A MAY PLOT TOUR AND SOME ALLOTMENT JOBS

Bit of a drama here guys, because we've run out of earth. Dear oh dear, what's happened in here? Good morning guys, welcome back to the Allotment Diaries. My name's Emma, these are the Allotment Diaries. It's very steamy in here today, in a physical sense, not like the other sense of the word steamy. In the sense of the word that it's steamed up, physically steamed up. Anyway, why am I explaining this? Let's start that again. It's a bit steamy in here today, I think I had the windows closed. I think I closed them when I left yesterday, for some reason, I don't know why. And it's very wet, very wet and steamy in here today. Which is good for the plants, because it means that I don't need to water them today. Otherwise they will start rotting, especially all those lovely new seeds that I've got in there. So no, it's good, it just means that I don't have to worry about watering in my greenhouse today. I actually remember that happening last year. I used to be so worried about how I was going to keep everything watered when I'm not here. And actually, it kind of steams up in your greenhouse, and that kind of keeps everything well watered. So I don't really have to worry about it. I'm sure you're going to tell me a million reasons why that's not a good thing. I think it probably spreads diseases, it probably encourages blight, it rots all your seedlings and stuff. I know, I know, but for me, it seems to work out okay. So anyway, how are you all doing? Last time I was here, I kind of just left the plot. I was so tired by the time I'd finished. I did a lot of weeding and a lot of sorting out. Because I wanted to give you a bit of an overview of the plot in this video. I wanted to do like a mini plot tour. A lot of you are asking to see my plot as a whole. So I thought I'd just take you around this morning and give you a mini plot tour. Show you all around it, what's growing, what's doing well, what's not. I actually planted out my cucumbers last time I was here as well, and I forgot to show you. Well, I didn't forget to show you, but the video was shaping up to be like half an hour long. So I cut it out of the video, but I think I will insert that footage here. So you can see me planting the green, the cucumbers. So you can see me planting the cucumbers out. So here's me, yesterday, planting out my cucumbers. Right, we're going to have to leave our gorgeous sweet pea in, because it's doing so well. We're just going to leave it. Let's get this out, whatever this is. Oh, this is a horrible one. Oh no, it's got very long roots. I can't get the, whatever that is, I can't get those roots up. I don't know what this is. This is blindweed. As you can see, I've squished quite a lot into one pot, which is why they're struggling a little bit, because they need more space and nutrients. So what we're going to do is just, we're going to make sure you can see, so that when I kill these, you can all laugh. Right, we'll tip it upside down, take them all out. We're obviously not going to be able to plant all of these, but we're going to very carefully sort of pull them apart. That's a really nice plant there. And then we've got two really nice plants there. And then these go back in my pot for another day, another adventure. And then we've got the other pot with the other varieties of cucumbers, and we'll do the same thing. I don't see why a cucumber wouldn't be friends with a cucumber, to be fair. But maybe it won't be, I don't know. Right, we're just going to whack them all in, like I said, and we'll figure out all the rest later on. To be fair, I've never been very good at growing cucumber, so I think we'll just sort of whack them in and give them a go this year and just sort of try to experiment with them and see what they need. Do you know what I mean? Slug be gone, which is like those wall pellets, some of those around. There we go, I only had a little bit of that stuff left, so I thought I'd use it for the cucs, the cucumbers. Let's not call them cucs, I don't like that. Hopefully they'll survive. There we go, so they are still alive. It's only been one day, so don't get too excited, guys. But they are alive at the back there with the lovely sweet pea growing as well. And then along here we've got one cauliflower, which is a bit random, and we've got our tomatoes, which are all still alive, doing very well. I have a little bit of salad down here, which is about to flower. I do need to pick some of this, and I've got some spring onions in there too. I'm not going to lie, I am incapable of keeping these greenhouses and sheds tidy. This is as best as I can kind of get it. We've got all the seedlings up there, and we've got quite a lot growing in there, I would say. Right, this is what the plot looks like from this direction. Oh my gosh, there's the sun coming