THE PLAN WENT OUT THE WINDOW! / ALLOTMENT GARDENING UK

He's turned up. I can't believe it. He's turned up. I've got to be honest with you guys. All of my plans for today has been blown. Is there a plan C? Probably. Sorry guys, there's a little bit of tree surgery going on just behind my allotments. I hope it won't sort of interrupt the video too much. I'm hoping you can still hear me over it. I think it's just that time of year cause we're in September. We're in September. How did that happen? But it's that time of year where they start to sort of prune all the trees and sort things out. So just one of those things. Also, oh my goodness me, look what I've had to bring with me today. An umbrella, an actual umbrella to shelter me from water that is coming from the sky. I think it's starting to rain. It is. It is starting to rain. I can hear it in my greenhouse. Oh my goodness me. We've got rain. Most of the rain that we've had, cause we have had quite a lot of rain now here where I am in South London, but most of it has been sort of overnight time or very, very late afternoon. So I haven't had the pleasure of being at my allotment plot while it's been raining yet. So this is a first and I'm very happy about it. Um, I wish the allotment was sort of looking nicer for it. I, is it? No, not really. I think it's just too far gone this year. It's just going to be very difficult to bring it back. Um, I do have something exciting to show you on the archway though. I'm hoping they're going to stop in a minute cause it's a little bit annoying. I've also bought some bits and bobs. I have a bed in mind that I'm going to really sort out today and make good. I'm really trying to sort of work around the allotment in sections so I don't get burnt out. I know I've gone on and on about this being my make or break year on the allotment. I think most of us had quite a poor summer, um, and really struggled with it. I don't want you to think that I'm rushing in too much. I'm still being very sensible and going bed by bed, section by section. So I don't get burnt out with it again. I'm trying to sort of limit myself to a few jobs every time I'm here, but do things that are productive and are going to make a real difference to the plot and lift my mood and actually make a difference here. That's the way I'm doing it. So I have bought a few little bits and bobs, some extra autumn veg. I do still have some pots of, um, veg that I've sown for autumn that really needs to go out now. They're looking really, really sad just because I didn't have a good place to put them in. Um, and I've got some mulch now and some compost and I really want to sort out a bed, get these ones out. I've also bought myself a couple of these, which are, let me just see what they are. Chicory, which I thought would be really fun. I've never grown chicory before, so I thought I'd grow some chicory. As it started to rain, let me show you what I've picked up then. So I've got some Savoy cabbage here, which is one of my favorite cabbages. In fact, it is my favorite cabbage. Um, and I'm going to grow this. Hopefully this will be ready for Christmas time. Uh, Savoy cabbage is just beautiful on a Christmas dinner plate. I know red cabbage is traditional. I love Savoy cabbage. I love the texture of it and the crunch that you get with Savoy cabbage. Picked up one of these cause I've never seen this before and I thought it was really interesting. This is, these are chives, but they are garlic chives. And then I've got a couple of, um, tarragon, French tarragon, one French tarragon, sorry. And one thyme, silver posy thyme. That's right. I was going to get two of these and I only got one in the end. I use tarragon quite a lot in roast dinners. It's a beautiful herb, which I don't think is, um, used enough. Honestly, it's, it's absolutely delicious. Please grow tarragon. I don't know how to grow this, but I'm just going to give it a go. To be honest, I'm going to give it a go. There's a lot of instructions on the back of these of exactly what conditions they need. All right. Okay. Let me just have a quick little read to make sure I'm not going to kill these straight away. So the tarragon needs to be planted in poor dry soil with a sunny aspect. Can be grown in containers, ideal for tubs and pots. Well, that's great because most of my soil is absolutely crap at the moment. So I think that will be absolutely fine. And then the thyme it's saying obviously a sunny place. It's really good for bees. Um, excellent for rock, rock gardens, banks and bed edges trailing over walls and lawns. Prefers a light well-drained soil in a sunny position. Okay. Again, fine. I think I can find somewhere for that. And then the garlic chives prefers a rich, moist, well-drained soil in the sun. Okay, fine. So I think these will be fine in the bed that I've chosen because the bed that I've chosen isn't brilliant. I'm going to try and improve some of the conditions in it. Um, but I think herbs, every time I look at it, I just think herbs need to go in there. Wow. It's really starting to rain now. I tell you what, we'll do a job in the greenhouse. Then seeing as it's not boiling hot in here, I'm not going to melt. I think we will properly prune these tomatoes so that they're literally tomatoes on sticks. Let's do that. As you can see, the tomatoes are thriving, absolutely thriving. But because we are now in September, where are you? You're down there. Why are you down there? I haven't put you so low. Um, because we're in September, the colder weather is on the way. It's on the way people. Um, and so a lot of these tomatoes will now struggle to turn red because as I have learned quite recently, and you know what? I'm always learning. I'm always learning. I'm not an expert. I think we all can appreciate that and I'm not very good at retaining information. Um, but I've learned quite recently that it's not the sun that turns tomatoes red. It is the heat. It needs, it is heat basically to turn them red or yellow or whatever color they're going to be. Um, so it's not actually the sun. And that means that because the temperatures are now dropping throughout