PREPARING THE ALLOTMENT FOR THE STORMS / EMMA'S ALLOTMENT DIARIES

No, you can't staple into it. Oh, okay, all right, it's not the staple gun. I'm sorry, staple gun, I didn't mean to have a go at you. I think he's coming home to have his snooze in his little den. I won't be too long. She's set straight on that newly woodchipped pathway. Isn't that funny? I know, Einstein. I know, I'll come back and feed you, I promise. Morning, morning guys. Welcome back to my allotment diaries. My name's Emma. These are the allotment diaries. I just vlog all about my allotment plot here in South London. And I am in the middle of sorting it out, ready for springtime next year. That's right. I am already thinking about the springtime next year. If you are new to having an allotment plot, you just got your first allotment or if you're starting a new garden or if you just got a new house or the new garden, we always think a season ahead. So it's autumn right now, I suppose two seasons ahead really because I'm talking about the spring. But autumn winter, you're thinking about the spring summer and then in spring summer, you're thinking about what you're going to do in the autumn winter. So you're always living in the future, which is a slightly weird way of putting it, but you kind of are always living slightly in the future. You're always looking ahead and I think, for me anyway, that's one of the things that I love the most about allotment gardening and gardening in general is that sense of... purpose, that sense of hope for the future. You're putting bulbs in the ground, but you're not going to see the results of them until the future, until the springtime. And so it kind of gives you something to work towards, something to look forward to. And the excitement and the enjoyment of seeing things grow, it's almost like it takes you back to a state of being a child, kind of like a feeling of wonderment and excitement, like seeing a magic trick when you're little. And, you know, someone pulls a rabbit out a hat or they make a bunch A bunch of flowers appear, and you have that kind of... That kind of amazement and that wonderment, when you put seeds in the ground and you see what they turn into and you nurture them into a plant, it is kind of that same feeling from childhood. I think that's probably what makes it so addictive. You know you want to keep feeling that amazing feeling of wonderment when you discover a gigantic courgette growing or a pumpkin that you'd forgotten about and so you're kind of happy to put yourself through the pain and the stress of gardening and chasing the slugs away and you know dealing with all the heartache because you're waiting for those moments of magic. For me that's what makes gardening so addictive. That's why I love my allotment plot and that's what it's really all about I think, that sense of wonderment. So if that's how you feel about it, you're probably in the right place. Welcome to my channel. Do feel free to subscribe or give me a like if you like this video. I put up a lot of videos guys. I had a comment the other day from someone saying, Emma how do you manage all these videos? I don't know. Honestly I don't know. I think I started doing one a week. I'm now at four a week. And I rarely miss a video, and I don't know how. I think I'm just here so much that I just vlog when I'm here. So it doesn't feel like a lot, but I think it is a lot. I think that's why sometimes people have enough of me and they get annoyed at me. Because you see me a lot, guys. You see me four times a week. You probably see me more than... You see your cat and I'm saying that because the cat, that cat is always here so I'm always thinking when does that cat go home? It's always at my allotment plot, do the owners ever see their own cat? Do I think I see their cat more than, I've got them on a tangent now, if you're new you don't know what I'm talking about, there's a cat that comes to the allotment and I see it all the time and I'm always thinking when does it go home? Enough tangents today, we've got a busy one. The first thing I want to do is really go and get some wood chip because that pile is diminishing by the day and I really need to start replenishing my pathways. So we're going to start with a trip to the wood chip...pile. Trip to the wood chip pile. I really do take you to some wonderful places, don't I? I've got a little list of what I'm going to do today. Thank you very much. Gladioli bulbs, what's going on with them? Oh yes, what is going on with them? That's a good point. Well done, Emma. Check the broad beans to see if they have come up. Clear away the parsnips, do a wood chip run and turn the compost and cut it up. Yeah, I think the compost is probably the biggest job of the day. But we will start with the wood chip, I think, and let the birdie... Warm up. I don't know where the birdie is, so let's go get the woodchip first. Worry about the bird later. Oh no. Oh goodness. We've got our first issue. Welcome to the channel if you're new. We've got the first issue of the day. The wheelbarrow appears to have completely caved in. A bit over. Something's happening here. What's all this? What's happened? This is a real, real shame. This is a real, real problem. Where are you two going? Where are you off to? Um... This is