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[MUSIC PLAYING]
-Hello, welcome back to another episode.
It's a beautiful day today, nice blue sunshine.
And there's also a bit of heat in it as well.
Now, I was just about to take you over
to have a look at what Geoff's up to because he's down.
But he's just gone home for dinner.
So we'll catch up with him later on.
But Vivi's here.
And she's busy turning over her beds.
So what are you up today then, Vivi?
-I'm digging over this bed again.
I dug it in the autumn.
But all the rain we've had pelting down
has turned into this sort of film of concrete.
Plus the weeds are starting to come back.
So getting it dug over, ready for my onions.
My garlic is already in.
And it's going to be onions, leeks, et cetera.
Thought you had your beans here last year?
This was beans.
Beans are jumping a bed this year.
And they're going to the next bed.
Oh no, this was potatoes.
Hence, on my third digging, I'm still getting potatoes out,
which is a bit bananas.
So yeah, so alliums and roots.
This is going to be my squash and tomatoes.
But this year when I plant the tomatoes,
I'm going to build a massive structure for them
to go up because last year it all got
a bit chaotic with cat's cradles.
Legumes in that bed that I half started last year.
Dig the rest of it out, and that's potatoes.
Then I'm moving my cold frame up.
And that's going to be my herb bed.
-What's going on with the tennis court next door?
- [Laughs] So, obviously, last year we had the allotment Olympics.
Geoff proved himself to be Frisbee king.
I wasn't so good.
Graham was rubbish.
I'm really good at tennis.
So this year, we're going to have our own little Wimbledon.
And I'm going to whoop Geoff.
But look at his beds.
They're gorgeous!
-New balls please.
At this time last year, if we just have a flashback.
-We'll have a flashback.
Woo!
-Come on.
Come inside.
There we go.
-As you can see, the snow is really throwing it down now.
I think it's actually getting a lot worse than getting better.
But hopefully by next week, the sun will be out.
And we can get on and do a bit of gardening.
-It was snowing this time last year.
-It was snowing.
It was hail storms.
My plot was in a state because I'd
left it fallow for six months or more.
It was grass.
It was big thistles and dandelions.
So this year I was thinking, ah, I need get out.
I need to get out.
But actually, compared to last year, I'm way ahead already.
-While Vivi's busy turning her beds over,
I'm going to put the kettle on and make a cup of tea for us.
I'm not really in the mood for doing any gardening today.
It's such a nice day.
Oh, the kettle's already boiled.
I put it on about five minutes ago.
I was just saying, it's a bit too hot
for doing any work today.
-It is.
It's surprisingly warm, isn't it?
-How do you open this?
-Oh my goody-goodness.
-There you go.
Hit it against the, uh--
-That would be Graham who's put it on.
-Come back after the break.
-I won't have peppermint.
I'll have something else.
-All right, let's have something else.
A lucky dip?
-I'll have by choosy actually.
Ky will have a lucky dip.
Oh, it smells divine.
That's one for Ky.
-Do you have people to come around to the shed?
-That's a chamomile.
I'll have chamomile.
-Do you make tea for everybody else?
Tell us in the comments below.
-And what's your favorite tea?
-Because there are some plots where
the people can be a bit funny.
-But what we'll do as well is we're
going to be planting chamomile this year so that we
can have our own hand made tea.
-I'm planting stevia so we can have our own sugar.
-Right.
-I'll put that there.
-Time to take the antlers off.
-When will you be putting out the bunting?
-It's kind of one of those things, isn't it?
I don't want to tempt frost and rain, so maybe in May, June.
Don't get water on my onion sets, will you?
-Now, when I started making a cup of tea,
they didn't want one.
So what's happened is now there isn't any water left for me.
-Yay, just eke it out.
-Oh, just about, just about.
Who else is coming?
-Ky's coming over.
-Ky's done today as well, right.
-So let's have another chair.
-Anybody for a Hobnob?
[ BIRDS CHIRPING ]
-Look at that.