out, how fabulous. Right, this is the plot in the sunshine from this direction. So this is my great big archway, and I've got some runner beans growing up it. Here are the runner beans. They are actually growing and doing quite well. They've been a little bit munched, but actually they're doing quite well. They're quite strong plants, so they're coming back. So I'll have all runner beans going up over the archway, and I'm also going to put out my squashes and my jack belittles as well. So we'll have quite a lot along here going up the archway. I've also got my cosmos at the back there, which will get really big and bushy and lovely. This section over here is actually looking quite nice this year. I think I've done quite a good job on it. So over the autumn time, you might know that I worked very hard on the back. Unfortunately, it is getting a bit overgrown with bindweed, so I will have to revisit that again in the autumn time. But I did make a bit of a fence there. And then we've cleared the area, and we've got some more raised beds this year, some more growing space. And I think it's looking really lovely. I've got my carrot bed there, which is doing OK. And then here we've got a bit of a mismatch of all sorts of different things. I've got some garlic. This is radish, which has flowered, which I'm just leaving to flower. I've got some seeds in there, which I think is chicory. And then we've got some courgettes over there. And in this bed here at the back, we've got all of our cornflowers, sunflowers, and some cosmos in there. So that should be a great big flower bed and hopefully disguise the ugly back of the plot. My rose over the archway, the rambling rose, is doing really well this year. It's got really high over it, so I'm hoping for flowers. And it's going to look absolutely beautiful if it does. And then this is the view from this side of the plot, as you can see. I have this little area here of flowers and things because we've got the apple tree and the other trees, so not very much will grow under here. So I've turned it into a bit of a flower area with perennials. We've got the lavender coming up, lots of primroses. We've got the scabia over there. There's lots of perennial flowers coming up in there, which is really nice and beautiful, and I don't have to worry about it every year then. That's where we had all our tulips, and now I've got lots of other flowers like dahlias, gladiolus, and cosmos in there. So that's, again, another flower bed. And then we've got the archway here with the polycarbonate greenhouse at the end. And just at the front, I've got a couple of blueberry plants, which are actually doing quite well this year. I think I keep showing this in a lot of my morning shots, but we're getting a lot of flowers, and it seems to be doing quite well. It looks very, very healthy. So if all of these turn into blueberries, I'm going to get an abundance of blueberries this year, which is fantastic because they are one of my favourite berries. This is the front bit of this plot, and I get a lot more sun here now that the tree's been cut down by the council. So all of this is now in sun, which was quite shady last year. So this is going to be really interesting this year to see what grows. At the moment, I've just got a lot of crops that have gone over, but this bed is going to be my sweetcorn bed. So all of that will be cleared, and we will put the sweetcorn in here. Oh, hello. Morning. That's not my cat. I don't know whose cat that is. The robins are clicking away now. Can you hear the robins clicking? They do a clicky sound whenever there's a predator about. So whenever a cat walks past, they start clicking. But they don't click for me. They don't click for me, because I'm not a threat to them, you see. They like me. Right, we've got this bed down here, which has got leeks and parsnips. I've got a few leeks down there. They're doing quite well, actually. I planted them in clumps, but they seem to be doing very well. And then all of these parsnips are last year's parsnips, and I think what they do is they flower. And I can see that they're going to flower. So these are last year's parsnips. I've left them to see what on earth they do, because I don't think they'll give me more parsnips. I think we're going to get some parsnip flowers, and I'll see if I can collect the seeds. I think that'll be quite fun. I've got some more carrots in there, and I've made a little shade thing for them, because they get very hot, and then they scorch. And it seems to be working well. They seem to be doing really well in there. And they do still get sun, but it's when it's blazing all day, they just need a little bit of shade. Down here, amongst the weeds, there is some perpetual spinach coming up, which is amazing. So hopefully this will be a nice big bushy perpetual spinach area. There