SHOULD I COVER MY GROWING BEDS FOR WINTER?? / ALLOTMENT GARDENING UK

[Music] [Music] good morning everyone welcome back to my lot MC Diaries if you are new here why the seagulls someone please explain to me why there's seag girls here we are nowhere near the sea I'm in South London there's like more of them than ever before I've never heard so many seag girls at this time of year sometimes I do like very occasionally but there's just loads of them it's like a flock of them where are you going they wouldn't tell me even if they knew I don't think they do know where they are but they wouldn't tell me anyway um welcome back to my lot daries my name's Emma these are the allotment Diaries if you are not yet subscribed to my YouTube channel now might be a good time to hit the Subscribe button um so you don't miss out on all the shenanigans of next year's growing season which I will be documenting in great detail um because that's just what I do today is not a very happy day at the allotment it is gray it is cold it is miserable it is Muddy let's go home let's all just go home and have a cup of tea no we are here because we have work to do um also things to check on also things to chat about and um me basically just to be confused about why you just sigh and roll your eyes and laugh at me from behind the screen but um it's all good and that's what I'm here for I guess it's looking very dank today actually very gray dank is dank a word I think is um yeah just looking very gray um the greenhouse arrived the greenhouse arrived probably the most exciting delivery I've ever had and I was absolutely thrilled to find because it's a polycarbonate one it's come in like two long boxes so I can actually get it to the allotment cuz that was my biggest fear that it wouldn't fit in the car and I wouldn't be able to get it here when we got the shed this shed here when we got this shed delivered it obviously came with like the panels so the front is a whole panel the back is a whole panel we hired a little um van that you can hire I can't remember what it's called but the like mini vans it's not a huge van it's quite mini and I thought we'll put the shed in there drive it down to the allotment set like get the van back um the front panel of the shed did not fit in the bleeding van did it and like we had no way of getting it here and it's a 25-minute walk so what did we do we walked the front panel of the shed all the way to the allotment plot I kid you not we looked like lunatics um me and my husband my husband was at the front I took the back because it's a little bit easier and lighter but my God it my arm was hurting so much the next day and it was just like the most insane thing I've ever done really we just didn't know how else to get it here thankfully the greenhouse comes in boxes so we will be able to get it here oh and I can use the boxes as well that's quite exciting anyway let me just show you around a little bit and show you the state of today because it is absolutely disgusting today it's just gray miserable cold I've already said that let's just have a look around let's try and keep things up beat and cheery it's Christmas door broken I don't know why that's happened that's a bit annoying I have to fix that some point the tree above it has not Fallen yet it's really been like knocked about in the storm and I I'm concerned it's going to fall soon but it's not Fallen yet and if it falls it's going to fall straight on my compost tap but hey ho we'll wait and see what happens with that this Brassica bed here this Brassica bed here is looking very sad it didn't work this year and it's really stressing me out because this bed here is quite in the shade and I thought oh great that's great for brassas brassers love the shade it just didn't work like for whatever reason they didn't like it in here and I've really struggled just struggled to grow anything in here at all so I'm a little bit worried a little bit worried about um what to put in here next year so this bed is a bit of a mystery to be honest I'm just sort of leaving the sprouts for the Wildlife to come and nibble on you're welcome wild life you're welcome I still got these leaks growing I thinned them out a little bit they sort of some of them are fallen over which is convenient you know like surely they'd know how to grow upright but um you'd be surprised the amount of plants that just need help they just don't know what they're doing anymore they've lost the plot um but these are still growing these have been growing since the summer so I think I'll just leave these over winter to do their thing I I'm hoping they'll just get bigger please get bigger just get bigger come on guys this here this is my Perpetual spinach which I sewed from seed um over the summertime ages ago it's still going strong it's still getting new leaves it's very Frost tolerant it's really good in cold weather so it's a great crop to grow in the summer and then kind of leave all throughout the winter so but it's got lots of new growth on here lots of new leaves the little leaves the smaller leaves like that you can kind of just eat in a salad the bigger leaves are better to slice up and then sort of put in a stir fry or something and they taste they're quite spicy they're a little bit bitter um they're more bitter than anything else don't think it's actual spinach I think it's from the chard family I could be wrong on that and but chard has also got quite a bitter taste it's like a little bit of an odd taste um it's not my favorite but if you just whack it into a stir fry with other stuff you know it does taste all right and but like I said I've just not been uh harvesting it I'm just happy for it to be growing to be honest so it's just nice to have some green raw beans I sewed um late no that's a lie Early Autumn Early Autumn I sewed these directly into the ground so I literally put the bean the bean seed whatever it's called into the ground these are germinated these will do fine over the uh the winter time hopefully it'll give me a bit of an earlier Harvest of them because the earlier you put them in the earlier they're going to be able to be harvested in the in the springtime so they're doing pretty well except this one there's always one that has to let the side down there's always one but this guy here right he's decided I'm going to be the best I'm going to be the biggest he shot up at lightning speed look at that stem shot up as high as he could obviously he's put all his leaves on the top and he's just flopped straight over I don't know what his plan was whatever the plan was mate it's not worked has it so what we're going to have to do with you mate is support you now I know you're going to be the tallest but I don't want you thinking that you know that was a good idea very poor decision from this uh this guy I don't know what his plan was yeah you'll always find there's one plant there's always one that just has to be a bit different a bit special do things his own way not follow the crowd and this is what happens mate when that happens you know there you are you're tied in now so now please find the light he will unbend himself before the spring I don't know how long it will take you sort of stand them up and eventually they sort of untangle for themselves like that anyway they're all doing good but now