Is This Cucumber Ready? | Allotment Gardening in the UK

Oh no, look at this. Something's been digging around my pumpkins. What could this be then? It's either a fox or a cat. It looks like fox business to me. That's a bit annoying. Pumpkins are still looking alive, but they are looking a little bit small and straggly. I was hoping that they'd be a bit bigger than this by now, but unfortunately they're sort of staying small. They also look like they're growing in the wrong bleeding direction. Why are they doing that then? I have planted them the right way. No, actually I think they will be okay. I think they will go the way I want. Yeah, just a little bit smaller than I want them to be. Wow, look at this. The snails have tried to get in. They've done their best. Wow, it is like stepping into a sauna. You guys are really gonna tell me off about this. I know I'm getting a lot of comments from people saying you need to put some kind of ventilation in because this, oh my gosh, is not good for the plants. I think I'm just so worried about it blowing away. I think people have really drummed it into me that these polycarbonate greenhouses can just fly away and take off, and I think I'm so worried about it that I'd rather shut all the windows and have it like a sauna than I would keep the windows open at night. I just get so panicky in case there's a freak gust of wind, but you know what? With this particular polycarbonate greenhouse, it does say on the website that it can cope with gusts of up to, what was it, 46 miles per hour, which is quite a significant gust, you know, so it can sort of cope with that, and as long as it's not like a hurricane, and I don't think we're gonna get a hurricane anytime soon, fingers and toes crossed, but as long as it's not like continuous four to six mile an hour wind, I think it will be able to sustain it. It says it can handle like a gust, and that's all we tend to get, you know, it's just like gusts of wind. I mean, everything seems to be thriving. I have never grown tomatoes this big before in my life. I've never seen a tomato plant this big, have you? These are absolutely monstrous, monstrous sized tomato plants. You know what? I don't want to chop them, I don't want to chop them down or chop them back, I just want them to be this big and bushy. They are fantastic, and I'm getting loads of flowers on them, absolutely tons of flowers, and I think that's enough tomatoes for me. Also, I've got three tomato plants growing in my home garden as well, so it's not like I'm lacking in tomatoes, and to be honest, it is just a joy to see plants growing so well, growing so big and tall. Maybe they'll never go red, the tomatoes on these, maybe they'll stay green forever, but just to see the plants like this is just lovely. I just don't want to chop them back, and I know you're all gonna say, yeah, you need to chop them back if you want tomatoes. Maybe I don't want tomatoes, guys. Maybe I'm just happy with just the green growth for once, for once in my allotment. I'm happy just to see plants that are green. Anyway, hi guys, how are you all doing? My name is Emma, these are the allotment diaries. Love for you to subscribe to the channel if you are new. I've just come down today, it's been half term, so I haven't managed to get down here a lot, but I've got down here whenever I can just to check on things, and I think the first thing I'm gonna do is feed a few plants that are not doing too well. Let me show you some of the plants that are not doing, not doing quite as well as these lovely tomatoes, let's just say. Right, so my plant feed of choice today is the seaweed one by Envy. Seaweed, liquid seaweed feed is what I used to use all the time on absolutely everything when I first got my allotment plot, and it just worked on everything. So if it ain't broken, don't fix it, do you know what I mean? It's also just, it smells good, smells like the sea, I mean it doesn't smell good, but it smells like the sea, which I quite enjoy, and it's quite a thick liquid, so it just makes me feel like it's doing stuff. Though there's obviously lots of other plant feeds that I'm trying out and I use all the time, but that's my choice today, and the crops that I am the most worried about are these courgettes. Why are they not doing very well? I don't know, they've got sun, they've got soil, they've been planted, they haven't been eaten by slugs. You tell me, I don't know, what's wrong with them? They're not getting any bigger, the leaves in the middle don't look very green and vibrant, this one's getting a couple of flowers, but the plant itself hasn't got any bigger, so it sort of just looks a bit sad. I don't know, I can't explain it, I mean look at these leaves, they just don't look like healthy leaves, do they? Nothing about these plants make me confident that they're gonna give me lots of courgettes, so we're going to give them a liquid feed and just see if it perks them up a bit. Right, so a couple of the areas of the allotment looking just a little bit messy at the moment, so I think it could do with a bit of a weed, bit of a tidy up. There are a couple of beds that