PREPARING FOR STORM AMY AT THE ALLOTMENT / ALLOTMENT GARDENING UK

Hello. Well, good afternoon everybody. I am at my a lotment plot here and yes, it is not the morning time. Normally, nine times out of 10, I will come here first thing in the morning, but today I've had to leave it to the afternoon because the morning was a complete wash out. It was just complete rain, basically like a monsoon. Guys, we have got the first named storm of the autumn winter on its way tonight. It's about to hit in actually a couple of hours. Um, it says that it's like 90% chance of rain in a couple of hours. And from then on, it is rain, it is wind, it's storm Amy basically, and it is going to hit us hard. So, I'm here at the a lotment plot to see what I can do to batten down the hatches today. Obviously, my main concern is my polycarbonate greenhouse, which is very much in danger of flying away. Fingers crossed. Fingers crossed it's not going to. Um, slightly concerned about the panels blowing out. Not really sure what I can do to be honest, but um I'm going to do what I can and just basically yeah, that's why I'm here. That's why I'm here in the afternoon. I'm a little bit worried and I know that I wouldn't be able to sleep soundly at night knowing that I hadn't sort of been here and just had a look at everything really. I don't know. I don't know. Close the windows I think and stop the air from getting in stop it from taking off. But um we will see what we can do. Right. am actually going to start today by feeding the birds because I am a little bit worried that Einstein isn't going to be able to get to any food over the next couple of days because we are talking sort of gusts of 44 mph. So, he's obviously not going to come out. So, let's go over there. Let's feed the bird. Let's get him all the worms that his little stomach can handle. Okay, let's let's go. Come on, buddy. There's a storm coming. Come on. Well, I'm not normally here at this time, so I'm not sure if he'll actually turn up or not. He might sort of not be expecting me, so um I'll keep an eye and see if he turns up. Right. I'm trying to sort of strengthen this runner bean structure because it's very flimsy as it is. I'm surprised it's still standing. So, I'm going to put some more canes in and try and keep it a bit more upright. Wish me luck, guys. Wish me luck. I'm trying. Right, I can feel the rain coming already. Can you believe it? Got a few more things to do out there. We'll just sit in here for a bit and see if it slows down and stops. Do you know what? I was in two minds about coming down at all today. I was just thinking, should I just leave it? Should I just risk it? But the truth is coming here, even in the rain and the snow and in terrible weather, it always makes me feel better. I've always talked about how my a lotment has been so so good for my mental health and my mental well-being. Just being outside in nature and just pottering around in the garden, like honestly, it takes me out of my own head. I think sometimes with me, I can get so anxious and I can get really stuck in my own head and I need something to be able to pull myself out of that and having the a lotment plot to escape to and just to come down to. It's not only like a physical escape, it's like a mental escape as well. The a lotment is just I mean sometimes I come down here and I don't even do very much and but I always leave it feeling mentally stronger. It fills up my cup basically. And I know that a lot of you because whenever I talk about the impact my a lotment has on my mental health, a lot of you out there also agree and say that gardening, you know, really helps your mental health. And a lot of you are very open and honest with me. I'm open and honest with you about my struggles with anxiety and not feeling like myself and my mental health struggles. However, sometimes it is important to seek professional help. And seeking professional help is never ever a sign of weakness. It's always a sign of strength and that is where BetterHelp can come in. BetterHelp are the paid partner on this video and they are on a mission to make therapy easier for all of us. It's so easy. You just fill out a questionnaire and then you're matched with a therapist as soon as possible. And the great thing is you can change therapist with no extra cost to you. And it's so easy to do that if you don't click with them. It's so so so important to seek more professional advice if you need it. And like I said, it's not a sign of weakness. It's a sign of strength. So, if you do need to seek professional help, try out Better Help. I've got a link in my description just below. And that will give you 10% off your first month of therapy. Right, the rain seems to be slowing down, so we are going to go out and cut some flowers. Let's do it. I think I said before that I wasn't going to pick any of my flowers and I actually really hate picking flowers at the a lotment. That is absolutely true. I like to leave my flowers for the pollinators and because they just look so beautiful at the plot but but but but I am thinking with the storm coming and those wind gusts all the petals are just going to be blown off. So, I think it might be worth picking some. They are going to look so beautiful if I can get them home. Okay. And I'm really hoping I can. Um, going to do my best. I'm going to cut them quite far back. Um, because then I think they do grow back better, don't they? I hope so. Otherwise, I'm just killing them all. So pretty. Right. What I do need to start doing very very soon actually right now today is start clearing this because I really really really want to want to zigg zig. Ah what I really want to do is sew seeds over the autumn time and this is just not working for me right now. It is such a bleeding mess. I'm very very scaty and messy, aren't I? I really am. I'm very aware of that, guys. I'm very, very aware. I just don't I mean, you see me. I try so hard to keep things tidy, but it seems to be a real struggle for me for many, many reasons. So, Oh god, spiders. I'm sorry. Have more than this? Do I not have more than this? Yeah, I do have more than this. What am I talking about? Spiders. Go away. Go away. Right, we're going to fill these with soil. That one's already filled with soil. That one might be all right. Right, we're just going to fill a few of these with some soil. I don't normally buy sort of compost specifically for seeds, you know, like seed compost. So, I don't really bother with it. Um, especially at the a lotment plot, I tend to just go to a bed and grab some compost and sew it into that because it's all going to end up back in the a lotment again. You know, this bed needs a really good topping up anyway. So, I'm going to use all the lovely compost on the