we go. So there's an overview of this side of the allotment plot. As you can see, very mismatched, very secret garden-esque, not very uniformed. I just like to throw the beds wherever, so I can wander around them. I quite like that. And then right at the front here, this is our sweet pea wall. So we've just got a whole wall of sweet peas. That's what I'm calling it this year. And they are doing fantastic. I'm actually getting some flowers now, which is very exciting, but they will still get taller. And I can't wait. Right, and then we just sort of walk across. Oh, gosh. We'll just sort of fall across. And this is my original allotment plot that I actually got first of all. So six years ago, this is my first plot. That plot is relatively new, and I've just connected them together. So this plot, we've got my lovely pea shed on, which we don't go in anymore because it's full of spiders and mice. I need to sort that out at some point. I know, I know. I say it every year. We will, though. We've got the beautiful clematis on here. This clematis is just doing fantastical this year. Look how big it's got. I'm really glad I fanned it out because it seems to be sort of working and growing in every direction now. But that is absolutely covered in flowers in the autumn time. OK, this plot is the plot where I seem to have the most sort of actively growing at the moment. So at the front, we've got two beds of potatoes. These are my early potatoes. As you can see, they're doing so, so well, really coming up nicely. And then just next to them are my second early potatoes. And again, these are growing really well, doing lovely. Might have to earth these ones up today, so that could be a job for today. Next to that, we have my brassica bed. We've got lots of broccoli in here and cauliflower and whatever else it is I planted in here. Can't quite remember. But it's doing really well. The netting has blown off, but we don't seem to have any casualties so far. This bed here needs a serious weeding. We've got some peas growing up there, and they're doing fantastic. We've got beautiful white flowers. And then down there are parsnips. And basically, I was waiting for my parsnips to grow so that I knew what a parsnip seedling was and what a weed is. And I think we can safely say I need to weed it now. I think we've gone past the point where it's acceptable to say I didn't know what a weed was, because the parsnip seedlings are very, very obvious. These are the parsnip seedlings. So we do need to give this a serious weed at some point. But look how beautiful the peas are. Obviously, a very similar flower to the sweet pea, because they're from the same family, and they are just beautiful. And look! Oh my gosh, I didn't even notice we've actually got some peas growing. Not quite ready yet, because they need to fill out a little bit. But how absolutely stunning. I do love growing peas. They are a beautiful flower. There's the little wildlife pond and the little wildlife area. As you can see, I've made this under the tree, because there's not very much else I can do with that area there other than to put in some kind of pond. Because we've got all the shade from the tree, we've got the tree roots, which will suck all the nutrients out. So I'm very limited in what I can do with this area. So I've turned it into a wildlife area instead. And then we have the back of my first allotment plot. And I've just got a few empty beds here, ready to plant into. So we've got this one here, which needs a bit of a top-up. I think that would be salad crops. We've got our sprouts in here, which probably need a weed and a bit of protecting. But that's the sprouts, and this whole bed could probably do with a bit of a tidy-up. But that's okay. We've got some fruit bushes in here, and then I've kept all the grass down with my little strimmer. And then right at the back there, we've got our broad beans. I'm not sure I've shown you the broad beans for a while, but they are doing very well. They've got very, very tall. I don't know if I've got any yet. I haven't actually checked. Now, I don't have any broad beans growing yet, but we've got lots of flowers, and they look very happy. This is obviously a really good place in the plot to put them, and they seem really, really happy. We are getting a few little black aphids, but not many. Nothing for me to be too concerned with at the moment. And yeah, they're just getting very tall, very bushy, and very happy. Right, I hope that was sort of a good enough plot tour for you. Just a mini one. I don't want to spend a whole video just doing a plot tour, because I think it gets a little bit samey if I keep talking about the same things over and over again. But that's an overview of the allotment at the moment and what's growing. Now we're going to get on with some allotment jobs. I really