HEATWAVE IN APRIL! / ALLOTMENT GARDENING UK

a [Music] good morning guys welcome back to my allotment Diaries my name is Emma these are the allotment Diaries um if you are new to my channel I would love has he just gone in my pond no he hasn't surely he hasn't he has he has he did he did he did sorry totally distracted then cuz Einstein literally just went into my pond and had a little bird bath and I completely missed it on camera that's annoying couldn't you wait for me to get my camera ready before you took a bath words I never thought I'd be saying on camera anyway he's not happy with me now he's twer he's twerking he's definitely not twerking are you twerking he's tweeting away he's getting all his mates together they want their grub um so I'll feed him first but come down today to do one main major job um which is to plant out some more second early potatoes into my new raised bed I cannot for the life of me decide what to put into that bed it was an extra bed this year so it was completely unplanned and um I just didn't know what to put into it I think I'm just going to go with potatoes I think when in doubt plant potatoes there's another saying from me when in Out plant potatoes or could I put the potatoes there actually maybe the maybe the potatoes should go there and then over there I should put something else in oh God me instantly changed my mind when I've got down here I am a nightmare honestly um that bed was supposed to have potatoes that was supposed to have main crop though but maybe I could put second earlier in there yeah okay let's do that instead okay sorry I am a little bit tired today but the weather is so beautiful we're having a mini Heat Wave here in the UK I'm sure I've said that a few times and I'm so sorry if you're not having the mini Heat Wave um it is glorious and amazing and I'm just taking advantage of it as much as I can right okay the birds really want feeding so we're going to start with that and then I'm going to tell you a little bit about what's been happening to my allotment plot because I'm looking around right now and A lot's been happening to it so we will discuss that oh no he's off right okay all right Einstein okay okay [Music] okay don't land on my camera when I come around here ready no just said don't land on the camera do not knock that off a go he's sitting on top of the sitting oh know you do that you little rful I say Einstein I said do not land on my camera [Music] you mad at me are you mad at me I only said don't knock my camera off that's all I [Music] said right so like I said there are several things that have happened around the plot that have made me think an animal has been here basically I think it's a fox and crows I think the fox and crows got together last night and had a bit of a party um oh my fence has fallen down as well so we got to fix that but in here so I took the fleece off cuz it was very windy yesterday also the wind might damaged a few things as well I'm try I'm blaming all the animals but actually could be the wind as you can see something's been digging in here and digging in here luckily he's not managed to touch is that no it's not poo oh my gosh why was I touching that with my hand I thought it was poo luckily he's not managed to get any of the brassus but he has been digging slightly inconvenient really I don't know what he was digging for cuz he's not pooed or anything and also he's damaged the shells the shells are like buried now so now I've got to sort of scatter the shells a bit more it's quite frustrating what you even digging for he didn't done a pool or anything it's just digging digging for the sake of digging I mean I'm all for hobbies to be fair if that's his hobby I mean well what's happened to you why are you falling over I'm all for hobbies if that's his hobby that's his hobby you know right that is I feel like that might have been a fox not the wind I tell you why I think that might have been a fox that attacked that this that's very suspicious that's been bitten and open that's a fox a fox has come along and try to attack my barrier he's attacked it and he's got in and then as a reward for getting in he's done some digging right as we venture down the plot a bit I have noticed that this structure is not looking very structurally sound we've also got a little hole in there something else has been digging or the same Fox probably the same Fox that's be honest we're getting to the point of the Vlogs where I'm just coming here fixing everything that other animals have just destroyed that's where we are right now in a lot gardening we're just fixing everything that we've already done brilliant not my favorite my favorite part of lotman gardening but there we go right I think I'm going to use netting I don't really like netting if you follow this channel for a while you know I find it very fiddly and annoying but I do think it works better and it's easier so much easier to keep tight crops seem to really like growing over it it's not actually what it's for I don't think this is netting or it might have been designed for growing actually but I think it's more designed for protection but I always use it for growing stuff up it's just a lot easier than using twine so and once you get it all it is [Music] am I going to get the twine to there without stepping in the bed Chuck it across I always Chuck it oh No Just Chuck it no right guys come on you're going the wrong way come on pretty obvious where you're supposed to go that way surely provided you with a lovely structure are you using it no right that's bit better right that is looking a bit better from the peas they look like a little row row of soldiers now excellent I think some of them some of the new ones have started to germinate a little bit out position but you know what you're doing great mate keep going then we got all the spinach here which is all coming up and then behind that is the beetroot where something has dug it's a little bit annoying cuz all the beetroot is coming up we do have some beetroot germination here which is excellent [Music] h [Music] m [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] you see Einstein just hopping around near me in all those shots sometimes with a robin I know what he's after he's after the worms so when I'm gardening I think oh it's so lovely to have a little Robin hopping around me but then another side of me is thinking am I like an accomplice to a serial killer here like am I just helping him kill all the worms cuz I think I am right this is my other Arch Ray on my allotment plot these are two arches that I brought from wios years ago and then I sort covered it with Garden mesh and supported it with more canes it's held up pretty well it's a bit rusted but I've had to like replace poles and stuff but anyway it's