top. Fill these up. I'm going to do a little bit of sewing. That is good. I really want to put my brassacas on here, but it's being guarded by a spider. These are the calibri that I sewed which are doing really well. But unfortunately just above them is a little spider. A little a big spider. He's decided to make his web right above it. But I'm going to try and grab it. Oh god. I'm trying to figure out where his web is. His web is there. Okay. Oh, there's something really awful about going underneath him. Oh god. Oh god. Oh god. I got him. Okay, good. Now we can inspect them a little bit closer. They look like they need a water. Okay, that's fine because I'm going to be watering these new seeds in a second. Right, hang in there, guys. You're going to be fine. Guys, I feel like I need to calm down a little bit. I am so worried about this bleeding storm hitting that I've like come to my a lotment in like a whirlwind and I'm just trying to do everything in like record speed. And it's it's okay at the moment. We're okay. We're okay. See, they're doing building work. They ain't bothered by the storm. Why am I the only one who's bothered? Anyway, I'm going to sew some sweet peas. Um, and I've been very excited to do this because sewing your sweet peas over the autumn time gives you a much earlier flowering next spring. Apologies for the building work. What on earth are they doing? I've got a few different varieties here. In fact, I've got so many different varieties, I'm not going to be able to sew them all here. They're not all for the aotment. Some of them are for my home garden. They did extraordinarily well this year, the sweet peas. Like to the Oh, is that the rain? Here it comes. Yeah, they did so so well. I was so impressed. So, I'm going to whack them all in. And that's what we're going to do now. Oh, no. The storm is starting. Look at these ones. These ones are blue, aren't they? Beautiful. Um, I definitely want some blue sweet peas at the a lotment. So, the only thing we've got to make sure is that we can keep them all alive over the over the autumn time and I don't forget about them. Hopefully, I won't. So, what we're going to do is we'll sew all the blue ones here. Very therapeutic doing this. But I'm putting two in each module like that. And then actually, I've got a couple over. So, you're going to get three. And you're going to get three. Aren't you lucky? And then all I'm going to do is just press them in with my finger. Do these ones, which are climbing variety. Okay, let's go and give him a drink in the rain. Okay. Flooded that. Okay. So, I kind of flooded them a little bit. What did I do wrong then? What's wrong with my watering can? I might need to get a smaller watering can maybe for seedlings. Um, not used to having seedlings here. When I'm at home and I sew them at home, I just use like a cup and I go out with a little cup or a little jug. So, I need to get a smaller watering can. But that is the over autumn/inter sweet peas sewed and ready to go. How exciting. That is officially the first thing that I have sewn at this a lotment plot for spring. Um, is it is that a lie? Maybe the calibs, but let's not count those. I mean, this is really spring. Sweet peas are like the epitome of spring, aren't they? Rain is really coming down now. So, what we're going to do is we're going to batten batten down the hatches, close the windows of the greenhouse because my main concern is the gusts of wind and them like lifting up the greenhouse and making it take flight. So, what we're going to do, we're going to close it all up so no air can get in here. keep our fingers and toes crossed and then we'll come back tomorrow and we'll see how it's all go all going. Actually, we won't come back tomorrow. Tomorrow is still the storm. We'll come back the day after tomorrow and we'll see if the plot survived. So, I've done everything that I can. I've batten down the hatches. Let's go home. Let's just hope that when I return the plot is still here. Right, I'm off home. Wish it luck, guys. I'll show you in a minute if it survived. Two days later. Welcome to 2 days later. Uh-oh. This is the first official bit of damage that my poly ton my polycarbonate greenhouse has experienced. Just looks like a couple of panels have sort of popped out the top here. Not too bad. Not too bad. I think I can cope with that. Everything else looks in order. The windows are okay. The ones that can open. It's still standing. Nothing on the other side because the other side is obviously not the side the wind was hitting it. Wind seems to come from the other side. I mean, that is pretty obvious because you see that tree there. The way it's leaning, that kind of tells me where the wind usually comes from. Um, because I think it's the wind that's like pushed that over. So, the wind comes from this side of the aotment. So, it's hitting this side of the uh the greenhouse. Right. Also, a couple of trees have sort of fallen down, which is what the council are doing right now. They're sort of chopping them up with a chainsaw and stuff. So, you might hear some background kind of work going on. Um, right. These windows, a big spider there. They don't seem too bad. They've popped out, but they haven't popped out like all the way. I'm lying. It has. his popped out all the way. Oh, I'm immediately lying. Right. Okay. It's this one. That's not good. That's not a good situation. This is the one that we're going to have to fix. Um, okay. Fine. So, we will get that fixed. Right. You know what? All in all, it really is the calm after the storm. It doesn't feel like there's been too much damage. And I think mainly with this this greenhouse, the thing that I'm most worried about, and that's going to happen, is panels are going to pop out. And I just have to make sure that I fix the panels that pop out when they pop out. Um, but tomatoes have survived. It hasn't taken flight. Um, we had winds up to like 60 mph, sort of gusts of wind. And um, yeah, it seems to have survived. So, I think all in all, we're good. Um, right, I'm going to end this vlog here um, and start my next one, which will be on Monday. So, goodbye on Friday. Um, hope you have a lovely gardening weekend. Don't forget to check out Better Help. Um, remember that therapy is never a sign of weakness, only ever a sign of strength. Um, and check out my discount code below to get a month's free therapy with them, which is incredible. Um, I'm really working hard to work with brands that, you know, give something back to you guys, and I think Better Help is definitely the right direction for the brands I'm working with. So, check them out if you need it. Um, use the discount code and have a lovely gardening weekend. I will see you again on Monday, guys. Thanks for watching. Bye.