SPRING HAS ARRIVED ON THE ALLOTMENT / ALLOTMENT GARDENING FOR BEGINNERS

let the slug plucking of 2024 commence oh I'm just up oh God right okay let's whack these in however if I ever had to catch birds I think I would do a really good job just want to stop him from taking a dump in the [Music] [Applause] [Music] bed good morning guys welcome back to the allotment Diaries my name is Emma these are my alotment Diaries if you are new to my channel and you love alotment gardening or anything to do with growing your own food or just want to watch someone chatting away while they actually attempt to do it um mine might be the channel for you so I'd love for you to subscribe to my YouTube channel every every single subscriber counts and helps um and builds my channel and it's just lovely to have more and more of you here um to watch my lovely Journey sometimes lovely sometimes very stressful sometimes complete failure but a journey all the same so yeah do subscribe to my channel if you're new this is my lovely allotment plot and that's my original plot this one here is my new plot for this year so I've never grown on this one before it's first year growing on it very very exciting as you can see well you might not be able to but it's raining today they said it wouldn't rain they said Sun they lied they always lie just the first thing I'm going to do because I forgot to do it yesterday um is to feed the little Robin so Einstein and his mate so they were having a bit of um an argument the other day so I don't know if they're friends anymore um I assume they are but I can hear them I don't know where they are I can hear them let's see if we can uh bring them over scared me it came out of nowhere there then right well he's fed he's fed now so that should keep him busy I think he's calling for his friend I think he's called I don't know though I don't know the ins and outs of robbing Behavior I just don't I'm not a Robbin expert anyway first thing I'm going to do is check on some of the things that we planted recently and make sure they haven't been dug up and to see if they're growing at all um so the first things is we planted some strawberries out last Friday let's have a look how they're doing here's my new strawberry bed looking very good actually looking very happy yeah I think they're looking good and then in here we planted some peas and I put this netting over to stop any mice and actually they are starting to grow already so if I just if you look here oh no that's not that's not it that's just a bit of a tree that's a bit of a tree that's Fallen oh no they are growing no that's a bug what's that I don't even know what that is it's just leaves and bugs I keep thinking I can see stuff growing and it's not growing it's just leaves and bugs so that's about as far as my garden knowledge um stretches I don't even know if something's growing or not but the point is the m the mouse has not dug them up the netting seems to have worked and kept the mousy away which is excellent right let's check on some other things I couldn't really tell you if the rhubarb's alive or not I assume it is cuz it's still got a green leaf on it but we'll just sort of um brush past that one cuz we don't really know in here I planted broad beans and I did oh no look oh no oh no anap poo that naughty Fox there are broad beans in here and I did dig one up and it is starting to grow but um Foxy's been in here a lot holes that he been digging and stuff that's actually very annoying I have to cover this with a net today which is a little bit frustrating but what can you do it's all about keeping stuff alive this year not about so much what it looks like you know if I've got net everything I've got net everything and that's it and then in here we planted our onions I don't think these are growing yet but we can see NOP we got no signs of life in here yet but that's fine that's okay and the gar looks growing well though there's the garlic at the front that's growing good the thing that is growing is my purple sprouting broccoli which I kid you not I've been growing since last year probably like last Christmas or something no way before that like September October I could have pulled these out cuz these have been growing actually I I think they've been growing since about August August July time I always say if a plant is still green and it looks alive do not pull it out do not pull it out it doesn't matter when it says it's supposed to give you a harvest if it's still green and growing why pull it out the only thing is it's now being eaten by pigeons and slugs look at that slug snail it's a snail this is Pigeon damage the pigeons are coming down and they're eating the leaves and I couldn't believe it that like birds eat things like this but they do they do oh look at that big slug as well see that that's Bird poo that means that birds have been after this and a feather and a feather if I was a detective I'd be like right I've got it we found a feather and some bird peo there we are you see in the middle there see that that's purple Sprout and broccoli that's where it sprouts from it sprouts the same as Sprouts do they come from sort of between like that and they usually get a bit of the top but um I need to clear these with slugs and snails and I need to net them it's so typical that I've been