit of damage here and that's going to cause dust and the dust from it is what's dangerous so one of the things I'm quite happy about is the fact that it hasn't been directly on the soil um it's been on ground sheets this whole time so it's all been covered in ground sheet I found them on top of a ground sheet Not underneath the ground sheet so that's that's quite good I don't think the soil is affected I think I may just have to say goodbye to my lovely beautiful pathway and figure out a way of getting rid of these um for now I just want them off my plot to be honest just off and away from my plot this is not my mess I did not bring asbestos tiles to my allotment plot do you know what I mean I've got enough to deal with I've had to do all this I've had to sort out loads of rubbish that I've got to figure out how to take to the dump I have trees that I have to chop back and chop down to add asbestos to that list makes me feel a little bit angry because I feel like I've just done so much of this plot and I'm I'm trying Council I'm trying so what I'm going to do is remove them from my plot put them on the communal pathway email the council to say I found them and they are on the communal path pathway and then it's sort of not technically my fault and hopefully no one from the council watches this but I don't think it's fair that I should have to pay to get rid of them from an allotment plot so comment if you agree with that it's like 4 500 quill I don't have it I don't have it [Music] [Music] God did not work that did not work that did not work that did not work I just they just fallen out they just all fallen out God damn it have to do it one by one it's so annoying right I have removed them from my allotment plot I put them on a thick ground sheet on the communal kind of little pathway but off the pathway I'm going to email the counselor the second I get home um and let them know that i' I passed some tiles and they look like they might be asbestos there you go they're not my property they're not mine I can't afford to get rid of them and it is a hazard so technically the counselor should come and pick them up really and sort that out for me but you know like I was thinking how awful is it that people would dump something like that because if it hadn't been for you guys pointing it out and immediately saying that looks like asbestos I wouldn't have known and I'd have left those down and not only that when you said that I thought oh no it's fine cuz they're all intact it's not fine because when they're outside they deteriorate and obviously the weather changes and you walk over them all the time all the dust is going to get up and I'm growing food so it's just like the worst possible thing and just thank you basically if you let me know that they were asbestos because I had no clue um and I'm really glad that you told me before I you know kept them down who I don't want to think about what might have happened so that's just ridiculous isn't it anyway it's going to be a wood chip path now I'm good at wood chip Pathways as you know I am fond of a good wood chip pathway if I can find anything else to go down here maybe some slabs or I don't know some wood or something cuz I quite like jumping on it I might make a little Hopscotch or [Music] something [Music] so the last time that I was here um was last week and I was chopping a tree down randomly as you do um I didn't have any major plans for that day and I ended up seeing this tree that was really wobbly um it looks like I sort of chopped the tree down but to be honest I think the tree was already falling and what I did what I did essentially was um save myself from being destroyed by the tree and hit on the head by it because the whole tree was being held up by this Branch this Branch was going across it and that was the only thing keeping it up and it would have eventually Fallen um so me chopping it at the base there was absolutely pointless cuz I think it would have just snapped off anyway also um I have started um last time I was here chopping chopping it up and a lot of it was dead already it was sort of snapping off I didn't even have to soore it so I really think this part of the tree was sort of dead already ready it's just another thing that I have to contend with on my allotment plot you probably don't have trees on your allotment because allotment shouldn't have trees on but obviously these have been abandoned for a bit and um trees have grown very quickly and uh they are lovely and I do love trees but they are a bit annoying when you're trying to grow veg and they sort of uh give you a lot of shade so I'm sort of sad the halfa trees falling down but I'm also not we're going to keep chopping this up into smaller pieces until I can sort get rid of it that's what we're going to [Music] do [Applause] I know what I'm going to use all these branches for I've got to use them for something Sur hell [Music] [Music] Einstein [Music] [Music] [Music] it's just annoying me so much so much if I start sorting that out now I think it'll make this area look a bit better I'll be more in control of the situation at the moment the situation is lost control a little bit because I'm getting angry that's not good never get angry in a lot [Music] plot well they all come from so many of them it's bit stressed to me it's like trying to throw a small