I did last time I was here and it's made a real difference. So this bed here I did last time and it's definitely made a difference, it definitely looks neater. Also look at all my sweet peas starting to come out now, isn't that amazing? It's the year that I was desperate for sweet peas, I didn't get any last year because of the weather and just the slugs and snails kept eating them all, and this year it looks like I'm gonna get hundreds, so I'm actually gonna pick some of these today. Because as we all know with sweet peas, the more you pick the more you get, so I'm not gonna hang about this year, I want hundreds of them. Usually I sort of end up leaving them for ages because I love them so much and I just can't bear to pick them, but I'm not gonna do that this time. Oh my goodness, and they do smell, they do smell! I wasn't sure if I'd got the smelly ones because I sort of replanted a few times didn't I, but actually I have planted the smelly ones and they smell incredible. I just wish that my house wasn't a complete renovation mess at the moment, so I could have a like a little bunch of them. I might put them in my bedroom actually. Oh they're just the smell of summer. Look at the actual state of my broad bean bed. I have never had this many weeds in one bed before, it's been completely neglected. I'm sort of sharing this in the hope that if your beds are anything like this that makes you feel better, because so am I and mine get like this too. Just totally neglected, haven't thought about them. Right, this needs a lot of weeding. Might even be a few rogue potato plants in here because I seem to be pulling up potato plants everywhere at the moment. Once you grow potatoes in a bed, in the actual ground, you'll be pulling them up forever because you always miss some when you harvest them, you always miss some. I mean it's not a bad thing, but it is, you know, it's a bit weird when you've got broad beans and suddenly a potato plant like pops up out of nowhere. It's like, what are you doing here mate? Who invited you, you know? Gate crashers. There we go, look, I found a little hidden potato plant. It's so funny how I recognize potato plants now because I just planted so many of them. Also, I've noticed the broad beans in a terrible, terrible state, so I'm gonna have to spray them with something. They are absolutely swarmed with blackfly, no ladybirds or friendly bugs to be seen anywhere. Look at that, look at that, I can't survive that, so they're gonna need some serious help. But first, before we panic and have a panic attack over our broad beans, let's pull up this little potato and see. I don't think there's gonna be any potatoes. Oh look, there is! One little teeny tiny potato, that is so funny. He actually looks really good. I'll have him. Thank you very much, random potato plant. Excellent. Are there any more under there? No, I don't think so. You know what, we'll just, we'll find out. We'll find out if it grows again. Oh, I can't believe how out of control the blackfly I've got here. I just can't believe it. Is it blackfly? I think it is. Aphids, blackfly aphids. It's out of control. I don't even know if I'm gonna be able to rescue, rescue them because they've just so many and they're all over the broad beans and the broad beans aren't getting any bigger. These might be gone, these plants. I might have lost them. I've never lost broad beans completely to this before but then I haven't been checking them. I'm just physically rubbing them off at the moment because I think that's the best thing that I can do. I think I've lost them. I think I've lost them. I think I've lost them to the blackfly. I think they can have these. Where are all the flipping ladybirds? Where are they this year? I saw loads at the beginning of the year. I've got the spray that I used, it's from Andermatt, which is supposed to sort of stop them and kill them. I might spray them and see how it goes. Oh, are you a friendly bug? Have you come to help me? Okay, I think there might be a bug that's come to help. I think this little guy's come to help me. I have a feeling he's gonna help. Oh, are you gonna help as well? Are you a friend or a foe? But what we really need is ladybirds and there just aren't any. Spraying. This is all I can really do now. It's all I can do. Lots and lots of peas growing now. I don't know if any of these are ready to harvest yet because they're a bit flat still, but there's lots and lots of them growing. Actually, this one looks all right. That one looks like it might actually have peas in it. Okay, should we pick this one and have a look? Let's pick it and have a look. The best way to know, I always say this, if a crop is ready to harvest or not, is to pick a couple and just sort of investigate it and have a look. So these peas, you can't eat the pod, you can eat the pea inside. I think you probably can eat the pod, but I don't like to. I like to eat the peas inside. It's an early variety. Yes. Oh yes. I've been waiting to see that again. Look at that. Isn't that such a lovely sight? Oh my goodness me. I love fresh peas. They're sweet, they're delicious, they're fresh, they