-Look at the size on her potatoes.
-Lucky you.
-It's ridic.
-Cup of tea?
-Afternoon.
-Cup of tea, biscuit?
-Apple.
-There you go.
-Merci.
-Do you want a Hobnob?
There you go.
Catch 'em.
You must always start your allotment day
with a cup of tea.
What do you ladies think the year is going to bring us?
-Well, hopefully, another long, sunny summer.
We had so many long sunshine days last year.
Bountiful crops.
-Are you going to be doing your sweet potatoes this year?
-I'm trying to get hold of sweet potatoes.
I've asked around a few nurseries.
And they don't even do them. They can't get hold of them.
-I'll have a word with somebody that I know.
-Yes, yeah, that would be handy.
-And I'm trying a few new things.
I'm trying celery this year.
-Are you?
-Because I always use it in soup.
And it's the one thing I end up buying.
So give it a go.
And it's supposed to be like a non-blanching variety.
-So if anybody's got any tips, put it in the comments section
below.
-Yes, please.
As I say, it's a non-blanching variety.
I'm just going to find some little spaces just-- I'm not
going to dedicate a whole area to it in case it doesn't work.
-If you have any hints and tips on celery,
put it in the comments section below.
We've had some more visitors to the party.
And they've brought some alcohol with them.
-I had a smaller one.
And I lost it at the theater.
And you can smell the alcohol before you can see it.
And there's Geoff.
-And this is the one for Geoff, isn't it?
Old Crafty.
-An Old Crafty Hen for Geoff.
-Thank you.
-How's your shed?
-Sorry?
-How's your shed?
-You're not allowed to film-- you can film it.
But you're not allowed to put it up until I tell you.
-What's going on then?
-I've got some lighting.
-Oh, you've got some lighting?
And you're not supposed to show anyone.
-Here we go, let's have a look.
-No, I can't show you yet.
[BEEP]
-Thank you very much.
-It seemed like the right thing to do today.
-Cheers.
-Cheers, I'll get mine open now.
-Finding strawberries and remaking that bed.
-Oh, that's lovely.
And it's cool, too.
-Well, we've all finished our cups of tea.
And now it's time to head back of the plot
and see what work there is to get on with.
-What you up to, Geoff?
-Oh, just turning this bed over.
I had field beans in here.
And I thought I'd give it another turn
over before I start sowing stuff.
-What's going in this bed?
-To be quite honest, I'm not 100% certain yet.
-You had potatoes last year?
-Yeah, I had potatoes in these two beds.
But my potatoes are going on this bed
here, which I've turned over.
-What's this green?
-The green netting, that's interesting,
two reasons for that.
Firstly, this is a very windswept plot.
So it's to slow the wind down a bit.
And the second thing is to help prevent
some of the seeds coming from my neighbors plot.
As you can see, it's just grass.
She does very little.
And I get a bit cross.
So I decided that I'd put some netting up
to try to slow the weed spread down.
-And you've got some netting at the top of there as well?
-Yep, the shiny stuff from there,
if it's showing up on your camera, that's micromesh.
The idea is it will keep the allium leaf miner fly off
my garlic I've got in there.
Only put it up a week or so ago.
I just hope I'm not too late, the fly's not in there.
-And you got a good deal, didn't you, on that?
-I got it from a company who, because I'm a first time buyer,
gave me several extra meters for free, which
I thought was very good of them.
-What was it called, the company?
-The company, Naturally Gardening.
-There you go.
Hopefully they'll send you some more free now.
-Oh, I'd like to think so.
But we'll have to see how that goes.
-Well, the weather's nice.
I can't get over the weather.
-The weather is absolutely beautiful today.
Having dug this over, it's drying out already.
The top couple of inches are pretty dry.
But when I go down on this particular bed,
it's very, very claggy.
It half-killed me digging this today.
-It certainly looks you are prepared for the coming year
anyway.
-I am.
Best I've been in years, to be quite honest.
-Because this year is your tenth anniversary.