birthday party and everyone you know showing up you know it's annoying it's like go home there too many of you can't [Music] qu let the [Music] Hulk [Music] yes [Music] start piling it up now start putting it along the back now [Music] right this last bit of the tree is the bit that I'm struggling with this is actually very very big um I could try and S it up smaller but that's going to take me a very long time I wonder if let's see how heavy it is there no I can't even attempt to move that I'm going to have to saw that up into little pieces uh there's nothing else I can do that's annoying okay actually if I can keep some of these branches quite long they're quite straight they'd be quite good as like a border to a raised bed especially that last bit down there that would be fantastic as a border that would mean I'd have to chop it there which is a nightmare um let's start by taking some of the top bits off see how far we get with it cuz I'm not I'm not feeling soaring today but you know it's the job that has to be done so that [Music] there oh slipping heck that's probably the best bit of soaring I've ever done in my life oh blind you can see all the little I can't get over the tree now oh God you can actually see like the Rings in the middle of this that's a beautiful bit of soaring can't believe I did that I'm want Chu with myself 5 years later finally finally I'm able to saw through a piece of wood without killing myself fantastic right I'm going to try and do a little bit more cuz that wasn't as hard as I thought it'd be so good cool go [Music] there yes yes yes oh that is beautiful except that little bit on the end that would have been perfect that's beautiful little bit on the end that I sort of pulled off at the end cuz I got frustrated but that is pretty it's pretty good bit of soaring there wow is it that I've got better or is it just a really Cooperative tree that wants to die suicidal tree I don't know crazy um well might as well just do one last bit then fantastic keep going Emma come [Music] [Music] on right I wonder if I can pull it along now let's see [Music] oh my [Music] god I've just got to get that bit off and that make a great little raised bed border that would be fantastic it's nice and thick I can see it sort of like as a flower border or something I like that very good bit of wood just very heavy I think I won't move it for now so I've moved all of that to the back there I think I might add that wood that I've got the front of the plot to it as well now yeah let's get rid of it it's been sitting there for a long [Music] time right here's my uh my little Wildlife fence there we go there it is it's just a lad of vogs all the stick and logs that I had had just been very neatly piled up and now I can clear that bit just in front of it and add that to the pile and we sort of got our own little boundary here it's not ideal it's not ideal it's not what I really wanted for the back of the plot I wanted the back of the plot to be really neat and sort of like not have a big pile up of stuff but as far as stuff goes you know having just logs and sticks and stuff I think is um it's fine it's okay I think the insects will like it the animals will like it the weeds will love it but I can't help that I don't think I'm going to put a fence in front of it anymore actually I've been thinking about it because it is a fence why would I put a fence in front of a fence doesn't make any sense in my head anymore so I actually think it will work quite well as a boundary fence on its own if you know what I mean so I'm not going to do anything else to it it shall remain as this as a boundary fence for insects and creatures and all of my wood that's what the sticks all were cuz I didn't know where else to put them and they've all gone oh Fantastic look at that it's absolutely great it's perfect here just to have a seating area or a shed I think I might get another shed to be honest I really want one I want a bigger a bigger shed but yeah this is fantastic now I can walk all the way here and if we just look yeah it looks fine with the boundary at the back doesn't it it looks okay it looks fine gosh the plot is looking so good now it's looking so so good s night this is the first time I've really stood back and gone wow you did a good job Emma um you know I'm really hard on myself all the time I always think I could do more but actually wow wow wow wow and most of the beds are now filled up with fresh compost ready for planting which is another [Music] wow well I think I'm going to leave it there now I think we've done quite enough today and um I'm really happy of the progress I made actually I wasn't expecting to do this much today so it's always a pleasant surprise when I managed to do more than I thought I was going to do I think next time I'm going to plant something I'm going to plant one of my fruit bushes into my new allotment um into one of the beds I think so we'll do that next time and I think I'll also I might start digging a few things out if not I might I will come up with something with it there's always jobs to do there's loads of jobs to do around here I will find something us to do um I hope you enjoyed my Vlog if you did do subscribe to my channel and I will see you again in my next one keep gardening happy gardening happy L lot menting see you later thanks for watching bye