LOOK WHAT I BUILT! / ALLOTMENT GARDENING UK

[Music] [Music] a signant just where he was needed claiming back as night Injustice in the good morning everybody welcome back to my lotman Diaries my name is Emma these are my lotman Diaries I'd love you to subscribe to my YouTube channel if you're new to it and you want to follow the day day ins and day outs of allotment life here in South London UK um it's still January guys January is still here it's going to be going on for quite a long time I've heard so going to sort get used to January I have a few like um I have a few jobs to do my biggest biggest job is still to clear the area ready for the greenhouse when the greenhouse goes in is still undecided because we are due some wind I think another Storm is Coming potentially some snow so I don't want to get it in at the wrong time at the same time I want to get it in with plenty of time for spring so I can please don't hit my camera talking to the door I'm talking to the door please door please I want to get it in with plenty of time for spring and to make sure that I sort of really embed it down in the ground CU I'm really scared of it blowing away and I think the earlier you get it sort of dug in and stuff the more time it's got to settle and really like sink into the ground and make sure it doesn't blow away that's my main priority so that's the main job on the allotment plot but I had an idea for a couple of little Wildlife areas that I want to make that I thought would be really fun I saw them on instag and um I've seen a couple of Tik toks on it and I thought oh that sounds great I don't have anything like that on my lopment so I thought we'd start by making a little Wildlife thing and I'll show you how to do it so if you don't have any Wildlife friendly areas on your allotment plot this might be a nice little idea for you I don't know you might not like it but um it might not work let's not get ahead of ourselves but let's give that a go first I think and then we'll get on with the job of clearing for the greenhouse hope you're all doing well by the way and enjoying uh enjoying the colder weather I don't know if you can enjoy the Colder Weather but if you're still getting out you might be there's a lot of signs of spring about the moment which is quite nice to see quite it gets you excited enough chitter chatter let's do some gardening I haven't seen Einstein by the way I think he's a little bit mad at me if you ever you're away from your Robbin friend for a little while they kind of become a bit wary of you again you have to build their trust but if I see them around we'll feed him what you're going to need for this little Wildlife thing we're making is three sticks to make a tripod if you can get like natural looking sticks I think it'll look better than like bamboo if you can only get bamboo canes then that's fine as well I think I don't think there's any rules in fact it's my if there are no rules I'm taking the rules away right okay start by making a TP this is quite easy just making a t [Music] that's it gloves done [Music] gloves don't know why this is proving so hard right we've made our little basic teepee shape I don't know why that was so hard I make tepps all the time um okay oh my gosh look who's turned up Einstein right okay hello Einstein do you have a nice Christmas do you have a nice Christmas Einstein you ready for some food Einstein nice to see you again didn't eat last time I was here I didn't want to eat did you no I know you're very suspicious of [Music] me heyya I've seen you for ages yes you have a nice Christmas yeah it's your busiest time isn't it all those photos the Christmas cards yeah you must have been exhausted yeah right so now that it looks like that we've got to fill it um fill it up with stuff which is supposed to be the easy bit I mean that was supposed to be the easy bit as well uh it wasn't that easy so we got to find sticks we got to find fallen leaves we got to find bits and Bobs to put in it that's natural that we can just fill up the entire tee with and I'll just show you let's just do it [Music] [Music] right so now we've gathered all this stuff up now we gathered all the stuff up we're going to layer it into our T not quite sure how if I'm honest so we're just going to sort of try and do it if you ever don't know how to do something it's always best just to get stuck in and sort of do it you know it's the best thing to do is just do it but all sticks at the bottom like this crops that I've pulled up and stuff anything that's sort of brown and rotting that can all go in leaves that can go in as well you know what what might be a good idea to wrap a little bit of um twine or wire around it and keep it all in place I think I might use twine let's get it all in first there you are can you sort of see what I'm aiming for here so it's like a little tee and it's just full of all this natural material so little insects and little mammals and stuff can get in there I'm not sure if I need something round it though sure if it needs some netting around it or something I sort of feel like when it's more compacted and that's the idea of it is that it will become come quite compacted yeah there issues in a bit bit more stable stable now actually I don't really want to put anything around it cuz I think it will take away from what it looks like it is quite a neat way of like having a little Wildlife Area without leaving your garden too messy you know I like it [Music] [Music] I've got all my tulips coming up in this little bed here but I was sure I pulled them up last year um a lot of my tulips on the allotment got something called tulip fire which is like um a fungal I think it's a bacterial or fungal infection that affects tulip bulbs and basically what it does it the reason you see it is because it changes the color of the Tulips and it makes them look like they're on fire so it looks like they're burnt and all the colors get distorted and everything and I looked it up and it's tulip fire it happens usually when you plant your tulips in too early in the year and it's like too too warm for them and they don't have that cold period and then they they kind of tend to get it um but mine mine didn't get it the first couple of years but I left them in the ground and it's just one of those things if you leave the tulate bulbs in or anything in the ground it's more likely to get infections and funguses and diseases and stuff um it's much better to pull them up and protect them but I never do that I mean I've got like a thousand cheate bulbs in this plot I can't pull them all up every year so I think I pulled those ones up obviously not these this whole bed look all cheer coming up in this whole bed and the thing is I'm pretty sure they've got tulip fire there's like they're