PRUNING THE TOMATOES, AGAIN! / ALLOTMENT GARDENING UK

Wow! And that is the danger. Aren't they gorgeous? Oh my goodness, I think it's starting to rain! It's raining a little bit. As I was walking here, the clouds were getting darker and darker and I did feel a little bit of water on my head, which can only mean one thing. It is starting to rain. Is that it though? Is that all we're going to get? 15 drops, 15 drops of rain. Is that it? Is that it in like two months? It looks very suspiciously like we might get a shower. It did start to kind of dribble a little bit from the sky. Do you know that we have so many words for rain in the UK? And to describe raining, pouring, raining cats and dogs, spitting, drizzling, a shower. Apparently Eskimos have lots of different names for snubbing as well, for like snow and ice. But we have lots of different words for rain. So just a really interesting fact there to kick off the vlog today. You're welcome. I know I was here on Friday and I said pretty much the same thing about the sky, but this looks different, right? This definitely does look like rain. And also it has actually started spitting. So I'm hoping it just continues. I don't know if it will or not. I don't know. We're just in this really weird time where it's just not rained for like 11 weeks. It's just been crazy. And heatwave after heatwave. It's still very humid today, but it's quite overcast. So it's just a little bit more pleasant to be in the garden, which is quite nice. Everything in here is alive. It's looking great. I'm absolutely desperate to start planting out some autumn winter crops. My plot is looking very bare at the moment. I really just want to start getting stuff in the ground and protecting it and seeing it grow bigger and bigger, but it's just not quite the right time. The ground is just too dry. It's just too dry and dusty. And every time I try and dig in it or just run over it with the hoe, it's like all of this soil comes up, but it's like dust and it just kind of goes everywhere. Basically, everything's dried out and all the ground has become too hard to dig in. So it's just a bit of a nightmare. And I know that if I get that stuff out now, it's not got the best chance. What I need, what I need is rain, consistent rain for maybe a week or so. Then I need to mulch over the beds with some fresh compost to try and give it a little bit more life. And then we can start planting stuff out. And that's, I'm just having to be patient. Patience is the name of the game this year. Patience, patience and perseverance. I think they are the two words that I would use to describe the whole growing season so far. Patience and perseverance. Tomatoes are looking fabulous though. Oh, right on cue. We've got some sun. Look at that. Isn't that fantastic? The only thing I want to do today with these is just start to cut back a little bit more of the foliage around the tomatoes so that they can start to change colour because what they need is sunlight. And I really, really want to stop this silly thing that I do where I just allow the tomatoes to stay green. Quite a weird way of putting it. But I don't tend to chop the foliage back and stuff and expose the tomatoes. I tend to leave them as they are. And what that means is that they don't get a chance to turn colour. And then what I do is I pick the green ones, take them home, stick them on a windowsill. What I really want them to do is to change colour on the vine. So we're going to cut back some of this foliage today just to expose the tomatoes that are growing. And if there's any sort of big old stems growing on here which I think are not kind of producing anything. This one here, for example, it's got some flowers at the end but it's just sort of clogging up the plant, I would say. It's clogging up the plant. I don't want to stop the plants from growing too much yet because I still think they can produce more tomatoes at this time of year. But I do want to stop it from sort of becoming a great big bush of foliage and leaves. I want more fruit than leaves. So just a few of these kind of branches that have just got leaves on. Branches, stems that have just got leaves on are coming off. And then all of these stems right at the bottom of the plant which are kind of growing on the ground. These are all coming off as well because they're not useful to the plant. If anything, they're detrimental because if we do get blight, leaves that are touching the ground will spread it or something, I think. You're not really supposed to allow any of the leaves to touch the soil. So if anything, these ones are detrimental to the plant. So we're going to remove anything at the bottom and then I'm going to give it another mulch today as well. I think it's important to remember that tomatoes are pretty indestructible, indestructible plants. So don't panic too much. They're definitely not worth worrying over. I mean, if they can survive me, if they can survive me, they can survive anything. They could probably survive a nuclear attack, you know. I'd be very surprised if tomatoes didn't survive an apocalyptic event because they are such natural survivors. They're so strong. So I'm just literally cutting out all