-It's my 10th year on here.
When I took this plot over, it was a total mess.
I got the impression that being in the middle of our site,
that everyone had dumped their rubbish on it year after year.
I removed car parts, sheets of glass,
all sorts of bits of metal, bricks,
a bag of tools which had rusted to pieces.
It was terrible.
Mounds about three or four feet high of soil, full of rubbish.
I must have dug up getting on for a couple of dozen wild plum
trees, which are absolutely useless.
-What changes have you seen down here in the 10 years,
like with the community or whatever?
-When I first came here, this site was about 50% unoccupied.
Now we're fully-occupied and with a waiting list--
I believe it's about 30 on our waiting list for this site.
You see a lot of youngsters turn up.
But they don't seem to stay the course.
Give them 18 months and they're gone.
I don't think they realize how much hard work and effort
you have to put into the plot during autumn and winter
to get it ready for spring.
But that's about the only change you'll see,
is youngsters coming and going.
When I say youngsters, it's those in their '20s and '30s.
I think they read about it in the newspapers,
think, oh, this sounds good.
Let's get an allotment!
They get one eventually, come down, think, oh my God, there's
a lot of work to do here, don't see them again.
Great shame, they should really stick at it.
And I think they'd feel quite rewarded when
they start growing their own produce.
-Well, I'm not going to go and do a bit of digging now.
There's Vivi on this side.
You still there Vivi?
-I am.
-I'll see you later anyway.
I'm going to go and do a bit of digging as well.
-Happy digging.
-See ya.
-You could put your onions and leaks this end,
and your cabbages up that end this year.
-Yeah.
-Ky's on the plot today.
What's going on?
-I'm plotting.
-I hear you.
Against who?
-I'm reorganizing beds, because I
think they're not as efficient as I
want them to be at the moment.
But it was making do with existing materials.
So I'm hoping to get a few more scaff boards.
And then I'll square things up.
And I've also found some strawberries,
which have been lost under the couch grass.
-Nothing very exciting today.
The seeds are coming on in the greenhouse.
And I've got some more to sow in a week's time.
But today the task is getting the beds
on the open border ready for the plants.
Don't get seduced into this good weather,
because it could still snow.
We've had snow for the last five years in April.
So don't get too excited.
So what I'm going to do now is just clean this bed here,
and get some of the flower sprouts out.
And I'll freeze them, and have them
for my tea in the coming weeks.
[WINDY]
[WIND & BIRDS CHIRPPING]
-What are they up to?
-Nutters, the lot of them.
So Ky's popped along.
She's having some of the flower sprouts.
Do you like these?
-I love them.
They're fantastic.
-It's a cross between a Brussels sprout and a kale.
-Yeah.
-Now, In theory, we should have picked these in December.
But they've still kept.
-I don't mind them being a bit more open.
-Let me just pick one and show you.
-And they're lovely in garlic butter.
-There they are.
Toss them in a bit of garlic butter, great.
These are quite expensive now to buy in the shops.
I think there's a few places that sell them.
-I've not seen them.
-I think there's one high street shop.
-And I'd love some this year.
But no one's heard of them.
-I'll be putting seeds in soon.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
-I may put a few bags of compost on top just
to raise the level a bit.
But, pleased.
That's another bed done, ready for whatever
seeds I put in in the coming weeks.
We noticed, just when I was weeding that bed there,
there seems to be a lot of slugs and snails around really
early, really big ones.
That just shows that we've had a mild winter
in these last few years.
And the slugs are not being killed off.
So that's something to watch out for in the coming months.
[BIRDS SINGING]
It's got a bit chilly.
Just put the old jumper on.
The sun, there's a beautiful sunset behind me.
And VivI's gone home.
Geoff's gone home.
And Ky, she's just--
-I'm on my way.
-Packing up.
And she's off too.
So I'm left by myself so I can get on and do a bit of work,
because they don't stop gossiping, they don't.
