WORKING ON A DEAD HEDGE / ALLOTMENT GARDENING UK

Wow, guys, a very, very cold, frosty morning for my allotment plot here in South London. Good morning. Welcome back to my allotment diaries. My name's Emma. These are my allotment diaries where I vlog all about my allotment plot here in South London. Completely frosted over today. Surprised any light is getting in here whatsoever. I mean, as always, I will start by saying everything is still alive. And if it's living still, then not really too much of a problem. So everything's fine. Everything on the ground is fine. So not a huge problem. But I didn't realise how frosty it was this morning before I left. I knew the sun was up and it was blue skies. And that's kind of why I came down because we've had a lot of rain recently and a lot of very bad weather. So it's quite nice to see the sun out for a little bit. I've got like four layers on. I've got a gilet, a jumper, a coat and an under layer underneath to keep me nice and warm. So hopefully I'll be able to stay for a bit today. Just one second. I did hear a man this morning coming into the allotment from the other way and he was singing quite loudly to himself and he sounded a little bit... I mean, I don't want to make a judgment, but also as a woman here on my own and I've locked myself into this allotment site, I do have to make a judgment very quickly and be a little bit stereotypical and judgy because obviously my safety's on the line. He sounds like the kind of guy that would, if he knew I was here, he would come over and have a chat and I might not be able to get away from him. Again, very, very judgy. Made a quick stereotype there. I have no idea. Could be totally, completely innocent. But good time just to say actually, because I know on this channel, sometimes I encourage a lot of women out there to go and get allotment plots and I'm always about, you know, you can do it, don't be put off by, you know, the fact that you're a woman and you're by yourself. Like even if you're by yourself, like I am, you can do it. You're strong enough. And I go on and on about that. Good time just to say, also keep your wits about you. Keep safe, especially if you've got an allotment plot in an urban area. Just know that they are kind of hidden places. They're a little bit off the beaten track and they do have gates around them that you have to physically lock yourself in. So when you're locked in, it's not that easy to get back out again in a hurry. So always keep your wits about you. Always have a look around your surroundings. You know, double check if anyone's there. Just keep safe. Let someone know where you're going. My husband knows I'm here today and he's working from home. So, you know, I keep my phone on me all the time. Just silly little things like that, that really we shouldn't ever have to think about, but we do and we have to be sensible and safe. So just a little reminder, reminder to myself as well, just to, you know, just because you've been safe a thousand times here doesn't mean you'll be safe the next time. You know, always keep your wits about you. So bit of a bit of a dodgy start to the vlog, but there we go. Let's try and keep it upbeat. Right. The bird is waiting for me. We need to feed him. Also, we have pond drama again. The only, the only explanation I could think when I got home was that there is a hole in the liner and the water is draining away from my pond. And, um, this morning the water has drained again. And so I think I am correct. I think the water is not staying in the pond and I need to put new liner in it. So that's a bit of a bummer. Don't know if we'll do it today because it's very, very cold, but that is another job on my list of things to do now. So great. Oh gosh. Allotment, eh? Allotment life. Right. Let's go feed the birdie. Breakfast. And then breakfast for the birdie. Yes. Noise? Yeah? Right. As you can see, the same problem has happened to the pond again, which is that it has drained away, which now tells me for sure there is a problem with the liner. So there must be a hole in it. I don't think it was from when I bashed it with a stick, though that could genuinely be the problem. Apparently what can happen actually is when it freezes over really badly and you get a really thick layer of ice, it can kind of expand the liner and then it breaks it, it tears through it. And that very well may be what happened because I don't remember the last time we had that level of ice. I mean, that was really thick. I could stand on my pond and this is quite a deep pond. So I reckon it's something to do with the fact it froze over, which is really frustrating. Also, another thing that I've just off the top of my head figured out, you'll be impressed by this one. The fact that it's only drained away to there tells me the problem with the liner is probably around this level at some point because it's not draining away any further than that. So I'm assuming the problem is sort of on this level somewhere. Somewhere