waiting nearly a year for purple sprite and broccoli the second the second I get a hint of it all of the other creatures are after it as well right okay let's get a little pot right let the slug plucking of 2024 commence this should be an annual event coming here with a pot trying to get all the Slugs off your plants it's mostly snails to be honest the snails don't normally cause me a problem I like snails they're all right but you guys you are not right right a lot of be poo on here as well that's another one come on out of it out of it out of it you didn't grow these it's not fair oh God these are the ones I don't like oh it's minging it's horrible it's disgusting it's horrible it's horrible oh oh no I can feel their slime through my gloves absolutely gross oh there and of you oh God oh my God found the absolute motherload look at that that is absolutely disgusting no offense guys but you are pretty gross there's hundreds of them in there that actually makes me feel physically unwell it's the absolute motherload I can't handle these this is so gross I just want to rip the plant apart oh gosh oh let s of you oh it's disgusting oh it's not nice I know I'm making such a big fuss of it but my God I hate I just I can't we're going to have to do it fast we're going to have to do it fast I know I'm a gardener and stuff and it's my fifth year but I still I don't like them I just don't like them icky and horrible they are just everywhere all over the look at that one over the ground we'll sling them over here right you can live in there I don't know why they don't eat weed weeds why don't they eat weeds that's what I want to know why don't they eat weeds our lives would be so much easier as gardeners if they just ate weeds if they ate all the Dand lons we just be like oh we love them come in slugs come [Music] [Music] in [Music] all right let's net them I hate Nets by the way I absolutely hate them the last time I netted something with this sort of stuff I actually caught more birds than I deterred I kept catching them they kept getting under it and I just got there it's like I was trying to make some kind of weird I want to say Avatar it's not Avatar it it's um Avery is that what you keep birds in yeah it's like I was trying to make an Avery and capture all these different birds and I like I don't want them however if I ever had to catch birds I think I would do a really good job what I would do is I would plant a load of brassers have a net with a big hole in it and just wait for the birds to come for the brassers and I'll just catch them so if we ever had a crisis where I actually had to go and catch birds I'd be a girl for that like seriously we had a bird crisis and I'd to catch them all I'd be so good at that God you know yeah right they know they know they know the part is over part's over boys it's time to find someone else's grub to eat yeah yeah [Music] exactly so the other week when I went to the Garden Center went on a bit of a Splurge I picked up some gladioli um I grew these in my first ever year on the allotment plot my original plot I whacked them all in in March it was still freezing cold when I did it and they all grew beautifully I got some absolutely gorgeous hours out of them like honestly stunning every color and then I stupidly took all the bulbs up dried them wrapped them in newspaper planted them out again and they all just died or all I got was the foliage and I didn't get any more flowers so I thought I'd just start again and just get some more gladioli this is going to be my flower bed here I've sort of made it long and rectangular um and it's right in the sun this gets a lot of sun at this alotment plot so I thought this would be really great to have loads and loads of different flowers in so I'm thinking I all along the back cuz they're quite big and bushy gladioli at the front um I think I'm just going to give it a bit of a weed because even though it's a no dig bed and I put some CB ball down and some compost and some manure and stuff it's still getting a few Weeds on the top I think it's just because this plot was so overgrown for so long that I've just sort of left a lot of perennial weeds in here so you know it's never going to be completely weed free but we'll give it a bit of a bit of a hoe [Music] you see this side of the Rose bed here right this is never going to stand up because it's got a branch there and there's nothing to attach it to right so I thought of a clever thing to do I'm going to share it just in case it actually goes right and I'm a genius you never know one day one day something I come up with will go right but what I'm going to do is I'm going to stand it up like that right I'm going to put a stick in this side there it really as far in as I can all right then I'm going to get another stick and I'm going to put it in the other side over here it's up it can't fall down how clever is that how clever is that see sometimes occasionally I do have a good idea and it does work and this is one of those times so what we're going to do is make some holes first [Music] this sort of doing it in a bit of a zigzag pattern I don't know why just just damn they are quite big gladioli plants they do get quite big so don't be fooled they are big plants we'll do a couple down there too on the side nice right right I'll show you