did want to go and get some wood chip today. I think I might do that first. Just go grab some, and then stick it down on one of my pathways. I think that would be a good idea. So let's go grab the wood chip, and then we'll come back and do a couple of jobs with a couple of the crops. Whatever that means. Ah! Part two close to the stinging nettles. Oh my gosh, that really hurts. Are they extra stingy at the moment? Jeez Louise! Are they extra stingy at the moment or something? Oh my gosh! Ow! That's the most painful pain I've ever had from a stinging nettle in my life. I thought a wasp had got me then. There we go. Nice new, newly wood chipped path. Always looks good, doesn't it? What are these birds clicking about? It's not me, is it? Clicking away, is it because I haven't fed them? I'm just going to take my jumper off, because it is very, very warm in that sun. I feel like I keep coming down here in like a coat jumper, and then I sort of have to undress myself at the allotment. Every day I'm coming down, I'm just undressing myself here, because it is just so hot. Right, OK, that's good. I think we'll feed the bird and have a little bit of a break after that, and then we'll get on with a couple of other jobs. Let's feed the bird, because I don't want them clicking at me. I thought it was the cat again, but there's no sign of a cat, so it must be me. What are they clicking at me for? We're mates. What are they clicking at me for? Honestly. I don't know if I should still be soaking these or not. Maybe I should be, actually. Well, we'll stick them on like this now. Let me know if I should still be soaking them, if he hasn't got a nest. Maybe I should be, actually. Second early potatoes. We'd better earth these up, because they're getting mighty, mighty big. It doesn't look like I've left much earth to earth them up with, so a bit of a drama here, guys, because we've run out of earth. We're running out of earth, but I'm going to do my best. Apparently, last time I earthed up my potatoes, I unveiled a potato. Unveiled? Apparently, you were all screaming at your screens, saying, Emma, you've just unearthed a potato. But I can't find it now, so maybe it's been eaten. I genuinely don't seem to have enough earth. This might be a global problem, if I've officially run out of earth. I can't think of anything more pressing. There just doesn't seem to be much soil around them. I shall do my best. I don't think I dug these trenches very well. Right, I've sort of done the best I can with what little earth I could actually find. I actually had to dig a hole over there, so I think the birds would be happy. Can I just say something? When I dug that hole over there, I didn't even go very deep, but I did make a bit of a discovery. Though the top of the soil is very dry and flaky like this, as soon as I start digging, there's a lot of moisture under the ground. And I wonder if that's the same with everyone's beds. Is that because of the amount of rain that we had earlier in the year? That's really good to know, so that the crops have actually got some moisture under the ground when they start sending their roots down. Anyway, second earlies, all earthed up. And then the other thing that everyone was reminding me in one of my vlogs one of my last vlogs, was that I tied the sunflowers too tightly so that when the stems start to grow, it will cut into it and decapitate them, which I don't want, so I'm just going to re-tie some of these lighter. You're not actually supposed to tie sunflowers in too tightly anyway, because they should be able to sway in the wind. When sunflowers sway in the wind, it strengthens their stem and stops them from snapping. So you're supposed to allow them a little bit of wiggle room to be able to strengthen their stem. So I got it wrong on two accounts, really. There's two reasons why I got that wrong, so thank you for the reminder. I am doing it now. I think I will get out some of my sunflowers as well. I think these ones can probably do with going out, because they are quite big. They're getting quite big, and they're getting too big for these modules. So I think I'm going to plant these out. I'm going to choose a really random place to plant them out and just whack them in, because I've got another batch here. And I think I've also started some more sunflower seeds somewhere else. They'll pop up soon. So I've got a lot of sunflowers to get out, so let's get these ones out today. Let's whack them in here. You're going to have to move out the way, though. This should be nice. Right, well, I hope you've enjoyed this edition of Emma's Allotment Garden. I'll be back again next time, whenever that may be, with another vlog. So I hope you've enjoyed it today. We did some planting. We've done some jobs. I've shown you around the plot. See you next time, guys. Thanks for watching. Bye.