More Raised Beds! & Pond Reveal 😱 | Allotment Vlog 🐌 Ep.18 🐌
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- Опубліковано 17 тра 2024
- You can support my little allotment journey here on Ko-Fi! ko-fi.com/serensgarden
🌷 This was filmed on 17th May
🌷 The plot is 4 perches, around 5.5m x 12.5m and the greenhouse is 8x6 ft
🌷 I'm based in South Wales, growing zone 9a
🌱 Follow me on Instagram 🌱 / serensgarden
🎨 You can find my art here 🎨 serenmaddison.com/
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Plot is developing nicely due to your hard work. I would put a solar water feature to keep the water from stagnating and not allow mosquitos from laying eggs
Long term, enough plants would help with aerating the water, and hopefully frogs and frogspawn would keep the mosquitoes from becoming a problem.
The wonkyness and different sizes give it character. Your plot is coming along so nicely.
Put rocks, logs in pool so that insects, animals etc can get out.🐸🐞🦔 Everything is looking lovely due to your hard work.
Such a joy to see your next video drop. I just love your kindness to wildlife. You should be proud of yourself. I'm excited to see the allotment in full swing and particularly the pond transformation. If you need any funding for bird boxes/ feeders, bee hotels, toad abodes or anything like that the give me shout. I'm more than happy to help where I can. A huge fan, in Scotland
Everything always takes longer than you imagine. All of your hard work is paying off🌼🍃🌾💚!
A pump would be good for keeping mosquitos away, bringing oxygen into the water and also keeping the algee at bay :) was a lifesaver in our garden
And sharp plastic bottles you cut with a knife in the middle also work as protection 👩🌾
I planted my flag irises in a big pot that doesn’t have a hole at the bottom. So it stays pretty wet and sometimes pond like when it rains a lot. They still have grown and flowered.
Oooooh, that's a good idea! Maybe if I remove them all I can give them a big bucket to live in instead! 🤭
Hey Seren. Just a suggestion: leave (some of) the flowering onions. Harvesting those now is just not worth it, but the benificial insects will love you for their enormous flower
I'm with you, Seren. I don't want to kill anything on my plot.
Your plot is so pretty, and you have worked so hard and done so well. Very impressed.
I can’t wait to see one of those birds hop up on your hand for a meal worm. The garden has come a long way. Looking good.
The flowering on the garlic are scapes. They come with hard neck garlic. Once the scapes grow and curl you can take them off and use them in cooking. Leaving them on longer will take away from bulb development.
I thought Seren said it was her onions flowering. As onion sets usually do.
Agree that hard neck garlic also sends up scapes, though. 🤛🏻
Those are onions that are flowering, and they're doing so because she planted one-year old onion bulbs. Onions are biennial, and flower in their second year. Lots of people plant small onion bulbs because they get bigger, faster; that way you don't have to plant seeds and thin them out and hope they don't die, etc., the stored energy in the bulbs can carry the onions through the season, but(!) they do tend to flower.
Just cut the onion scapes off down low. Discard the flower head, but the rest of it can be chopped and dried or used like fresh scallions. The remaining onion plant will continue to grow ☺
I use egg shells for the slugs and snails.. they don’t like the sharp edges
I will be saving my egg shells for the plot then 😅 Thank you for watching Laura!
I agree, although it has to be a thick layer and from base of plant to drip line or further , if they can reach and stretch over the shells to the leaves they will, they are annoyingly smart. so get saving lots of egg shells 👍
I safe my coffee grounds for slugs. You are doing a great job. Some times you can get them at coffee shops. 😀
The pond looks soooo much better without the pallet. Love your videos!
There's a plant wash you can try. Boil a whole head of garlic in a litre of water until it's soft and mushy. Leave it to cool and then strain it into an empty bottle with a lid (eg old plastic milk bottle). Dilute 2 tablespoons in about 5 litres of water and use a rose or sprayer to saturate plants you want to protect. Apparently makes the plants unpalatable but is non toxic. I've used this on hostas, see no reason why it wouldn't work on other plants too
1) It's VERY smelly as you make it
2) Plants need a regular refresh and always after rain
Great work! Watching you pull the grate from the pond was somehow even more satisfying than I imagined. For wildlife pond maintenance questions, I definitely suggest Joel Ashton's Wild Your Garden channel. It's an absolutely amazing resource.
I also think we need to talk about how majestic that comfrey is.
For the aphids buy lady bugs. They will love the aphids.