a real problematic situation here, there must be something. Okay, hang on a second, all might not be lost. I am on the verge of getting new tools and a new wheelbarrow but I'm waiting for the car boot sales to open again, they've all closed for the season so I can't go down there yet. Oh god, the greenhouse alone. Once again, oh yeah. There's a lot of stuff at this lot then that seems to be giving up the ghost on me really quickly. I don't know if it's a sign or something. A lot of things seem to have broken in quick succession. I'm really hoping it's not an omen or a sign to get away from here or something. I think this will work just to get some wood chip. just basically taped this old compost bag in there and hopefully it'll just hold the wood chip on the way back i mean we'll find out together won't we hopefully that'll hold up um anyway let's go on our little adventure come on let's go get that wood chip don't say i don't take you anywhere oh einstein i know i'll come back and feed you i promise oh he's upset with me A lot of this stuff here looks better for composting actually, there's a lot of leaves over there and it's very very sludgy and I actually think it'd be really great for compost, especially if you don't have trees on your allotment, a lot of people don't have trees like I do and there's a lot of leaves there to make leaf mulch. I don't want to make leaf mulch, I want to top up my pathway so I've got to choose the biggest chips which I think are here. The question is, is it holding up? Is it holding up? I don't know, is it? Yeah it doesn't look like it's sinking anywhere. Okay good. We might make it back. Fingers crossed. Hello Mavis. What do you think of the pathway? What do you think of the pathway? Is it good? Oh she likes it. Look she's sat straight on it. She sat straight on that newly woodchipped pathway. Isn't that funny? What do you think Mavis? There we go. I got the cat's approval. That's the cat I was just talking about at the beginning of the vlog. Yeah, that's looking a lot better. It's amazing what topping up your path with wood chip can do. It just makes the whole plot look so much neater straight away. And the wheelbarrow did hold up, so that's a good thing. Yeah, this is looking really, really good now. I'm really happy with it. I just need to get more wood chip basically and just keep topping up those pathways. All of my leaves are starting to fall now and this is amazing for me because firstly if it lands on beds I tend to leave it there because it's a natural material which can just fall on my beds and rot down in its own sweet time and all of this I tend to collect up every year and either put into my compost or use in a new raised bed and I think this year I will collect them all up and use them in my new raised beds here to help fill them Well, I needn't have been worried about the broad beans because we've got really good broad bean germination. They're really starting to come up now. I can see them all poking through the ground. That is fantastic that they haven't been dug up. I did actually throw in a few more broad beans last time I was here just because I was a little bit worried that the cat Or the squirrel or whatever, but no, they are starting to grow now. So I've got some really good sized ones coming up here, all poking through the ground. And these will be able to overwinter now, so I don't really have to do anything to them. If we get a particularly hard frost, like a really hard frost, I might cover them over with some fleece. But actually broad beans are really hardy and they can withstand quite a lot of frost. So I don't tend to do anything to them now until the springtime. And in the springtime all I do is support them with some sticks. And that's it really. I've got a new motto for my compost heap. Do you want to hear it? It's leave it alone and let it do its thing. I think I spend too much time worrying about how to make compost. Am I going to make compost? What do I have to do to the compost? Composting is a whole nother level of gardening. It's like you could buy an entire book on just composting. You could make an entire YouTube channel just about composting. It is. It's a complex thing but also so simple. Just throw in your brown stuff, throw in your green stuff, chop it up and it'll make compost. That's where I'm going to go back to. I'm going back to basics with it. We're just going to chuck stuff in, chop it up and hope that one day we get compost. There are just so many different elements and so many different jobs in gardening that you're never going to be good at all of them and compost I can absolutely say without a doubt I am terrible at and I do not understand and my compost heap always ends up like this after the summer and I get in a huge panic and I try and sort it out in the autumn and it ends up like this again. I think ultimately I'm going to stop worrying about it I can't worry about it forever and I think I think I need somewhere for all of my old crops to go. This is where they're going to go and it gets smaller every year so it's doing something in there. I think I'm just going to keep whacking stuff on the top, chopping it up, giving it a turn every so often. I'm just going to stop worrying about it because it just takes up too much of my