PROTECTING THE ALLOTMENT FROM FROST / ALLOTMENT GARDENING UK

[Music] cool it's a little bit cold today guys good morning welcome back to my allotment Diaries my name is Emma these are the allotment Diaries welcome to Welcome to the end of November um it's absolutely blooming freezing temperatur just plummeted last night and we've got our first really hard Frost here in South London so this is a big deal this means lots of things it means anything that was hanging on that cannot tolerate Frost is a goner now there's no way there's just no way it can exist if it does not like frost at all things that can kind of tolerate a little bit of a frost we now need to check on and make sure that they're big enough strong enough to survive it because the frost just means the end of the season it's like literally brown bread however if you have not yet planted out your chip bulbs now is the perfect time to do that so Chip bulbs can go in the ground now they actually do you mind they actually prefer to go in the ground after the first Frost um because they really need that cold temperature to to get going um so if you haven't planted your tulips do that now you're not too late we need to check on a few things um firstly the broad beans a little bit concerned about these when I walked in let's go have a look just look a little bit sad and floppy which is what I would expect after a frost to be fair with any plant um I can see the middle is still quite up and you know it's coming back to life they can withstand temperatures of minus 10 however these are very very small cuz I planted them in quite recently so they may perhaps need a little bit of fleecing see the reason why I planted them directly in the Autumn is because I know that they can survive quite low temperatures you know they they are quite good survivors in the frost but because they're so little I just feel like I don't want to be the one to sort of lead them to their early death you know it's not what I'm here to do uh I just feel like maybe I should give them a little bit of a head start and just maybe fleece them over a little bit and just I don't know though should I maybe make them a little fleece house so not fleece them directly because obviously they're getting bigger sort of build it up a little bit let's see what we can uh come up with I think but I do think they need something sticks yeah that's good size these are all good sizes excellent there's always a use for every size stick never throw a stick away for every stick that you may find there is a use that you can find and if you cannot find the use keep it in a little flu when the time comes for you to use the stick you will find it in your flu better be quick right there we go these are the perfect size you see what I mean about not throwing away sticks sticks are so important sticks I've mentioned it a few times sticks right little sticky friend right stick there and we'll stick you in there sticky okay cool you are you up golf ball what's all this doing here there we go sort of like a little bit of a fleece house just so it has room to kind of grow taller um like I said before that might have survived it might not have needed that but the point is sometimes when you sort start covering stuff up until you get frosted you don't know what the plant's going to do and it just fruited me out a bit that they were witing so you know what sometimes it's better to cover it than to not cover it you can always uncover it but you can't cover it if you haven't covered it at the beginning and it dies that's a mouthful everything in gardening is such a mouthful I wish I could condense these things but you can't that's just how you have to say it so anyway there's my little fleece house F Navi house it doesn't mean fleece does it no it means [Music] Mary yeah [Music] a [Music] a [Music] right this is Nerium these are my nostrums there's no way that they will survive any more Frost um they will just die in the frost someone's going to comment and say they can survive a little bit of frost but please don't tell me that cuz I don't want them to survive I actually want to get rid of them now and mulch the area and I'm just looking for a good excuse I think they're dead I I don't think they're going to survive any longer so I'm taking them all out the big question that I have with nerian is do I put them in my compost heap are you on the blooming hot air balloon are you kidding me I missed him I missed him I missed him he was just sitting on the hot air balloon oh my goodness sorry guys I've never seen the robin sit on my hot air balloon before that was quite amazing sorry I didn't get it on camera he just flew off I think he knew I was excited anyway the question is do I compost the asium because I'm worried that they're just going to grow they grow like no tomorrow don't they what do we think guys should I should I compost them should I just go for it and cover them really well I don't know where else to put him so I think I'm just going to have to whack them in all right sheet of ice Co oh that is really satisfying oh you could kill someone with that that's like glass that would be a good weapon wouldn't it cuz it' melt they' never find that oh yes wait is it actually ice or is it glass oh no it's ice it is ice right oh my God it better be ice it better be ice right stop playing with you eyes [Music] if I chop it really well W go [Music] back I can't reach I'm falling in It Go come back come over here that's it you oh [Music] [Music] God compost heat is going really good at the moment um but I do have a really stupid question and I cannot find the answer anywhere and somehow somehow I don't think Monty Dawn and Charles Dowding is quite covered this one um and it's really stupid but if you can answer it I'd be really appreciative appreciative appreciative so you know how in a compost tape you need like brown stuff which is like dead stuff and cardboard and paper and you need green stuff which is basically green stuff right stuff you've just pulled out the ground and put in my question is wouldn't the green stuff eventually just become brown stuff right cuz green stuff can't stay green stuff once you picked it so wouldn't green stuff become brown stuff and if that is the case why don't we just put green stuff in it and eventually half the green stuff will turn to brown stuff keep putting green stuff on it would that not give us a mix of green and brown why do I have to put purposely put brown stuff in it that's my sort of question really cuz I have noticed it's getting Browner and Browner and I just thought well there's a lot Brown in it now I was before there was a lot of green in it if you can answer that question do