IT'S COMING TOGETHER NOW! / ALLOTMENT GARDENING UK

I'll just pop them up here. Look how sad he looks on his own, he's just a loner, you know, it's sad. A little scout out, what the hell is that? Oh my god, what the hell is that? What was that? The camera isn't loving this weather guys, it's not loving the lighting and so it's sort of struggling to focus a little bit and sort of brightening up the screen without me wanting it to, so we'll just have to sort of bear with it a little bit. It is a little bit gloomy, the sun is kind of poking through the clouds a little bit, but to be honest I'm really happy with it because we need this, we, we have needed this weather. I went out for a walk after dinner yesterday and it was quite chilly, I had to have a jumper on and I was just like dancing about like I hadn't experienced cold weather, well I haven't experienced cold weather for like months, so it's just so nice to have this cooler kind of air. It means that we can do more here as well, so I'm really, really like happy with that because I can actually get down here and know I can do strenuous jobs, which is what we're doing today. I have scouted out a bed last time, the flower bed that I want to sort of completely redo, so that's going to be the main job of the day. Thank you for all of the comments on my herbs that I've bought because obviously I bought these if you watched my last vlog and I had a plan of where to put them out and now seedlings are growing there, so I can't plant them out in the place I was supposed to plant them out, so I'm having a little bit of a rethink of where these are all going to go. With regards to the tarragon, because I got a lot of conflicting advice, so this is French tarragon, it is slightly less hardy than Russian tarragon, but apparently it can withstand the frost, so a lot of you saying I need to bring it inside and a lot of other people saying no it can cope outside, I think what I'm going to do is I'm going to keep it outside and fleece it and just see how it goes, but it's the Russian tarragon is the one that's really hardy that can kind of withstand really really cold temperatures, this one the French one is slightly less hardy, but I think I will take a risk with it and leave it outside because if I have to start bringing stuff inside it just makes it a little bit difficult for me. I try to make my allotment plot as simple as possible, so I'm hoping it will sort of survive. Also another thing to say, yesterday when I left the plot I had a great big bag of tomatoes, really beautiful tomatoes, all really well done, I was so excited to get them home and cook with them, anyway halfway home the bag that I had them in split, the tomatoes went literally all over the pavement and all into the main road, there was like a group of builders opposite me working on a house and they all just looked at me, I mean they were like there's like 50-60 different coloured tomatoes just literally just went everywhere, and I had nothing to pick them up into, so I just put my head down and had to walk on and leave them, so embarrassing and also so upsetting because I literally, all those tomatoes I picked yesterday, gone, just gone, just wasted. It does look like I'm going to have more to pick, so I'm not sort of crying about it too much, I do have more tomatoes on the vines, so hopefully I'll get another nice big red harvest so I can actually cook with them, oh my goodness, mortifying, what am I like, I think we're going to start with feeding the bird, I think we'll do it the other way around today, we'll feed the bird, we'll sort of just have a little scout out, what the hell was that, oh my god, what the hell was that, what was that, oh does something just fall in my hair, did something just fall in my hair, I think it was a raindrop, I think it was just a drop of rain, sorry about that, oh my gosh that really just landed right on my head, yeah we'll sort of just have a little look around the plot and we'll get to work, we'll get out of here, this bed's doing okay by the way guys, the cat keeps digging it a little bit but he's not actually disturbing any of the crops and the crops are doing okay, we're getting a little bit of slug damage, I'm actually quite happy to see slug damage because we just haven't had any any conditions, any rainy conditions for slugs and now we're getting them, I don't know, I just sort of missed them, oh another one's bolted, genuinely didn't realise, I think I mentioned this in another video, I didn't realise that crops that are so small like baby seedlings can bolt, apparently they can, there we go, something I've learnt, baby seedlings can actually bolt so you've sort of got to watch for it even when they're small, the leeks are alive, like I said I'm completely leaving them alone, if anything I'm going to not talk about them because I don't trust myself with leeks, I think I'll just kill them if I talk about them and the sprouts are alive, a lot of you saying it's too late for sprouts, I planted them when I sowed the seeds when you're supposed to sow the seeds for a sort of late cropping, I think it's just they stunted because of the heat wave and stuff and by the time I've got them out they're a little bit too small so we might not get sprouts, I appreciate that, I do still think they're quite hardy so I'm just going to leave them in and see what happens, this is annoying, this is the cavolo nero kale and it's sort of been eaten, I actually can't figure out what it's been eaten by, it could be slugs it could be birds actually, they like to strip the leaves, what's that, that's just a weed, that is a weed, or it could be cabbage white butterflies, I really don't know, I think I might try and net them I know it's a bit late for this because they've already been stripped or the leaves have been stripped, I'm now having a feeling it's pigeons because pigeons love to strip leaves of brassica plants and especially kale, I know it's a little bit late but I think it's better late than never and actually the plants are very strong, they survived the heat wave with no watering, I didn't water them at all because I just thought oh well I'll just let those ones slide they'll just die I'll sow them again next year, they survived the heat wave so I think they're quite strong plants I'm pretty sure they'll be able to grow back from a little bit of slug or pigeon damage that bed's looking okay, I've got a lot of Californian poppies coming up and a lot of my Californian poppies have started to flower, now we've had some rain, better late than never I suppose, but yeah look getting all these little seedlings up, Californian poppy seedlings and a lot of them around the plot started flowering which is amazing, I think I took a lot of them out because they were all sort of dying but the ones that I've left have all started to flower now which is so so beautiful right these are gladiolus, they did not do very well, I don't think any flower other than tulips does very well in this bed because we've got the tree which is sucking all the nutrients out the bed and also giving it a lot of shade so what we're going to