Hi Seren. Your getting on very well, keep enjoying the allotment!
Copper mesh around your tops of beds keep them out.
My father always swore by crushed egg shells in ya mulch they avoid it like the plague
I would put a solar powered pump in your pond to keep it healthy. Your allotment is looking amazing with all your hard work 🙂
I use crushed up sea shells and they don’t seem to like that. 🐌
You can buy them in bags - I think I saw Emma’s allotment diaries had some, but I live by the beach so just grab a bucket when needed x
The ducks will be great for eating sails and slugs as well as insects. You can take them up and separate them then just put a few back into the pond
Everything looks great... You've done well. X
You're doing a wonderful job! I always get excited when I get a new garden tool. Happy hoe'n😊
You are doing so well such a lot of effort and it’s paying off 😊
Yes put some oxygenating plants in the pond. Maybe a plant for that size pond and get rid of some of the blanket weed.
Hi again Seren,if you want to save yourself some time,why not prepare your bed for your runner beans, the time you can put the beans direct in the ground is the 15th of may put in three to a cane In case of failed germination if all three emerge you can pull two out and plant somewhere else.
Charles Dowding deals with slugs by keeping the garden very clean, ie cutting off dying leaves on lower levels of plants as they grow larger. You might want to refer to some of his videos. Since I don't have leopard slugs in my zone, I use iron phosphate pellets. Re your bindweed compost pile, leaving the black tarp over for longer will eventually kill the roots. You have transformed your plot! Good job!
Ahhh I love Charles Dowding 🥰 that is true - keeping the plot tidy and keeping slug hiding places to a minimum will definitely help 😅
Oh yes, I have read about iron phosphate pellets and I think they will be a last resort 🥲 one of my neighbours grows dahlias and he has had to use them around his dahlia bed 🥲
Thank you so much for watching Sylvie! 💖
@@serensgarden The ducks will also help clearing slugs, they love them and now they have access to your pond they may just decide to make it "home" for bed & breakfast. BTW the ducks will also eat the floating pond weed, commonly known as duck weed because that is what ducks eat. Removing the pond cover may bring blessings you never thought of
Put some oxygenated plants in you pond it won’t hurt to take some weed out,also maybe remove some of the flag iris which can take over a pond.it’s looking so much better already.
For the pond I'd rather recommend cleaning every spring ish. And then I'd keep buckwheat straw floating around - that reduces the pond weed growing back. I mean it still grows but not that quickly. When that straw roll sanks then it is time to change it for the fresh one. They sell it in the animal shops like PetsAtHome. And used one still can go into compost (only remove net that holds it together). I also bought a dwarf waterlilie for my pond that is sort of this size. Regular size waterlilie needs way larger space, but 1 dwarf size is maximum that you can put in this pond.
I was warned before I first made nettle fertiliser. Expected it to be bad but still had to run to the other side of the plot for a breath of air. Knocks your socks off!
Removing the pallet went well, didn’t it? You are really doing such a great job. Exciting to know about the ducks. Get planting!
Looking very good, oh and the garden too haha but in all seriousness love how it's all coming together so far! personally I quite like the "wonky/diy" look specially when it's done with hard work like you're doing vs just buying fancy expensive stuff, it lets you get your hands dirty and appreciate the garden more since you put all that hard work in. Good job clearing the pallet from the pond, i love frogs i hope it becomes a little hangout spot for your resident animals :) a little solar pond pump might be good, keeps the water moving!
I'm setting up another 2 or 3 beds myself hopefully add some onions and garlic to my garden this year, I do need to set up a trellis for my cucumbers and tomatoes though. My peppers are off to a rough start this year, unfortunately I think my seeds are getting old (they're around 3-5 years old).
Keep it up, very proud of you!
I got my allotment a couple of months after you and this series started just when I needed it! So cozy and inspiring, thank you! :) 🌸🌻🌷
Awh that's so exciting! Thank you so much for watching, glad you are enjoying 🥰 How is your allotment journey going?! 💖
Well done so far, since I put woodship in the path between my slugs reduced so much, also using no dig helps and you have just cleaned a plot they have lived for long so let’s hope they move on to an dormant plot👍👩🌾🐝
Allotment looks fantastic. Congratulations on all your hard work. It certainly shows.
You are doing a great job...