today when I came in I showed you loads of images of other people's allotment plots and something that's really stood out to me recently is the fact that a lot of plot holders around here cover over their raised beds um all the growing beds doesn't have to be a raised bed I always say raised beds just a growing bed they cover over their growing beds with something like a sheet of plastic covering or like a ground sheet and I did a lot of research on this the other day because I have never done that one of my beds is covered right now I usually put cardboard down I mulch my beds quite heavily in the Autumn time and the springtime again um but I don't cover them with any kind of plastic covering and I thought why don't I do that it's been 5 years why don't I cover them so I looked up some of the benefits of covering over your beds of ground sheet and the biggest benefit is that it holds in nutrients over the Autumn winter time nutrients can be lost in particular nitrogen so your beds can lose a lot of nitrogen and cover in it over with a plastic ground sheet apparently keeps all of those nutrients in it's something I've never explored before it's something I've never really done now I do have a couple of rose beds here that are sort of finished so I thought I'd cover them over um and just see what the difference is going to be next year first Einstein has showed up and we must feed the robin we must feed the robin there he is there he is I have been crushing these for him guys a lot of you said to crush them so I really am crushing them now there we are you should be able to get them a bit better now [Music] Einstein land on the camera [Music] m [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] not very just m everywhere [Music] right so what I'm going to do is I'm going to go around and Peg all these down with some pegs I think that's the best way of keeping them on the ground so they won't fly away I think bricks and stuff just aren't very reliable so I'll Peg it all down some of the benefits of doing this I already mentioned it um but it's like um retention of all the nutrients in the soil so they don't sort disappear um for the springtime also it can warm your soil up earlier in the spring if you keep it covered though you could just cover it in the early spring um to do the same thing also it stops the soil erosion so sometimes your soil level can go down if if like soil frosts over and then unfreezes and then freezes unfreezes you can lose like the level of the soil so it keeps the level of the soil up but because I've mulched all these beds quite heavily with lots of goodness this year I don't want to lose that goodness so I'm going to I'm going to try it as an experiment and cover over the beds like I said first time I'm doing it so I have to let you know but um there's a lot of controversy about this there's lots of different opinions yeah I don't think the birds to be happy because they like to come down and Peck the worms and stuff but then I've got lots of beds that are uncovered as well so I've got a mix it's not like I've covered all of them um but yeah it's up to you it's up to you like many things in gardening it's up to you it's your decision so I'm going to go around and just oh my God what the hell's wrong with this Peg Peg is stupid thing I'm going to go around and Peg it all down now this Hat's too big for me Isn't it I know it's too big for me I just like the color [Music] right I've just come down here to have a look at my flower bed so this long bed here under the tree is going to be my flower bed like forever forever and ever amen um just because I think it's a nice place to have lots of flowers lots of big bushy flowers growing I planted in probably about 100 tulips in here and I can't see one tulip coming up which is a little bit strange cuz I did plant them in a little bit too early um I'm really worried the squirrel's got them I think he might have got the whole blooming lot so I'm trying to decide whether it's worth getting some more chulip bulbs and whacking them in I know what you thinking guys it's early for tulips to be coming up but the reason why I'm so concerned the squirrels got these is first firstly I didn't cover them quick enough and secondly the ones that I planted over here are coming up look at all these and these were planted at exactly the same time to about the same depth as those ones and these are already all coming up I mean literally hundreds of them which is making me so happy but also making me concerned that the others aren't I also need to move some of these perennials because they're in the way of each other so this this here this is a lavender and this is a Salvia like a hot pink Salvia and I put them too close together and I need to move them but I'm a little bit worried because I've got all my tulip bulbs in there now so I don't know where to move them to actually now the Tulips are coming up what am I saying I can see I can see I'm an idiot yeah I can see the bulbs coming up so I could just move this over a bit is there any bulbs coming up there no I'm going to move it to here I think is that just a stupid place to move it to should I just move it over a little bit yeah I am going to move it I'm going to move it now it's the best time of year to move them so I'm going to do [Music] it now what now what now what now what [Music] right you see what I mean I've just moved them apart a little bit I know it probably get bigger but he seems to be growing this way so I think he's growing away from the uh the lavender now which is doing really well though I don't want to move the lavender cuz he's just doing absolutely beautifully um they both are to be honest they obviously like each other it is a good time of year to move any perennials that you've got or fruit bushes because they're not in active growth um my advice for if you're going to do this is don't overthink it don't overthink it dig around it dig a big hole Try Not To Break The Roots as you pull it up or break as little Roots as you can but just do it just whack it in because you know what it's got time to recover before Springs do it now don't overthink it just pull it up and whack it in a new spot do you know what I mean the plant will just have to cope won't you just have to get on with it toughen up toughen up you know it's got to make your plants a little bit tougher um and don't treat them like babies I like that I'm happy with that cool should I water it in I probably should if you move a plant you should water it in let's get the watering stuff [Music] [Applause] right well that's it for me here today I'm covered in mud it's cold it's starting to rain it's very miserable um but we did get some jobs done and uh the garden is looking quite good at the moment so I'm really happy with it um I'm off to wisley Gardens at the weekend on Saturday night to see their big glow event all their Christmas lights and stuff so that should be really fun um I will take you along with me and film what I can there to have a nice little christmy Vlog so if you can't get to rhs wisley or any of the Christmas or any of the Christmas events on at the rhs gardens I'll take you along with me so you can see one hope you enjoy that I will see you on Monday most likely so I'll see you again Monday have a lovely gardening weekend bye