what they look like it says it actually does say here planting clusters of five or more bit like you do with daffodils I think um and tulips actually and it says you only need to um you only need to lift the bulb in very very cold areas I think that's where I went wrong I don't need to do that I don't need to do that because I don't lift a lot of my daers and they survive um I just need to mulch them I think so I'll do that next time lesson learn right this is what they look like like little little bulbs little tiny miniature onions but yeah they're quite small I think they don't need to go that deep I think it's how how deep is it oh 10 cm 4 in so 4 in 1 2 3 four about that deep about that deep 4 in deep so not that deep to be honest right okay let's whack these [Music] [Music] in if you're wondering which way around you plant them it's pointy end up and then that's where the Roots come out the butt basically that's his butt and that's his head um and that's where the the long green shoot will come out and that's where the roots will come out but however if you did plant it if you weren't sure plant it on its side because then it would be able to find the light and The Roots still be able to go and it sort of twist itself around but apparently if you did put them in upside down usually they can find their way to the sky plants are not silly you know they've been around for a long time and if you think about it a lot of seeds you know fall from trees and stuff and fall from plants and they just grow the right way do you know what I mean they don't always land the correct way but they figure it out don't get too hung up on things like that little details like you know which way it should be planted you know just do that whichever way it lands it's probably the right way right all in so I sort of done a bit of a zigzag pattern across the front of the border and then a little bit around there as well so you imagine them all coming up they're quite close together cuz I didn't realize you could sort cluster them so they are quite close together now I think they'll look really nice so let's cover them over and give them a water [Music] right there you go I've come back here to show you so this whole bed here is a flower bed we've now got all the um gladioli in the front and sort of looping around the sides and then the da is will be at the back and then behind that we've obviously got the lovely apple tree and this area here at the moment it's just got loads of spring bulbs coming up so we got all of the um tulips and we've got crocus flowers a few daffodils are thrown in as well um so that's the flower bed they're done this is looking really nice now I need a couple of more bags of compost for that blueberry is doing well by well I mean still alive still alive guys so we got a blueberry plant either end of this Archway I think it'll look really beautiful if they grow um and they are actually still alive still alive and starting to get some little buds on them and stuff so really happy with those oh yeah we were going to try and cover this bed won't we from the foxy foxy foxy right okay I don't know if I've got enough netting for that it doesn't have to be netting it just has to be something to deter him what about this then that deter him won't it it's just to stop him from going on it that's all I want never worked before doing it like [Music] that I just want to stop him from taking a dump in the bed that's it really other than that you know he can he can just you can walk in it I suppose if he has to you know can you see that cloud over there I haven't got an umbrella I'm freaking out a little bit now [Music] God to be honest old foxy would probably just move that out the way and say oh thank you for warming up my toilet you you're welcome foxy he can just have a warm bum while he's doing his business um anyway like I said that raincloud is really coming over now and they said it wasn't going to rain and they lied they lied and um I don't have an umbrella so I think I'm going to call it a day there I think I'm I'm going to I think I'm going to run home oh look at that look at that rain cloud why why didn't they tell me it would rain I'd have brought an umbrella yes I'm going to complain complain about the weather all I want cuz I'm British and it's my it's my right as a Brit to complain about the weather especially as I'm a gardener as well so anyway I'm going to leave it there today um at least the gladioli are get a much better water than what my watering can did um so we got the flowers in we've got Brad beans onions strawberries lots of other things oh this this exciting we got so much going in I think next week I'm going to get out my early potatoes and stick those in the ground probably not my new bed probably one of these down here put my new potatoes in um and the week after that so sort of the week before the end of March I'm going to put out my brassers into that one there yes it's too early do I care no I don't care I'm just going to whack them out and cover them up and see what happens and I will let you know the results worst thing that can happen is that they just die and I just have to sew more always worth a try I reckon um right I'm going to go now cuz it's getting really dark I will see you again on Wednesday have a lovely gardening week bye