the leaves. Well, not all of the leaves but the leaves that are sort of covering over the tomatoes and trying to expose them and trying to let them see the light, you know. It's like being on holiday and someone's parasol is sort of over your sunbed and it's really annoying. So I'm removing the parasols. That's what I'm doing. We can tie that up there. There we go. Now I think they've got more of a fighting chance of turning red on the vine, whatever colour they're supposed to be. I think these ones are red and then I think these ones are sort of an orangey yellow. Oh yeah, they are. Orangey yellow colour. And then I'm just using some more of this sort of hay to mulch around the bottom of the plant. And this does a couple of things. Firstly, it stops the leaves from touching the soil which can spread blight. Though I don't think blight is a massive problem at the moment but always best to be prepared. And also it's really helping to keep the ground underneath wet which is obviously really important in this dry weather we're having. Every time I water these it's like a really thick mulch over the top like a blanket basically and it just keeps the soil nice and wet which I think is why these tomatoes haven't dried out and they're actually still alive because I've definitely not been watering them as much as they need watering. I think it can only be down to the mulch around them that's keeping the soil from drying out. So that's probably one of the best things I did for my tomatoes this year. We'll just have a little pick-me-up after all of our hard work. I'm not ashamed to say that most of my tomatoes are not making it home. I'm literally just snacking on these as I'm working on the plot and I'm not ashamed because they are absolutely perfect when eaten straight off the vine. It's like the most perfect tasting tomato you will ever eat. So sweet and lovely. I didn't think he'd be here waiting for me today but here he is. He has turned up. So don't poo, don't poo. I can see you lifting your tail. Right, let me go get your food. All right, I've got to get these potatoes up. So these are my second earlies and they completely dried out in the heat wave. I think a few videos ago I showed myself, I filmed myself digging them up. That sounds so weird. Why do I do that? Filmed myself digging up potatoes for the vlog and I just pulled them up because it was so, so hot and we've not had any rain since. I was going to wait for it to rain to loosen up the soil so I could dig the rest of them up but we've not had any rain. So now it's time just to try and dig up as many as I can. I need to mulch this bed over, sort it out, ready for autumn growing. I can't do that with potatoes still in the ground. So a few of them have sort of crept up to the surface which I don't think are edible anymore because they've been sitting in full sunlight. We're going to do our best to dig this bed over but like I said, we've had no rain and it's rock solid in there. I don't know how this is going to go. We're going to try. Oh my gosh, it's so, so dry. There's one. And that is the danger. That is the danger of digging with a shovel. I've literally gone straight through that and chopped it in half. One absolute nightmare. Also, what are the odds of literally catching it at that exact angle? I am actually finding a significant amount of hidden potatoes under here. I almost wish I wasn't. I almost wish I wasn't finding that many because it's a very hard job getting through this soil. And the sun's come out now and believe it or not, the rain clouds have moved on. I can't actually believe that. It was so close to raining and then it just sort of changed its mind. I don't know why. It's a very hot, difficult job but I am actually finding some significant potatoes, some really big ones. So I will show you at the end. I'm just going to give one more dig over before I faint. Wow, I can't dig anymore because I'm literally going to faint. But some of these, some of these are really good size. Really good size potato, all just hiding under the ground. I can't believe that these are sort of sitting under there. Well, I mean, I can believe they're sitting under there because like I said, all I did... That one's not very good. Sorry, I'm not even looking at this one. I might be able to slice that end off. I'm sure some of them are okay. Yeah, some of them are okay. So I should have chosen a better example. But yeah, all I did was pull them up. So it's really important to dig when you take your potatoes out. Also, not the best idea to use a shovel because like I showed, you can just sort of smash through a potato, slice through it, which isn't brilliant. You should really use a fork, but I don't have a good one. The ground is so hard, I wouldn't get through it with a fork anyway. So I've had to use a shovel this time. But you saw when I sliced through that potato, it's not the greatest tool in the world for digging up potatoes. Forks are better because the prongs will miss the potatoes sometimes. I mean, I still slice through them with a fork as well. You can always get it wrong. Oh, I'm getting very hot and sweaty now the sun's come out. The rain cloud, by the way, just passed over. It's