are just lovely. Excuse me while I eat these peas. I don't think they're all ready yet, so what we'll do is leave them probably another week or so and then start picking them again regularly. The more you pick, the more you get. Delicious, lovely, and also the perpetual spinach in front of it has flowered, but I'm gonna let it. It did something called bolting, so it bolted, basically means it wasn't very happy. It might have been the hot weather or the sunshine that we had and the warmth and the lack of rain and it's just bolted, it's panicked, it's had a panic attack basically and it's thrown up flowers. You can still eat it, but it will taste bitter when it bolts like this, so it's probably not recommended, but I'm gonna let it flower because what beautiful flowers are they going to be for pollinators? How lovely. I can't believe these. I can't get over these tomatoes. By the way, if you can see my kids in the background of any of these shots, they are here with me today helping me out, but I'm trying not to get them on camera, so if you see random kids in the background, they are my children and they are busy doing jobs that I've set for them, so there we go. A lot of you said that my cucumber, some of my biggest cucumbers, are ready to pick and that the more you pick, the more you get, so I'm actually gonna pick a couple of cucumbers today, which is amazing. I keep showing you guys my giant cucumbers and I've got so many comments saying you need to start picking them because the more you pick, the more the plant produces, and the thing is is when it's finished doing its cucumbers, apparently the plant thinks it's finished, it's done its job, and so it doesn't sort of produce more flowers. As you can see, I have got more flowers on this plant, so I'm gonna pick some of the bigger ones today. Oh my god, I'm so excited. I've never picked a cucumber before. I'm assuming you just sort of twist it, snap it, twist it, snap it, pull it, twist it, snap it. Oh, there we go. That's it. That's our first cucumber. It doesn't look done, guys. It doesn't look ripe. Is that even ready? I'm not sure. Now that I've picked it, I'm not sure if that was ready to pick or not. How would I know? They all look like this, by the way. They're all this color. I mean, maybe it's a good thing because what I've essentially done is taken one of them off so the plant's gonna produce more flower, so that's probably a good thing. Should I cut it open and see what the inside looks like? Because I have a feeling it's not done. I just have a feeling it's not ready. How would I know? How would I know? Why am I panicking? Because I've been growing them for so long and I really just want to get it right. That's what it is. I have no idea if this cucumber is ready or not, so what we're gonna do is basically cut it open and see. And of course, I don't have a knife and I can't find my scissors, so we're gonna have to use some shears. I'm gonna sort of use it like a knife. So I'm just gonna chop it open and see what what's going on in the middle of it, basically. It should chop pretty easy. Oh my god. Okay, hang on. Why did I just hold my shears with my hand? Why did I do that? That was mental. That was crazy. Right, that's what it looks like inside. Should I put it on some kind of windowsill and wait for it to ripen the same way like you would like strawberries and tomatoes? I don't know. Should I just eat a bit and see? Smells like a cucumber. It tastes like a cucumber. It tastes really good. It tastes lovely. This is now just gonna be me eating a cucumber, but it's absolutely delicious. So is it ready then? Does that mean it's ready? Or have I just poisoned myself? Well, that is what we've created. Let me know what I have to do with this cucumber. I was expecting the skin to be a little bit darker, but then am I just thinking of shop-bought cucumbers? Is this because it's been homegrown? Is this what cucumbers are supposed to look like? Please let me know in the comments. I really want to know if I've just poisoned myself. Okay, so what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna post this. I'm probably gonna post that on TikTok and Instagram and get your advice. And then if you say these are great to eat and this is just fine, this is what it's supposed to look like, I'll pick the rest tomorrow. If not, then I'll leave them a bit longer. But please leave me a comment below and let me know your thoughts on this cucumber. Is this just what cucumbers are like when you grow them yourself? The shop-bought one is just a bit weird, because I know sometimes that's just the case. You know, when you grow your own vegetables, they look completely different than what they look in the shop. Let me know guys. Right, can you see my face? I'm melting. I'm melting. Let me tell you what it is in here. It is 36.2 degrees in here. 36.2. It's absolutely roasting. I'm gonna leave the windows open. I'm gonna risk it today and I'm gonna get out of here and get home. I hope you enjoyed my little vlog. I will be back again on Wednesday. Have a lovely gardening week. I'll see you Wednesday, guys. Thanks for watching. Bye!