September, they're going to struggle to turn their green tomatoes a different color. So it really is now all hands on deck to try and do everything that we can do for the tomatoes to encourage them to change color on the vine. They definitely will not all manage to turn color and that's fine because I can take some of the green ones home, make a nice tomato chutney or stick them on a warm windowsill and hopefully they'll change color on the windowsill. But that's not today. Today we have to try to get them to change color on the vines. That's the number one plan. The other plan, the other plan would be plan B. Is there a plan C? Probably. There's many, many plans. There are always many plans of many different plants. Um, but for now we are sticking with plan A and plan B. This being plan A. So I'm just literally cutting all the leaves off. I just wish the top wasn't so bent cause I can't see what you're doing up here. What are you doing up here guys? It makes me feel like they're hiding something. What are you up to? Pinky in the brain, trying to take over the world, aren't you? One tomato at a time. I won't have it. I just won't have it. Come on. I'm also being sure to take any leaves that are on the very bottom of the plant off because I want to avoid blight. Late blight will kill these tomatoes in about a day. Um, and so I don't, I don't want to encourage them to get blight. Have you ever seen a film called Interstellar? Um, but at the beginning of the film they talk about how one of the fields has got blight and he had to burn his entire crop and how awful it was because that was the last of the corn or something like they'd never have corn on earth again. And I always remember watching that film and being really confused as to why they'd never have corn again if it got blight. I was like, why don't they just save some of the seeds? But obviously if a plant gets blight, you can't sow the seeds from that plant because you'll spread the disease, you'll spread the blight. So it makes perfect sense now. Now that I understand how deadly and like destructive blight can be. So if it was your last sort of crop, your last seeds that you've ever got of that crop and they got blight, that's it really. That's it. So now I sort of understand the film. So there's a bit of film trivia for you there. If you ever watched Interstellar and you didn't understand the blight reference, say I tackle all kinds of questions on this channel. I made one mistake. I went to cut the leaf and I accidentally cut a big bunch of green tomatoes, but that's fine. I'll take them home. I will use them in some kind of dish. I actually really like green tomatoes. I think they taste good. Please don't tell me they're poisonous because I've been eating them for years. So I'm obviously made a poison. I think I've done a good job here. I feel like I've done a good job. All the leaves on the bottom I've been taken off and then you can just see all these little pops of color. So pretty. Actually it's kind of like the end of summer's Christmas tree is summer's version of a Christmas tree with all the tomatoes all against the green. It's just so, so beautiful. I do think I've thinned this out a substantial amount, so I do think they're going to be okay now. I'm really happy with it. That does feel like I've taken a lot of the plants, but the plants are absolutely fine. I'll do a big harvest today before I leave. I feel like I did a big harvest the other day, literally like a day ago, and now they've all just grown back. Um, and now just got a load more to harvest, but that's a good thing. I love tomatoes. So do a big harvest before we leave. Let's get rid of this and then let's get outside. Right. This is the exciting news. This is the very exciting news. Why has it got powdery mildew? God damn it. It was exciting news until I saw the powdery mildew. Now I'm panicking. Right. The exciting news is that we are starting to get a few little Jack belittles and the plants are actually starting to climb. However, I'm also starting to get powdery mildew. This is really early on. I'm wondering if the milk trick will work. I know I just had a whole vlog where I was like, it doesn't work. It's never worked, but now I'm really hoping that I was wrong. And it does just work. Is it just going to work? Please. Can you tell me that it's just going to work magically, even though I've just like said it doesn't work. I guess that is the risk of planting them a little bit later is that, um, they're more subject to things like powdery mildew early on. The thing is that will kill the plant if it's too small. If your pumpkin or courgette is massive right now, and you've got a little bit of powdery mildew, it will probably be fine. Just leave it alone. Just cut off a few of the worst affected leaves. But if your plant is really small, that's not good. Oh, I've had nothing but trouble with these pumpkins this year, but I have got one there. I really hope that he just keeps growing. Just do well. Please keep going. I've got little ones at the top as well. Please, please. They do seem okay. They do seem to be climbing now as well. Oh, please just climb up there. Go on. You can do it. All right, let's move on to this job of the day before it starts raining again and I can't do anything. So the beds that I've decided to put all of those plants in while most of those plants in is this one here. And I have immediately changed my mind because I've got seedlings coming up in here. What on earth has happened here? These are definitely things that I've planted in and they've obviously just started to germinate. I've got spring onions too. Oh my goodness me. These have literally waited under the ground for the rain. They've literally just been sitting there doing nothing and now it's rained. They're all starting to come up. I can't believe that. I had no idea that plants did that. Just sat under the ground and waited for it to rain. Same things happened in this bed here. I think this is spinach. I think this is spinach and stuff. It's all starting to come up. It just, it was doing nothing. Absolutely nothing was coming up. And now we've had the