time here. I've just spent about 20 minutes on my big job of the autumn which is clearing all the front, I think it's the front of my plot. I'm putting in some flower beds for the next year so that it doesn't become an overgrown, weedy mess. I think behind the shed we'll have to take a bit of a backseat because I'll need access to the roof to be able to fix that. So I'm sort of clearing it and trying to get as many weeds out as I can and move all the rubbish away. But I don't think I'll be putting in the flower bed anytime soon. I think it might be the springtime once the shed is fixed. Hello! I think he's coming home to have a snooze in his little den. I won't be too long. bless him. Right I've unwillingly turned into Snow White again, all the animals seem to be drawn to me. Anyway that's the big job of the autumn time, I always like to have a big job of the autumn. There's actually a couple of big jobs this year so I've got a lot to be getting on with. Obviously there's a storm on the way and I think it's going to hit tomorrow now, is what they've said. So this is like technically the calm before the storm. So I'm just going to go around and double check that things are kind of secured into the ground. See if there's anything I can do to make it less likely that my plot's going to be destroyed in a storm. I know I've got some fleece down and I want to have a look at that water box thing. So let's just have a look around and storm protect the plot. Oh, foxy foxy. Come right onto my plot. What do you want? What's up? Mate, what are you after? Why have you stuck his head up then? I won't be long. I already told you I won't be long. I won't be too long. Yeah, he's checking to see if I'm going. Look, he wants to get into his den. Yeah, you just sit there and wait then. He's eating all the mealworms. He's eating all the mealworms for Einstein. Is he angry? He's eating all the Einstein stuff now. Right, I need to get my staple gun working because I've got a stapler or something. I was hoping I wouldn't have to read the instructions because I'd rather just, it just work. Okay, I think I've done it. That was simple enough. Right, what I need to staple, so the master plan with this water tank thing is to allow rainwater to fill it up, but it keeps falling off so I'm going to staple it to the top. Staple the pond liner to the top of it. Neat as well. Sorry, where are the bloody hell are the staples then? I don't understand where the staples are. Why is that? I knew that wouldn't work, I bloody knew it. The second I put those staples in, I knew it wouldn't work. The second I put those staples in, I knew it wouldn't bloody work. I just knew, I just knew. Right, I've got my old one now and the staples fit it, so hopefully this will work. Rusty now. Ah. Try again. Oh, come on, come on, come on, you can do it. Try again. Oh, come on, staple gun. Are you serious? None of these staples are stapling. Why are you not stapling? Is it because of this? It's not stapling to this. Why are you not stapling to this? Can that be stapled into? No, you can't staple into it. Oh, OK. All right. It's not the staple gun. I'm sorry, staple gun. I didn't mean to have a go at you. It's the thing. This, I think, is fibreglass. You can't staple into it then. Oh, my gosh. I can't do anything with it. I don't know how to make this stick then. No nails? Maybe I'll try some no nails. It's annoying because you can see it's starting to fill up, so that is really frustrating that I can't make this bit stay and I don't know how to stick it. This is a conundrum, this thing. This thing is causing me drama now and I did not need that. All right, we'll have to come back to this Okay, well that's something I'm going to have to think about. Maybe pegs? Maybe I could peg it with something. I'll have to have a real think about that for next time. But I've run out of time. I have to get home. I've got some other things to do today. So it's just a small visit to the plot. We did a couple of jobs. Like I said, at this time of year, unless I'm working on the big projects, it's just sort of... you know tidying things up and doing little jobs. It's nice that we had the sun today but I do think there's a storm on the way tomorrow so I'll let you know how that goes in my next vlog. I have I have sorted out things as much as I can for it but we're just going to have to wait and see what happens. Anyway join me again for my next vlog hopefully it will be on Friday if I manage to get down here before then and I'll show you the storm damage I suppose and hopefully there won't be any And we'll just work on some other stuff at the allotment plot. I hope you're enjoying these vlogs still. Don't forget that my allotment planner 2027, I know I haven't spoken about it very much, but it is now up to purchase. So if you go below to the description, there's a link to my 2027 planner. So if you're waiting for it or you're excited about it or you enjoy using them every year, you can now go and purchase it. It is a little bit cheaper this year than it has been. I've managed to get the price down. So I hope you enjoy it. If you do purchase it, let me know. Send me a picture of it on Instagram, let me know on here, there's an aeroplane. I will see you again in my next vlog. Thanks for watching. Bye!