multiplied there's millions of them now there Absolut Millions which is great love tulips but if they' got tulip fire they're all going to have to come up I don't know if I would know if I had it by looking at the bulb that's a good question actually that's an excellent question Emma let's Google that one of my New Year's resolutions is to Google more of these questions that I just put out to the universe I just say these things the thing is is I love your your advice and comments but I get so many opposing ones so someone will always say one thing and someone will say another and I don't know what the blooming right answer is so Google Google's your friend it does say bulbs may show signs of rot or have small black seed like structures called scleria scleria scleria on the dead tissue scler roia I think it's called that right so perhaps if you get tulip fire you have to remove and destroy all infected bulbs as soon as you see symptoms and you can't grow tulips in the same soil for at least 3 years this it's quite devastating let's dig one up I think potentially it's better to be safe and sorry the only way to tell is to dig him up have a look if he's got any signs of trouble I can always replant it if I don't kill it I think it's better with tulip fire cuz it's such a devastating disease and it can spread all around your allotment it's Better to Know Than not know I don't know if I'd know with that though no that looks absolutely perfectly fine I mean it's very small it's a little Offspring he looks absolutely fine so hang on a second maybe we should dig up a big one where's the big one why don't I ever know what anything is that's my question why don't I ever know maybe I take up a bigger one have any of you got tulip fire I'm just checking just checking please don't hate me they're very small for tulip bulbs I think these might be the little offsprings maybe I did dig them up and these are just the ones that survived they look fine they don't look like they're rotting or anything they got black spots on them I think they're fine back nothing happened nothing happened sh yeah you know what I think we're just going to have to wait and see when they come up this one here has been dug up by a squirrel and eaten still growing though look at him look at him trying they're really triers aren't they plants they really do just not stop trying to live they're amazing there's no sign of black spots or anything that it said I really just think I'm going to have to wait for him to grow and just see but like I said tulip fire it's such a devastating disease yeah we'll have to wait and see but if they have got it they're all coming up straight away cuz I've just planted like a thousand bulbs on my new plot and I love tulips [Music] so we get to the main job of the day which is still clear in this area ready for the greenhouse so what I'm going to do is set a timer for about an hour and just work on it just not stop for 1 hour and then stop and that's just the best way I can say to stay motivated if you got a new allotment plot set timers and just say right I'm going to do half an hour on that section and then that's it and then stop and make sure you do stop before you get burnt out that's what I'm going to do now we're just going to clear as much as we can try and level it see what we can do right one hour one hour on the clock right let's go [Music] take [Music] he [Music] I'm not sure whether to bother clearing all this back area here because the thing is with it I'd have to properly dig it out and lay something underneath it to make sure it doesn't grow back again also I think it's quite good for wildlife do that me just being lazy but underneath here there are lots and lots of logs that i' have to also kind of get rid of it sort of all grows up here like a sort of wildlife fence really I don't know if I'm being lazy by not getting it all up but last year I pulled it all up and it all grew back again so obviously need something more substantial underneath it like a ground sheet or something but I don't know if I'm just being lazy not pulling it up or not I also quite like the boundary like the barrier between me and my neighbor there um just gives me a bit more privacy and just allows me to do this filming and sort of run around and do cartwheels and stuff no one sort of can see me um was a consideration can I do a cartwheel so I'm always thinking with my l plot is can I do a cartwheel here will anyone see me do a cartwheel if he answer is yes then I'm on the right tracks you know this is still how it's looking guys you might think gosh she's going so slow with that but I tell you what under this is so dense like the soil you can't even get through a little bit without hitting weeds let me show you let me show you what I'm working with cuz I appreciate I've been working on this area for ages and you're like gosh it's just not looking any better but if I sort of you know try and dig I can get to there if I dig it out like that look it's just actually full weeds this bind weed as well it's awful that there's another another big weed oh my god what have I just uncovered oh I'm unprepared for this kind of Labor right see what I mean look it's another Blackberry cane there just stuck in the ground I can't sort of get through the ground it's another bat bar cane yeah it's just DSE with weeds everywhere so slow and steady wins the race fast and quick doesn't it doesn't not [Music] good oh look guys the sun has come out this is the first time and I don't know how long I've actually seen the sun it exists it's still here I can't believe the sun actually still exists guys I thought it was a figment of my imagination for a second genuinely forgot the sun existed for a minute there um wow gosh it really changes everything everything looks so like uplifted and happy when the sun comes out right so that's me for the allotment today it's just a short little hour and a half I was here for I think I just been clearing that area it's my main job like I said these Vlogs will get a lot more exciting and interesting when that Greenhouse goes up pending pending I don't know yet because we are due like I said storm snow who knows what else so I need to really think carefully about when I put it up but sooner rather than later I think is the answer that I want to hear anyway I hope you enjoyed my little uh visit to the allotment today I'm going to be coming here a lot I like getting outside I like getting out in the allotment plot so I will be filming lots of videos and lots of content thinking of ideas tidying things up getting things ready for the spring if that sounds like something you're interested in do follow along I will see you again in my next video guys have a Lov rest of your gardening week see you next time thanks for watching bye