there is a hole. Is that it there? Is that just it? Is that the hole? Could that be the hole? Oh, I actually think that might be the hole. Yeah, that could be the problem. And then there could be several more. So what we are going to do, I've decided, is we're just going to realign it. We're going to put a new liner, because I've still got loads left, over the top of that one and then fill the pond back up again. I don't know if it's a job for today. Is it a job for today? What do you think, Einstein? Do you need the water? He's like, yeah, of course I need water. I'd die without water. What are you doing? Give me a pond. Right, okay. All right, let's see how much liner I've got left and if I can find my scissors. If I can find my scissors, I'll fix your pond for you. Okay? Oh, they're fighting. They're fighting. Before I read that Robin book, I'd think they were friends right now, having a little laugh, having a little morning chat, but they're not. They're actually enemies and they are standing each other down. You see the way they're sort of moving away from each other? They've already had a little scuffle in the air. So, yeah, birds, eh? Birds. Right, I don't have enough of the pond liner left to redo the whole pond. I obviously can't do it in because the water will just seep through. So I'm going to have to buy some more pond liner, which is a little bit annoying because it's really expensive. Yeah, it's not the cheapest thing in the world, pond liner. I did get a really good one, a really good reviewed one, really expensive, proper, you know, thick pond liner. It's very, very frustrating. Um, so I'm going to have to get a new one. I might, some of you might say try and repair it, but I really just think it will just keep breaking and draining. I think the best thing to do is just to replace the liner completely, um, and start again with it. And that is so annoying, but, um, there we go. I guess at least it happened before the springtime, uh, when the pond really starts to grow. Cause once all the, all the pond plants around it and stuff start growing, it's going to be really hard to replace. So at least it's happened now. We're just going to have to keep calm and carry on and order some new stuff. Right. Well, obviously with the amount of frost that we've got this morning, there's not many jobs I can do here. So I'm going to continue to work on the back of the plot here and clear it ready for my dead hedge. That's what it's called. Apparently a dead hedge, which is just a hedge made out of old sticks, dead sticks and stuff, um, which wildlife love. Um, and also I think it's just going to look really good and neat at the back of my plot and sort this area out, which does become very overgrown and jungly every single year. So this is the year I'm sorting it out. Um, I'm just going to crack on and clear as much of it as I can, and then potentially start digging the canes out though. Today's probably not the best day for digging. We'll see how far we get. We're just going to crack on. Right. Enough chitchat. Let's go. You know, I'm actually thinking underneath all these sticks and weeds that I'm pulling up, I think there's quite good quality compost under here. I think it's made compost because it's just been a load of natural material kind of piled up. And as I'm digging into it and sort of scraping it over, the color of it is amazing. The texture looks great. Um, I mean, I think it's really good usable compost. So I might grab a wheelbarrow full and dump it on one of the beds to mulch it over. What do you think? It's probably not showing up on camera quite as, as beautifully colored as it is, but it's a gorgeous color for compost and the texture is great. Look at that. I'm squeezing it together and then I'm pushing it apart. That is great quality compost, I think. And as I'm digging into it, I'm just thinking that looks like, I mean, look, the birds are loving it. The birds are loving it, which means there's loads of worms and loads of life in it. And where there is life, there can be plants. So I think I'm going to dig a load of it up, stick it over a bed. What do you think, Einstein? He might be happy, actually, if I'm digging. I've got some spring onions or some leeks or something coming up in this bed. Um, I didn't plant them. I don't know what they're doing in here, but they seem to be quite happy. So I've mulched over it with this and it's just fantastic. I mean, there's a little bit of weed in it, so let's make sure I pull them out because we don't want to, you know, introduce bindweed into the bed when there wasn't any. But that is absolutely fantastic. That's probably better than any shop-bought compost you can get because that is proper homemade compost, that is. That's fantastic. I wonder how much more I'll be able to get from the back of the plot. Probably quite a lot, I imagine. So that's another job I've added on. Right, I apologise. These are the kind of vlogs where I end up sort of not filming very