That big slug called a Tigersnail.. the best you can have on your alotment. The don't eat your plants but other slugs Who eat your plants
Love seeing your allotment get nicer every episode - and never mind evening out stuff, your shows character :) I only garden on my balcony, so watching you transform your plot is my new favorite thing to watch about gardening currently! Could you remind me of the paint you are using on your pots? Welsh weather means they are nicely tested for rain so I would like to give your recommendation a go!
Something about hoeing I find so relaxing ! All that time you have spent on your plot has been so worthwhile. Itt looks amazing. Thank you for sharing.
To save money just add compost where you plant, or seed. If you only water where the plants or seeds are you might slow the growth of weeds
That's what I do! 👍 But i crumble dry, dead leaves that I collect each fall everywhere. Holds water in the soil after it rains, and looks nice until they disappear into the soil.
That’s some nice looking compost you sifted. Bet it’ll be better for your plants than any of the bagged stuff and the best part is it’s free!
Just a suggestion, you could use the cover to the pond as a flooring for your seating area. Sink it by half or more in the ground and fill the holes with gravel and it will give you a hard base. You could put blacking underneath to stop the weeds. Love your plot by the way x
It’s beautiful. Well done!
Look at how far you've come from the mess in the beginning. Maybe you can toss the slugs over the fence 😉Just a thought. Since you have so many birds around maybe adding a bird house with food or something would keep them away from your tomatoes and such.
Don’t put nettle fertile on neat water it down a bit. Putting oxygenating plants in now is fine I would’ve clean the pond now x
Using copper tape is a good slug deterrent but it needs to be a little longer than the length of the slugs you've seen in the garden. Copper is hard for slugs to stick on so they drop off but if they can reach over it they'll ignore it.
Oh no! 😅🥲 ok, I will try and make some larger hoops next time! If these small hoops have worked, I’ll be amazed 😅
Thank you for watching! 🌱
I love my hoe, it’s so easy to use and such fast results. Because you have weeded and cleared the nettles a quick flick around the plants keeps it weed free. Your allotment is looking absolutely great. This year I’ve been sowing seeds and I’m amazed at the things that have grown.
I love my new hoe too! It was so satisfying to use 😅 Thank you so much for watching! Yay! That's so exciting - it's amazing watching your own plants grow day by day 🥰
PS try some flat rocks or small pavers over hanging the green plastic of the pond for frogs to sit under 🦎🐸 xx
Coucou
Bravo pour tout ce travail 🙂👍
A bientôt
Looks very good!!:). Perhaps, reduce water iris in the pond by about 2/3 as they have overgrown their spot and are chocking the pond :0
love you diy copper rings- great idea! Your plot is looking great. You have worked so hard. Well done! Happy gardening 🙂
Hi Seren. A company called Pure Pond make ‘Pond B*mb’ which is a ball of good bacteria which works well in pump-less ponds. It won’t make the water crystal clear, but in my experience it does clear the water a bit and makes the water quality better for the frogs, newts etc. They aren’t cheap (about £15 each, but works out cheaper to buy 2) but I have used a couple a year for about 4 years and think they are worth it. I only have a small pond and use one in spring and then another in the summer.
I wouldn't recommend getting a solar fountain for the pond, wildlife don't tend to like them, they aren't really found in nature . Also little tadpoles, insects and pond weed get stuck in the pump and block it (as I found out when I tried it myself a few years ago not nice pulling dead tadpoles out of it 🙁). U can add oxygenating plants all year round. I would have a guess that the pallet was on top of it to discourage the ducks onto the plot as they can destroy crops. Or was put there after a dead hog or creature was found in it.
And I agree we shouldn't kill anything in nature and I can't either, they are there for a reason and slugs are actually good for the environment as they decompose wood and dying leaves that improves soil, although they are incredibly annoying!! . I usually grow 3 or 4 times more than I need lol so I can share 😂 and hope they leave me something lol
Sadly Seren, the ducks will ruin the pond now the pallet is gone, thats probably why it was put there. It looks quite clear so leave it until the Autumn and just see what happens maybe 🤔. The bubbles will either be newts or pond beetles maybe. Removing the Iris will cause major disturbance. Sending love & light. Happy gardening 🌻🌾🌱 xx
Garden in New Zealand used nettle tea on half my corn accidentally the difference in growth and number of corn cobs was amazing. Have a good watering system, but have to use the watering can to apply the liquid fertilizer and my shoulder is not good.
Your allotment is coming along so so well. I cant believe how much you've done. The onions have bolted and you need to remove the flowers. You might not get much more growth on them now though
you want to go to your local coffee shops such as Costa and Starbucks and ask them to save the coffee grounds for you I have had several bags from my local and the garden loves it,
I would definitely get a solar pump and some oxygenating plants
Yay; free the pond. 😁 The bubbles are methane.