let me know wouldn't green stuff just become brown stuff so why do we bother let me know answers on the postcard [Music] I cannot believe that would you believe that my sweet peas is still alive would you flipping believe that I don't believe it I'm looking at them alive and I still don't believe that they're alive not only are they alive but they are still flowering this flower is just this flowers just died quite recently but they were still flowering up until a few days ago they've got new growth guys they've got new growth there's no stopping these this is absolutely incredible I said to you we would still have sweet peas in November it's the end of November there's no sign of them stopping [Music] just where he was needed claiming black as nighted Injustice in [Music] the nobody is losing faces Merchant change but your face remain the same SPS will be here [Music] by when we're finally sober they'll be [Music] gone the trees will blo the nights will melt [Music] we'll always remember [Music] [Music] how I've had a few questions from people is that straight sorry if my camera works or wonky I'm so cold had a few questions in people asking why I'm bothering to make make proper leaf mold this year um and that's what I'm doing with this by the way I'm collecting them up putting them into these containers and I'm going to lead them to rot down make proper leaf mold lots of people asking why I'm just not putting the leaves straight into my compost he now I've got a new compost heap and I am I mean a lot of leaves have gone into that compost um and I'm sort of mixing it up a little bit but the truth is it's just because I've never made leaf mold before like properly and I say I'm going to do it every year and I end up using the leaves straight away just putting them into the raised beds which does work because it just it rots down within the bed but I really just want to make proper leaf mold no matter how long it takes I just want to do it I've got like an advantage that I've got like one two three four trees no five trees that sort of Overlook my plot and I get all the leaves you're just seen how many leaves there are why not actually try and make leaf mold and see what it's actually like so I just thought this year i' collect them all up yeah and leave them but I'm not I'm not taking all the leaves um I'll show you where I'm leaving them so you can see that I've got a lot of leaves at this lopment plot but where I'm leaving it is all around here all around the tree I'm leaving big piles of it you see where it's all sort of piled up here I'm leaving all of this as well and that's just for the insects and like Wildlife to be able to hide under you know I am sort of thinking of the wildlife as well and how much they need to use the leaves but I do have a lot of leaves um and a lot of them are falling onto the beds to answer another one your questions and they are just mulching the beds sort of naturally and I'm letting that happen as well so that's why I'm trying to make leaf mold and I will give you an update on how it does and um we can all discover leaf mold together right I've got one more job before I go I'm absolutely freezing I'm freezing my nickers off being out here today but at least the sun's out a little bit last the last job of the day is to sort out this water thing because over the winter it's a great time to collect as much rain water as you can to use in the spring mine's covered I don't remember why I covered it but I've covered it so I'm going to uncover [Music] it don't really remember why I did this it's do slugs it's not to do slugs f all right there we go we've cleaned out the guttering it's a good idea to do that now um oh is it snowing oh god oh it's sort of half snowing and half raining what is this is this snow or is it rain oh do you look at that it started snowing it's snowing this is snow this is definitely snow look at that weird Bird come look at this weird bird oh Magpie it's not that weird it's a magpie it's coming to see the snow wow right anyway sorry got totally distracted by snow and birds all kinds of birds today I think it's going to snow more cool it's a good idea at this time of year to clean out your gutters around your sheds and stuff and make sure that um the water can get through and then fill up a great big water thing like that now this is just an old bin it's not a water butt so I need to cover it in the springtime when it gets warmer to stop it from evaporating but also I need to put a little bit of netting or something over it to stop animals from drowning in there so what I actually might do yeah is use netting let's get some netting right I've got a little bit of uh Garden mesh here but netting would work as well I'm just going to try and get it over here good thing about Garden mesh is that you can kind of mold it to what ever you're putting it on and Nets I just hate Nets I just find them very very complicated Creations I don't know whoever discovered the net but I want to I want to meet with them have a serious conversation about why they've done it and what they were hoping to achieve cuz all it does for me is just makes me feel very incapable I don't know how to get that to stay oh a brick balancing bricks on it to keep it down where is another brick I got another brick don't one seen another brick around here let way it down stop any animals from falling in there it's not going to work is it why is it not working how annoying that that wouldn't work come on just work there yes there we go right there we go we've got the chicken wire the garden mesh over it it's all working good all right there were a few more things that I wanted to do today but I am so cold I can't feel anything and I think the snow has just validated just how cold it is today so I'm going to call it there and we're going to go home I'm going to come back tomorrow and finish the last few things that I really wanted to do um which is mainly dealing with the brassas um the cauliflowers the Perpetual spinach the what else am I supposed to be doing I can't even remember yeah there's just a few more jobs that I want to get done so I will see you again on Wednesday thank you so much for watching today and um do try and get outside for a bit you don't have to do all the things that I did today but just get out have a little walk in the snow you know it might just perk you up a little bit and then you can always go home and have a really hot cup of tea and it'll be the best cup of tea ever I look forward to that cup of tea all year you know when it's really cold you come home you have steaming hot cup oh it's just the best so I'll see you again on Wednesday thank you so much for watching guys bye