rain. It's all sprung up like I've just sown it yesterday when I think I sowed it quite a few weeks ago. Just loads of them, loads of them all coming up. You know what? I better leave them because I might get a crop out of these. Shall we just start with something simple then and just clear this area here and make it look good. I think we'll just clear this area and then I think we'll just top this up a little bit and see if there's some room to plant some of those crops in. I think we'll do that. Also, this fennel is crazy big now. It's absolutely massive. I'm not entirely sure what to do with it and I still can't get a stick in the ground to support it properly. I don't quite know when to harvest it either when the seeds are going to be ready for me to pick. It's all a bit of a mystery. I mean, it smells gorgeous. It smells so fennel-y. I absolutely love it. I want to keep it, but I've got stuff under it. I'm wondering if I should move that stuff under it. Oh God. Right. I think we'll try and get these out, whatever they are. And I think we'll plant them in between those rows of seedlings that are already in that bed. And I'll sort of top up with a little bit of compost. And then these, we're going to have to rethink where all of these are going to go. And I don't want to rush it because I want these to be, I mean, these are perennial, I think. So they'll sort of come back year after year. So I want to make sure I put them in a good place. So let's just not rush these ones. Um, and then these savoy cabbages are going to go in the brassica bed. Plan was just to dump this entire bag in here, but I'm not going to do that now because obviously I don't want to cover over all the seedlings. So I'll sort of strategically, strategically put it down. I don't know where all these seeds are coming from. I'm happy to see you, but you know, why here? I do remember what I planted guys. It's lettuces. It's lettuces and it's spring onion. And I alternated it. I remember it's just that none of it came up and we had that heat wave. And I just assumed, I mean, assuming obviously makes an ass out of me and you. And obviously I've made an ass out of myself with these seedlings. So I didn't expect them to survive. Here you all are. So I don't know, really. Maybe we'll go into this bed. The rain has finally stopped. I don't know what any of this is. I don't know what this is. I've sort of planted some of it out in clumps. Some of it I've taken a risk on and I've separated it from all its mates. So I don't know if that's going to work better than that. I think the clumps will grow better, but I don't know what that is. I cannot remember what I planted. Um, it doesn't matter because I planted it out now. So whatever it is that will turn into whatever it's supposed to be, hopefully, if it doesn't get eaten or die, um, and we'll find out. I've got to be honest with you guys. All of my plans for today has been blown because those seedlings have decided to grow. I mean, it's amazing. I'm so happy that you've decided to grow guys. Honestly, I'm so happy. And I think lettuce and spring onion is excellent in that bed. It's just that I wasn't expecting it. You know, they've just been hibernating under the ground. I've mulched around them a little bit, so that's good. And I think they'll be okay. I think we'll just sort of leave them to do their thing. Um, and we'll just, um, we'll put out the cabbages. Plenty of room for these in here. I know when I don't stand on the bed, I always stand on the beds. Where are you my feathered friend? Where are you? Coming down, coming down to see me. I can hear him. He's been like twittering away, but it's been raining. So I haven't wanted to put them out in the rain. Um, and now he's sort of disappeared. So I can sort of hear him. He's clicking. He might come down in a second. Anyway today, I don't know if you've noticed, but I've been really thrown, um, just by like the rain, first of all, which I wasn't expecting it to rain so hard. Um, and also like the fact that the seeds have come up, I sort of, I had a plan of where I wanted stuff to go. And, um, it's been a little bit blown out the water. So now I've got to rethink where things are going to go. He's turned up. I can't believe it. He's turned up. There you are. There you are. I heard you for ages. I wasn't sure if you were going to come down. Yeah. Some mealworms there. I tried to get a closeup shot and he wasn't having it today. He was like, get that thing off of my stand. Okay. I want to eat my dinner in peace. Fair enough, Einstein. All right. Um, anyway, got some things out, did a little bit of clearing, sorted out the tomatoes. I think that's, I think that's good. I think I'm being hard on myself. I think I've actually had quite a good day here and I've actually scouted out the next area that I'm going to do the next time I'm down here and it's going to be this flower bed. I bought some, I bought some compost and I've also bought some mulch, some specific mulch for my garden to add some moisture, some goodness to it. So I'm going to sort out this part next time. This flower bed here, I'm going to sort out and I'm going to sort out a little bit in here as well. And I think just doing this bit here will make the whole plot look so much neater, so much more organized. And, um, hopefully, I mean, give this a little bit of goodness because nothing sort of grows in this except tulips. So I will work my magic on this with the mulch and compost. I mean, every part of the plot is looking a little bit sad, but I feel like I'm working around it the best that I can. I'm trying to sort it out as best I can. Um, and we're just going to keep going with it. Anyway, I'm going to pick a load of those tomatoes now, take them home, make a nice pasta sauce tonight for dinner. Yum, yum. Um, and join me next time on Friday, I think, um, where I'll be doing more allotment jobs just to try and bring my allotment back into order again on my make or break year. So the plan for autumn is always to try and grow as much as I can. That's what we're going to continue to do. I will see you next time. Thank you so much for watching.