It's fun watching your garden grow, but also fun to watch how your channel is growing! When youtube brought us together you only had a handful of subscribers, now you're approaching ten thousand!
The nettle fertilizer is great for the plants, but you're right: it stinks horribly! I keep a couple buckets full going most of the growing season. I don't have nettles here, so I use any green weeds I pull from the garden.
Here's an idea for dealing with the iris in the pond, Seren: Use your new hoe to reach down under the water, and cut through the roots, so you can separate the parts you want to remove. Then you can pull out the waste, and you're only pulling up a small part of the roots from the bottom of the pond. Oddly enough, the same job is on my to-do list this weekend. My pond is getting similarly overgrown with reeds. I love having a handful of them in the pond, but they multiply quickly and start to take over!
You are doing a lovely job on your plot, Seren! It shows more progress every episode! ❤️
Oh thank you so much for watching Rita 🥰💖
Remove as much soil in the bindweed area. Then throughout the season (and the next few!) be VERY rigorous about pulling the bindweed at the soil level. It will take awhile but you'll get it under control.
Yes been watching some professional gardeners about dealing with bindweed he says the secret apparently is not to let it get leaves as they feed the roots🤷♀️
Having read through other comments I disagree about where to put the bindweed - always in the bin, not in the compost. Your compost may not get hot enough to kill the seeds. Better safe than sorry!!
I know it sounds gross but last night I got an ice cream tube and went round picked them all up. Then took them down the road to a wooded area and let them lose. It 4 min walk from my house and other tree and undergrowth to keep them there
Copper rings, great idea. 😊
Hi Seren, the nettle juice is really good for when you're lifting your carrots, once you've lifted your carrots pat down the soil and spray the nettle juice along the row reason for doing this it will prevent the carrot fly from picking up the scent of the carrots to prevent laying it's eggs on your carrots hope this helps
I like your plot. As long as the boards along the path line up, the wonky back-boards due to differing bed sizes will be hidden by plants. Or, AS WE KNOW, pumpkin vines will totally cover everything! lol Anyway, I love your plot. You keep it so neat and there's nothing more attractive than attention to order.
You can use onion scapes on salads, they taste like mild onions and can be very sweet.
Oooh I didn't know they could be eaten too 🤭 Do I also have to harvest the onions now too? I read that once they start to produce a flower, the bulb will not grow any bigger?? 🥲
Yes, harvest those onions and stick them in the fridge. They won't keep well.
@@serensgarden You can but taking off the scape promptly will make it put energy into the bulb not flowering. It saves it the bulb.
The plot looks amazing! I recently got a plot of my own and was there for 8 hours it's crazy how time flys in the allotment! Love it
4:01 Were the onions grown from sets? Because onions are biennial and sets are technically the second year for the onions they are much more prone to bolting compared with growing from seed. Apparently you can buy heat treated sets which is meant to reduce the chance of bolting. The best way to avoid bolting is to grow from seed. You have to start early though. I started mine from seed early January.
Everything is looking so good, You are putting in the work and it shows. Love seeing the birds
Looks good!
* Sharpen the Hoe
* to remove floating water weeds, use an aquarium net ... about 10" wide (?)
* Try not to stir up the bottom of the pond until you're ready to "empty" clean and refill.
* if the pond smells nasty, siphon out about 1/2 of the water, scrape off the sides a bit, and then refill it (do that last part slowly)
* slug trap: Aluminum pie plate and a 1/2" of beer. Sink the pie plate into the dirt so that it doesn't tip.
Eclectic, not wonky. ;)
It’s looking so good I want a plot now as my garden has slabbed all over I love gardening ie eat what you grow 😊
Lol I made nettle compost tea recently for the first time about 3 weeks ago. I knew everyone said it smells terrible but I was kind of expecting it to smell like anaerobic mud like when you dig a deep hole on a beach or when you have a bucket of soil that has been sitting in water for months. I didn't expect it to smell like actual s--t. Now I'm scared to get it out the container.
6:39 That pallet might be useful for drying your garlic/onions on in the sun.
Simplify Gardening channel on UA-cam has a vid showing how to make your own nematodes killer....
I've just made up two batches using his recipe and watered it in liberally. No shortage of the main ingredients this year .