do we're going to take all the gladioli bulbs out keep them in the greenhouse and dry them and plant them somewhere else next year so you can see that these are fairly new ones because gladioli bulbs what you do is you plant one in and the next year they kind of like create more of themselves but they're really small so I think the idea is to separate them anyway so I think it's a good thing that I'm taking them up anyway if I'm honest right that's what I think anyway I don't know they're probably a bit small this is a bigger one so this should be yeah this is a good sized gladioli bulb so I'm just going to leave this one to sort of dry in the greenhouse and I'll replant this one out next year right what I really want to do is dig this bed out but it's got so many tulip bulbs in I'll just end up pulling all the tulips out so we're going to sort of layer on top instead instead of digging under we'll try and layer it up I also think I need to make the bed a bit shorter because this end nothing grows right I bought mulch which I think is made from bark this one in particular composted mulch helps to improve soil structure when incorporated onto the soil surface how to use just literally just stick it onto the border so it's organic which means it enriches your soil and then it also retains moisture which is something we desperately need and also it's perfect for no dig gardening which is what I do so I've got two bags of these and they're 50 litres we're just going to whack them on the top of this bed I think what this bed really lacks is moisture so this should really really help and also goodness as well everything basically everything I really have no idea where my scissors went if anyone watching this has any idea where my scissors have gone please let me know I really need them or do I I guess I'm just living a life pre-scissors aren't I pre-scissor world I live in pre-scissor world honestly look at that look at that you know what when I pulled that on I could feel the bed sighing relief that it's got some goodness in it I mean it is just this bed is crying out for it that felt amazing is it enough no I think the level that I put down then was far too shallow I think it's supposed to be like as thick as you can physically make it but obviously mulch is expensive buying stuff and bringing it here is expensive um will I be getting more yes but it is only the beginning of September so I've got plenty of time to start mulching over all the beds that's what they desperately need um there's no point scrimping on it this year if I'm going full in with the allotment and trying to make it better and improve it you know I've got to do every job that I do has to be done 100% right um and to the best that I can do it so many jobs here I sort of scrimp on I do half the job and I think oh it'd be all right it'll grow it'd be fine actually this year I want to do everything completely properly how you're supposed to buy the book buy the gardening book there are many gardening books which book am I talking about I don't really know um but one of them all of them combined into one book sorry what was I talking about books lost my trail of thought and we're going to take the um gladioli bulbs into the greenhouse and dry them off um I think maybe if we just could you all please just move would that be quite all right and then what we'll do is we'll just pop them up here I think I want them to dry but I also want them to still get air to them and I will here so as soon as they've dried out and um all of this has died back I'll take the leaves off and we'll just have the bulbs for next year um but I think the bulbs are fine I think they'll still grow I just need to put them in a better location right okay right let's get these leaks out I'm a little bit worried about these leaks um because they've been sitting in this container and all their mates are already out so they're going to be gutted that they're not out so I'm just going to stick them in this bed I've just put a bit of that mulch in here yeah I've just stuck a little bit of that mulch in just to try and give it a little bit of goodness and we'll just whack the leaks along here I think they really just need to be out um they can't live in this container for much longer so separate them a little bit come on you're all right that's it I don't tend to separate every single individual leak I sort of grow them in a couple of clumps at least two or three of them because I think they're just happier with their mates really so you know just let them be with their mates it's like at school when you've got to sit next to your best friend you know you're just happier you do as you're told more I don't know I just want to make them happy really yeah I mean these are that's on its own look how sad he looks on his own he's just a loner you know it's sad plants are social too maybe I don't know all right I know that was really fun getting watered but could you all just stand back up for me please would that be all right no don't come out the ground god what are you doing come on leakies wakey wakey stand up for me please thank you that's it let's all stand up that's it thanks guys I think I just enjoy autumn gardening more than spring and summer um and winter I think I just enjoy it I really enjoy mulching over beds and seeing how beautiful they look ready for planting into I really enjoy cutting things back I like harvesting stuff I like autumn crops like brassicas and leeks and things I think I just genuinely enjoy autumn gardening I think if I could go back to the beginning of when I created these vlogs I'd have called it Emma's autumn garden or something like that um and just literally gardened in the autumn time and just completely like pretended the summer didn't exist because honestly I just I love it I love the weather I love that I can do more strenuous jobs it switches off my mind more when I can actually get around and move things about and pull things up I'm just really really enjoying it so I hope you're enjoying these vlogs the plot is starting to look good I'm starting to get it back under control and I'm feeling really positive with it again yeah I can see that it's making a difference what I'm doing it really is and at the moment it's just basically going around to beds so actual growing beds and actually trying to sort them out and plant them up mulch them over weed them make them good and then we'll move on to pathways and um but it's working so far and I'm really happy to have so much in the ground growing so yeah just the more I'm here the more positive I'm kind of becoming with the whole plot again and it's just so good I think maybe I just needed the temperature to come down to be honest I think it was just all about the heat and the sun anyway I hope you've enjoyed today's vlog I will be back again on Sunday with a Sunday vlog or Monday back at the allotment plot so join me when we will be doing more autumn allotment gardening and just trying to get the plot under control again and sorting it all out so I will see you when I see you thank you so much for watching have a lovely weekend bye