SUCCESSION SOWING CARROTS / EMMA'S ALLOTMENT DIARIES

Hi guys, welcome back to my allotment diaries. My name is Emma. These are my allotment diaries. I've got a few neighbours here today, but you can probably hear they're using heavy machinery or whatever they're doing, so maybe they can't hear me. So I'm going to try and film. Sorry about the last update with the old foxy. It is a bit sad, isn't it? Sorry if you thought I was taking the mick, I'm not. No one said that, but I am a bit sad about it. However, having looked back at that video, I think all the foxes were different foxes. I don't think it's one fox, so I think one of many foxes has died. And from now on, I think we will refer to the bloody fox as a collective term for all the foxes here. I got attacked by a palm tree on my way here, what I can only describe as a lost palm tree, which was hanging over someone's garden fence. And I was sort of looking down at my phone, like us millennials do, and I walked into it and it stabbed me basically in the head. So I don't know if I'm bleeding there, but it really bloody hurt. I don't think a palm tree could stab me, but there we go, it did. So that happened. Right, beautiful day today. So I'm going to just have a check on everything and see if everything's still alive, because you never know. You never know in this plot. Bloody squirrels, bloody nature. These are all doing pretty good now, my sunflowers. This one that I thought had died. Most of them I think have died, but they haven't. He's got new leaves now. Oh, focus. Yeah, look, he's got new leaves, so that's excellent. Slugs haven't got to him again. And the others are all starting to germinate now. So hopefully I will have some good sunflowers this year at the plot. They're all coming up. I always worry everything's died and it hasn't. I don't even know what he's doing. He's like cutting grass or something. I think I'll take the glass off a bit now, because I think sunflowers can live in the frost a little bit and a bit of cold, so I'm going to get rid of the glass. Someone said it's dangerous as well, so I'm going to get rid of it. It's unbelievable. I planted out my zinnia seeds a couple of days ago, so there's nothing growing at the moment, obviously. It doesn't grow that bloody quick, I wish. And I filmed it for my IGTV stories instead of my YouTube vlog. And something's been digging in it. There's some footprints in here. So either it's another bloody frog, not frog, fox. I wish it was a frog. Either it's another bloody fox or if it's a cat or if it was a squirrel. But something's been digging in it. I've done three rows, and I haven't marked them because I'm an idiot. And then over here I'm going to have something else. But yeah, something's been in there. And there's all footprints all around my plot, all in the wood chip again. So it's probably just another bloody fox, guys. We haven't got rid of him. It's probably just one of many that have died. I've told you, you know, I said that. Yeah, my zinnias are in now, so what I'm going to do is give them a water. I'm going to cover them with some netting, which I usually use for things like cabbages and broccoli and stuff to stop butterflies. But as I haven't got any of that growing at the moment, I'm just going to cover it and hope it just put off whatever it is walking in there. It's probably just a cat or something. Or another fox. But there's always, like, holes everywhere. What are they digging in there for? There's a great big hole over there. You probably won't be able to see it on camera, but there's a great big hole that's dug in my pathway. I don't know what the blooming heck it's after. Walking in there. Right, put them off. I won't staple gun it today. What I'll do is I'll put some rocks around it. But it's done the same thing to my spinach as well over there. So I've just put some fleece down, and I'll just rock that as well. Because it's just annoying that they're walking all over it. Obviously I don't want all the seedlings disturbed, so I'm going to have to keep covering everything. Oh well. Bloody nature. Hopefully that'll just put them off. Whatever animal it is just walking on there, hopefully it'll just deter them a bit. You know, you've always got to protect against nature when you plant nature out. Because nature wants to kill nature. It's like cannibals, really. Nature is cannibalistic. My carrots are doing quite good now. They're all coming up really, really well. I'm quite surprised. I've never planted carrots out as early as I have this year. And then I'm going to succession sow. I'm not sure when to do that, guys. I think I planted these out a good three, three and a half weeks ago. So maybe I should do a couple more rows now. Or is it too early? Should I wait for them to be a bit bigger first? I don't know, because they do take a long time to germinate. Maybe I've answered my own question there, and I should do a couple more rows now as it's getting warmer. Yeah, I might do a couple more rows of carrots now, actually. Let's do it. Let's do it. So these must have been in for about a month. What is going on today? Why is it so bloody noisy? Right, there we go. Two new rows of carrots sown. More people are arriving now. So, bloody hell. People are stopping and looking at me, seeing my camera like I'm a nutter or something. But anyway, I'll just keep going now, because it's too bloody late for that, isn't it? Right, two more rows of carrots sown, done. So hopefully that is what succession sowing is, but I'm not entirely sure that's what it is. I think what I'll do is I'll just sow another two rows every month. Yeah, that's what I'll do. Right, OK, hopefully we'll get some bloody carrots. So these were done in March, when it was really cold and everything. It really wasn't like carrot weather, or any kind of weather, but I know they can tolerate a bit cold, and they really have. They've done all right, you know. They've actually done all right. A lot of you put in my comments about the three sisters approach to growing sweetcorn, courgettes and runner beans, and I think I am going to try that this year, if I get any bloody sweetcorn, because it seems to be dying now. Hopefully it will live miraculously. But I'm going to do it in this bed, because it's quite a big bed, and obviously quite big plants. What I'll do is I'll put my sweetcorn, courgettes underneath the sweetcorn, and then where the tulips are, I will plant my runner beans up some kind of teepee structure or something, unless you meant that it has to grow up the actual sweetcorn, but that doesn't sound right to me. But yeah, I'm going to try that, and apparently the three sisters approach is that they all help each other out by giving each other nutrients, shade, shelter, protection. They just like each other, basically. They're just friends. So I will try and do that this year, and thank you for the tips. I'm letting my grass at the back of the plot grow a bit long this year for wildlife. I think the kids are quite interested in bugs and mini-beasts. They're doing it at school at the moment, so there's supposed to be a mini-beast hotel thing, a bug hotel, but the kids sort of keep taking it apart. But I'm going to let it all grow quite long, and hopefully get some dandelions and stuff in there, because I think it's quite good for wildlife to have a big overgrown area. So I think it would be more interesting for the kids as well as bugs and stuff. I'm all about nature and looking after the bugs. You look after the bugs, and they'll look after your plot, apparently. So that's what we're going to try this year. But yeah, I think that's more exciting for the kids to leave it and let it go a little bit overgrown and stuff. I might plant some nasturtiums up my teepee this year. I've got quite a few on the go at home, and I think I might need to bring some to the plot, and I think that might be quite a good place to plant them. They're trailing ones, they're like ones that grow up something. But yeah, that's all going to be wildlife this year, a wildlife area. See, I do care. I do care about the little bugs and things. Right, that's it today. That's it, folks. I hope you enjoyed the vlog today. If you did, subscribe to my channel. I'm going to have to leave it there. It's Friday today. So as you can imagine, it's a lovely day, and it's just so busy, which is nice because we want it to be busy. But yeah, it means that it's difficult to film. So I'm going to leave it there today. I hope you enjoyed it, and I'll see you next time. Thanks for watching.