gone, it's gone. It had a look down and it thought, nah, not today. And then it buggered off. So no rain again, though there are some more clouds over there. I have a feeling they're just going to pass by. It's very hot and sweaty. I have a weird kind of fatigue with the allotment this year. I'm sure you've noticed I go on and on about it. Let's not be negative, but let's be realistic because I know so many of you who watch these are beginner gardeners. If this is your first year on an allotment plot, then you're not alone. Everybody is struggling. There is such a fatigue that comes with coming down here and not being able to get stuck in and actually do any jobs. You just end up being a bit of a caretaker. It can become quite tedious. So the job's on repeat. Don't come in, butterfly. Don't come in. We both know what's going to happen. Job's on repeat, watering everything, cutting things back that, you know, get a little bit ahead of themselves and then deadheading flowers. We're going to deadhead the cosmos. The cosmos is doing fantastically. This is good news. Trying to keep things positive, trying to keep things as positive as I can. This cosmos has done absolutely brilliantly. I've got one, two, three plants and all of them are just doing great. They do need some deadheading, but when I deadhead them, all the flowers come back. Aren't they gorgeous? So, so pretty. There we go. We're just going to deadhead them. Not the most exciting of jobs, but if you want to keep your flowers flowering, especially cosmos, dahlias, things like that. Oh my gosh, is that a bee? Hello? If you want to keep them flowering and ticking over, just cut off the dead flowers. It keeps them going for a long time. Last year, I still had cosmos flowering in December. End of November. Possibly the beginning of December. Was it in my December vlogs? I'm pretty sure I had a cosmos still flowering in December. So who knows? The pumpkins just seem to keep drying out no matter how many times I water them. Honestly, every time I get down here, and I watered these late last night, every time I get down here, they're drooping. They're just not happy plants. So we're going to give everything here a little bit of a water. This side is definitely doing a lot better than the other side, which is funny because normally it's the other way around. The other side does better. But these look like they are getting bigger and they're about to start climbing. They're throwing out their sort of vine. So I'm hoping they really get going soon and take off up the archway. The other side planted in at the same time, I might add, from the same bunch of, you know, plants. And the same seed bunch, whatever you want to call it. They're all friends basically. And these are a little bit smaller, which might have something to do with the fact that I've got flowers on this side. So I've got the sunflowers, which might be taking a lot of the nutrients. Maybe this side of the archway needs a little bit more of a feed or maybe some fresh compost put down or something. The archway is looking nowhere near like what it was looking like last year. Last year I had pumpkins sort of halfway up it and this year it's all low to the ground. I know I planted them out a lot later to try and get a later harvest. We'll just have to see what happens. I'm very relaxed about it this year. Not panicking. I'm trying not to do my annual pumpkin panic this year. Right. Today is the day that we pick this. This is our little round courgette. I've been keeping an eye on him daily and also, look, he's got another one growing now, which is fantastic. So I think this one is now ready to pick. That's a really good size. And I'm going to stuff him when I cook him. So I think I'm going to show that in my Sunday vlog. So if you tune into my Sunday vlog or maybe if you saw it last Sunday, you'll see me cook with this. I'm not going to do it in this vlog because I think it's going to be a long vlog otherwise. Wow. That is fantastic. That's more like what it should be like. That's more like the size I was looking for. See, now that's more the size I was looking for with these little courgettes. That now looks like, to me, a courgette. I think I'm going to stuff it. I've had a lot of recipe suggestions from you guys and I think stuffing a small one like this will work a lot better than a gigantic pumpkin-sized one. So I'm really excited about that. That looks really, really great. I'm also really impressed that I remembered to pick it before it got to the size of a pumpkin. Well done, me. Right, anyway, I'm getting very hot and sweaty. So I'm going to call it a day there, wrap up and go home. Going to take my courgette home and my potatoes as well. Pretty successful day to go home with a big box of a courgette and some potatoes. I mean, not bad, not bad. Could be better, but you know what? It is what it is. And sometimes you've just got to go with the flow when it comes to gardening and especially your allotment plot. Sometimes you need to let go and just accept what it is, which is what I'm doing this year. Anyway, I do hope you've enjoyed the vlog today from me and my allotment plot and Einstein, wherever he's gone. Goodbye.