much because I'm actually so busy just doing the work. This is what it was like when I was clearing my plot. I remember that I had to keep stopping and sort of making sure that I actually spoke and filmed something and had something to sort of show because I like showing my journey with these things. I think it's really good to look back on. I think it's really, um, therapeutic for me to sort of look back on how far I've come. Thankfully I did sort of clear most, well, all of the plot and it's just this strip that I sort of left and I remember leaving it and thinking one day I'll come back to this and sort it out and now that day has come. Isn't that amazing? Doing it properly, digging it out, getting rid of all the bits and bobs. It's looking really good at the moment. It's looking very manageable. I need to get it done before the spring because then it will not be manageable. It will just become an overgrown jungle and I just won't be able to do it. So I think I'm going to stop there today because I'm knackered. I'll show you how far we've got. I don't know if it's going to look like much on camera but we have sort of removed all the logs and sticks. We're starting to rake it away and then dig some of the compost out so it is becoming a lot clearer. This is obviously the boundary line. You can see that some of the canes go right up to the boundary line so I'm going to get all of those out, make sure they're all gone and then think about putting in my dead hedge and then I've got all these sticks and logs piled up ready to make the fence. I thought I would just come and check on the calabrese that's growing at the back, at the front of the plot. I guess this is the front. I don't have a lot growing at this time of year but what I normally do have growing in the winter time is brassicas. Brassicas that I've either not picked over the autumn time or that just take a really long time to sort of become harvestable. You know what I really wish I'd grown? Purple sprouting broccoli because that is something that you get a harvest of in January and February, just like continuously. It's such a great crop and they're really big and bushy and full of life and they're just fantastic so I think this year I will try and grow some purple sprouting broccoli. I have two calabrese growing here and actually quite a lot broccoli, just like shoots of broccoli. Let's check the calabrese first, a really fun beautiful vegetable by the way. This one has had all its leaves stripped by the pigeons probably because they love brassica leaves. It's a great vegetable, you can see it's starting to grow. It's kind of a cross between a cauliflower and a broccoli, quite compact. You can get them in places like Marks and Spencers and they're quite expensive to buy actually. Really delicious, cook it the same way you do broccoli or a cauliflower. That one's a little bit small but I can see there is a bigger one over here. Okay it's not quite as big as I thought it was but actually it's getting there, it's getting to the size where I might be able to harvest it soon. It's looking fantastic, there's no damage on it, it's a beautiful plant, I can't wait to pit this. How great is that? There's some shoots of broccoli here. I've basically harvested the main head of broccoli sometime over the autumn time but I left the plant alone and it throws off these beautiful shoots of broccoli. These little stems come out and these are all able to be harvested. They've got frost on them at the moment, I might actually harvest them tomorrow. Yeah just this is why you chop off your main broccoli head and then you leave the plant alone because you will get more broccoli from it. It's fantastic. Right well that is it from me today. I just realised that I did all of that gardening in just my normal woolly gloves. I just didn't put any of my gardening gloves on, I don't really know why I did that. I think I'm just so cold and I just got in there, thought I was wearing normal gardening gloves, I don't know, I don't know. Oh my goodness. Anyway that is it because it is incredibly frosty, there's not too much we can do. Hopefully next time on Wednesday the frost will have gone and I can start really digging out those canes at the back and then starting to put the fence together. That would be excellent. I'll also order some more pond liner. If you've got any tips for how to make sure that my pond doesn't get another hole in it, I mean that's never happened. I had my pond before that one for five years and it wasn't even a pond liner, it was an old bit of ground sheet I found and I never had that problem and then I've just dug it a bit bigger, put a proper pond liner in. Oh my gosh, typical huh? Absolutely typical. Anyway I will sort all that out on Wednesday. I hope you've enjoyed watching my vlog today, if you have give me a thumbs up, leave me a comment, let me know what you're up to on your plots and I will see you again when I see you. Thanks for watching guys, see you next time, bye.