So what I'm going to do now is, I'm
going to-- I've managed to get some
of these, what you call them, boxes.
So I'm going to clean the shed and put all my crap that's
underneath the sofa into the boxes.
And look who's just turned up for a feed.
He's already been fed twice today.
So he might just have to wait.
Just about fit, they do.
Look at that, perfect, three exact fits,
as if I'd planned it.
It's gone really cold all of a sudden.
I've got some smaller boxes.
So I'm going to clean up this area here.
There's still a lot of bulbs to go in.
But my focus at the moment is a bit on this edible garden show,
because, as you know I've mentioned it before,
that at the end of the month, the Horticultural Channel
has been asked to stage a guest garden at The Edible Garden
Show at Alexandra Palace in North
London in the last weekend of March.
So I'm going to redesigning the allotment there
at Alexandra Palace.
So that's taken up a bit of my time at the moment.
But there's plenty to be getting on with.
And there's no big rush to get everything done in March.
You can still take your time and do things the end of March,
beginning of April.
So don't be thinking I have to put all my seeds,
or anything like that, because there's still plenty of time.
All right, let's crack on, and clean up.
Another thing, I had an email from somebody
saying they've only just bought their potatoes.
And they don't think they've got time
to chit them, well, if you think chitting is not necessary,
you can just buy your potatoes straight into the ground.
If you think, and you imagine a farmer having
a bedroom full of 3,000 potatoes for his field.
He doesn't bother to chit.
He just throws them straight in.
Chitting is just something that was invented
during the Victorian era just to get crops
a bit earlier, because the only difference between chitting
potatoes and not chitting potatoes is about four weeks.
So there's no great mystery with your own potatoes.
You don't have to chit them if you don't want to,
or if you just haven't got around to doing it this year.
There's not great mystery in gardening.
Although some of the experts might try and make
you think there is just in order to justify there pay packets.
Picked some of these up in other week.
And they're for wildflowers, or for attracting
bees and butterflies.
And they come in a pot.
And the idea is to just rip the top off, go out
and scatter them.
In the past I've tried them.
I've had mixed results.
So I'm trying this floral fusions range,
which is by Sutton's.
So I'm doing a bees and butterfly.
And this is something else I was sent the other week.
It's-- according to the information you sow the seed
around the vegetable patch by just putting these little
strips.
So you put that around the border.
And, apparently, the flowers that grow
are flowers that slugs and snails hate.
So we won't go anywhere near them.
And the theory is if the slugs and snails won't go anywhere
near them, they won't go on to your veg patch.
Obviously, you've got to make sure there's
no slugs and snails in your veg patch to begin with,
otherwise they won't be able to get out.
It's starting to look a bit more decent in here anyway.
I'm going to have to get some gas.
And then I can fire up the kitchen again.
I think I may have to put a piece of wood
in there at some point just to block that off,
because you can see in to the shed
if you just look at the other side.
There you go.
And there's my kettle.
Quite a few people have been down on the plots.
And the weather's been nice.
But it's nothing compared to-- when I first came on this site,
it was about six years ago.
And this time of year, you'd be inundated.
There'd be about 30, 40, maybe even 50 people down
here doing their plots all around the same time.
But haven't seen that for years now.
I think people are watching things that are on the news
going, that there's no money around.
And you have to work a bit harder.
And, therefore, they are giving up things
like coming down to do their plots,
which you would think that if times are going to be tough,
well, you should spend more time doing the plot because it'll
save you with food come the summer.
What do you think?
Have a little discussion in the comments section below.
I could do with a cup of tea now, to be honest.
But there's no milk or anything.
Begonias, next week I'll be planting some begonias,
now that we are back to weekly episodes
because the jobs are starting to pile up now.
So there we go.
That's the table looking a bit more healthier
than it was before.
So that's all form me.
Rusty's gone.
And like I said, I need a cup of tea.
So I'm going to shut the doors and head home.
So for me and everybody else, see you next time.
[BIRDS CHIRPING]
[MUSIC PLAYING]