That pollen looks really nice now and with the fox gloves is going to look really pretty👍🦋
Thank you!! I'm really looking forward to seeing them flower 🌸🌸🌸
no I've got only patio areas where have to buy raised frames and fill them I must of bought about 30 bags started this year so beetroot will work out expensive 😂😂
Your making great progress Being in the north west of Scotland it's a lot wetter and where I grow all my brasicas being surrounded by grass land, to get rid of slugs I have to get they guy that ploughs the land to spread slug pellets as its about 1/3 of an acre. I also feel your pain of riddling soil as last year I finally finished my first of 2 raised beds of 1.4m x 11m and 35cm deep. It might have taken me 4 years between waiting for it to be dry enough and growing, expecting the second side to take another 4 or 5 years
I watch Emma's allotment diaries too and she uses a compost she said is affordable, maybe you could look and see if you have it in your area
Great job💥
The ducks are so cute!!!!! 🦆🦆🦆 Can't wait to hear the results of your copper ring experiment! *fingers crossed*
I got some cheap copper tape and ran it along the boards where the slugs climb. I made a point of getting both ends over the metal braces, screws so it generates a very small electrical charge.
It does seem to work fairly well.
I don't like killing things myself so deterrent is the way for me.
That pond weed actually makes a very good natural fertilizer and ducks like it. You could pull a bit out and let it sit just before you leave.
For the future, a way to create air bubbles or circulation in the pond is a good idea.
Your plot is looking wonderful. You started with a lot of weeds and scrap junk, now it's becoming an amazing oasis. 👍🇨🇦
Hello sent you a video on instagram that shows a good way of controlling slugs without killing them
I really hope the copper rings work to keep the slugs away. Like you, I don't kill anything either. Makes gardening a little trickier but I feel better. Your gardens are looking very nice. Progress is being made.
Ponds are generally best cleaned in early spring just when everything wakes up or early fall before the animals go into their winter rest
My onions got flower buds, too . I chopped them off and put around plants, hoping the slugs would stay away 😂. As always, the plot is looking good.
A more pleasant smelling way to use nettles is with sugar. Huw Richard’s has a recipe for this or cut and drop around your plants. The pond needs an exit route a log or some rocks, use a net to clear a bit of the duck weed, might need some oxygenating weed to keep the water healthy (2 bunches per square meter, I think). A rafting plant would help as well. There was a really good bit on gardener world a few years ago (might still be on iPlayer). If you have a look on Devon Pond plants there loads to information, the plants I received from the were fantastic (highly recommended). Just put the slugs and snails in your compost bin, they love it plus they helping with the composting or grow lots of lavender (seems to be repel everything). Does anyone use capillary matting with a drip system in their greenhouse shelving, would massively appreciate any information on setting it up, etc?
Apparently garlic soaked in hot water and then diluted can be used as a spray against slugs but obviously needs reapplying whenever it rains.
You have accomplished so much!! Looks great!
Another lovely video Seren. Your hard work is paying off. Such a great job. ❤
POND REVEAL LET'S GOOOOO 🎉🎉🎉
hahahah.. lots to do for the poor pond 🥲 But at least the ducks can visit now!
@@serensgarden 🦆❤
I binge watched the earlier videos and it's fun to be on time this time :) I'm in awe of how much work you've done. Also yay pond!
also with the pond - it might bie a good idea to get a solar pump, because stagnant water is the great breeding place for mosquitos... they use still water surface to breathe though, so when the water is moving they can't live in that water.
Listening to this video with headphones on, can hear birds all the way though, would recommend to watch with headphones! Very relaxing
Seren, just got back from a few hours at my plot, and delighted to see you've uploaded a new video, being at the allotment is actually an addiction especially at this time of year. I've been watching and subscribed since you began, your enthusiasm and attitude are infectious and inspiring, you have accomplished so much in such a short time. Now you have those beds built, and the weather has warmed up, get lots of the greenhouse plants planted out in them, freeing up space for more seeds. Keep sieving, you'll soon get through that old pile.
Just realized they are onion scapes! But I would think same process for these onions as garlic will work.
Haha yes, they are onions! I have read that the bulbs won't get any bigger now that they have tried to flower? 🤔
I saw someone say to take the scapes off the garlic and growth will go into the bulbs. I’m thinking you could take the scapes off the onion and maybe the growth will go into the onion. Worth a try.
You're doing amazing Seren! We've watched this from the very first video. Where do you source your music from when you show the timelapse? My husband would love to download to listen to whilst he's in hospital. Keep up the good work.