still going strong last year I had beans growing up here French beans runner beans I know all kinds of different beans whatever beans there were I think and I could be wrong cuz I am wrong a lot of the time but I do think this is right I think beans and peas add nitrogen to the soil um they put nitrogen in the soil and what I actually did last year is I left them I've just pulled a load of beans out of the ground they're completely dead they're like totally dead they're like dead dead as a Dodo basically this could not be more dead um this is dead as a Dodo but they were still in the ground so I've left them to sort of die back in the ground and I think this bed will now be super rich in nitrogen making it perfect for pumpkins I think I'm going to grow my mini pumpkins over this Archway pumpkins are really hungry plants and they love a lot of goodness and nutrien and nitrogen and all that malake that' be perfect for them [Music] [Music] [Music] right so I got my second earli going up in this bed here last year I put potatoes in here in October as a bit of an experiment to see if they' work and obviously it was too late in the year they did die but they actually did grow so I do know that potatoes can grow here successfully I mean if they can grow out season in October they can probably grow in April so we're putting in our second earlies and I've got Maris Pier it might have grown little chips in the bag sometimes they do just sort grow in the bag don't they you don't actually have to physically them um yeah we got a few little chits on them um it just helps me to know the way up so like that one there I'll just pull that one off and we'll just have our main chit um and that's just the way it goes up that's the foliage that goes up and then that goes down I guess or out whatever it does um so yeah we're whacking how many rows do you reckon we can fit in here all right let's see if we can do one 2 3 let's see if we can get four in the thing is about Maris Pier is they're not very big potatoes so I reckon we can stick four rows in and maybe three plants a row so that's 3 6 9 12 12 lovely bit a quick mass for you there on a Monday [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] and that's it four rows of second ear's in the ground Maris Pier oh it's made a little bit of a puddle that's not a good sign actually if you soil puddles like this when you water that's not a good sign that means that the water is not draining very well so potatoes might be a good shout for here because and some people will disagree with this actually there's always something that someone will disagree with and say it's not true but from what I've heard potatoes can help to break up the soil and improve soil structure so if your soil is not very great and you've been trying very hard to improve it and diing manure and all the rest food doing all the other stuff try whacking in some potatoes because it does break up the soil and help to improve the structure that's what I've heard like I said there's always someone who will say that's not true I'm going to do some watering now because it's going to get very warm later so I'm going to water everything now [Music] [Laughter] [Music] is [Music] right I need to get like a smaller watering can for these sorts of plants because I sort of keep smothering them I don't mean to I'm really sorry guys it's currently saying 32° in here and 36% humidity I really don't know what the humidity means um but 32° is very very warm yeah I mean everything's loving in here everything is so happy it thinks it's summer everyone thinks it's summer I mean these sunflowers is they're the happiest little guys they're the happiest little chappies to ever exist they think it's summer Summer's come early but I do think I do need more growing space so I am going to um put a new bed along the back at some point before everything gets big and established in here I'll be working on that um and that's just a job over the next week I think um also I need to I need to figure out what I'm going to put in my new bed at the back here there's a reason why I didn't put potatoes in it in the end let me show you so this is the new I'm debating what to put in look there's me hello um this is the new bed now the reason I didn't put potatoes in is because of this if you dig down a little bit in here you get to the sticks I put in like a bunch of sticks in here and you don't have to dig very far to get to them so really it's it's a bit of a shallower growing area which I think would be better shallower rooted crops would be better in here maybe like salads um so like lettuces radishes uh what else maybe like some coal Rie or something as well but basically shallower rooted crops I think would work better in here it'd be nice to have a salad bed right next to my greenhouse and also I was thinking I've got an overspill of tomatoes at home now so I was thinking maybe I could put some tomatoes in here too make it a proper little salad bed that's it I've decided in this very second I've decided that's what it's going to be it's going to be a salad bed I think that will work brilliantly right that's what's going in there then everything else doing great [Music] [Laughter] [Music] right that's all my main jobs done today then so I've got out the second early potatoes we've watered everything for the heat wave that's coming we sorted out the archway on that plot and yeah we're just ready to start planting other things out I think next time I come I'll plant up the salad bed as much as I can and also saw a couple of things I could Harvest and then I want to check on things like the sweet peas there's a few little bits and Bobs to do um around the plot over the next couple of weeks also need to sort out the greenhouse as well okay right so I've got a little list of jobs to do great I like having a little list of like miscellaneous jobs to do around the plot that I can kind of pick and choose what I do um just makes me really happy hope you've enjoyed my little Vlog today um I can't give you an update on the shell situation so a lot of you are asking do the crushed shells work against slugs and snails I can't give you a good answer yet because we haven't had a lot of slugs and snails out because it's been such nice weather they will arrive with the rain I think we're getting some rain next week and also it's going to be a bit more overcast and that is Slug and snow weather so a soon as the slug and snails come out I will be able to give you a proper update on how well the shells work against them anyway um thanks to the nice weather everything is doing fantastically and growing really well and I hope that your allotments are too so thank you so much for watching and I will see you on Wednesday have a lovely gardening weekend see you Wednesday bye