EMMA'S ALLOTMENT DIARIES / SMALLEST CARROTS IN THE WORLD / JUNE 2020

Hi guys, welcome back to my allotment diaries. My name is Emma. If you're new, I'd love for you to subscribe. I've just been sitting here by the pond by my dead blueberry plant, proper dead now, for about 20 minutes just watching the birds. They are loving this tree which overlooks my pond because it's absolutely full of berries so they've all been kind of gathering around and trying to balance on the branches and getting their morning breakfast so it's just been really nice to watch them all. It's so funny because the big birds are desperate for the berries and they can't balance on the little branches so I've just been basically watching them fall which is just so funny. But I'm not cruel or anything, I just find it hilarious. I find animals are just so funny aren't they, like nature. No one's gone in the pond yet but they've come close. I probably might get a bird in the pond today, I don't know. I've got a lot of picking to do today. I think a lot of my crops need picking now. I've got to keep on top of that so things don't bolt and go to seed. Also it's going to be very hot so I really need to keep on top of it. There are so many flies in my pond, like millions. I think that's what all those little swimming creatures were. I hope they're not biting flies. It's absolutely full of them. No frogs though. I don't think I'm going to get frogs this year. I really don't know why they don't like my pond but frogs just don't come here, I don't know. But a lot of my pond plants are doing very very well actually. This one, I don't know if you can see, this long one, I really didn't expect this to go as good as it's sort of gone really. It's quite amazing and that one's doing really well. The forget-me-not just seems to want to go on land now, I don't know why. These are doing really good down here. The yellow flower one has sort of finished flowering now but it's still looking quite good. I'm sure some of them have died, I just can't remember what ones they were. They must all be under the water now, like long gone. But most of them are doing really really well so I'm hoping it kind of picks up a bit over the year and sort of grows, get a bit more coverage over the pond, you know. Calendulas have all flowered now, they are beautiful. I've got a lot of orange around this pond now. I've got the orange poppies and now I've got the calendulas. I think you can eat these. I don't remember if you can and I'm sure gardeners wild so that you can actually eat these flowers but they are really really pretty. My carrots are ready. I don't know when carrots are ready so I think I'm going to pull one out and have a look, which I know is risky because you might attract carrot fly but I don't know when they're ready. So I've been in for months, let's have a look. This one, oh my god, it's like tiny. Bloody hell's that? I don't know if that means that it's ready though because it's like, it's quite, maybe it's just a small one. That one doesn't look that orange, that'll be that one. All right, this one, is this one all right? Oh, flipping heck, let's pull one more out and see. Let's find a big one. That one, let's have a look. Oh, flipping heck. That can't be right, can it? They smell lovely and stuff but they're tiny. Why are they so bloody small? Either I've done something wrong or these are the smallest carrots known to man. I don't understand why they're so small. Oh well, they just smell like the most amazing carrots I've ever smelt in my life but they're just so bloody small. I think I'll pull one more. I think it's me, you know. Let's try this one here. Oh shit, I've got two of them. Oh, that's so bloody small. God sakes, what is that? I hope they're just not ready. Maybe they're just not ready. Oh god, that's embarrassing, isn't it? Look at that. Months, months I've grown you and that's all you give me. I think the beetroot, some of the beetroot might be ready to harvest too. So I'm going to pull one up and have a look. That's what I'm going to do. This has been growing ages too. I don't want it to get too big. Oh look, there's one, there's one. Yeah, that looks about right. There he is. First beetroot ready too actually. I want that one out too. Oh yeah, second beetroot. I'll just buy another one. Yeah, he's ready. There he is. There we are, three beetroots. Beautiful. I've got two more rows of beetroot in here and I can see they're already starting to come up which is excellent. I might give them a bit for water today. It's going to be really hot but yeah, that's more beetroot coming. I like beetroot. It's really good for you as well. I've grown a rainbow variety though. I've never had a rainbow variety before but you know, it's fun growing stuff that's pretty. Motivates me more to be honest. Bloody carrots. I don't know what went on with them. I hope they're just not ready yet. I've just been fiddling with the pumpkins for a bit trying to get them to grow up. I'm still trying. Some of them look like they are going to grow up but what I've learned is that you have to get the lead shoot to go where you want it to go and on this one the lead shoot is going that way so there's nothing I can do. I'll tie up the little ones so I might get a couple of pumpkins up here. This one, the lead shoot is going up here. You can see I've got a great big pumpkin there. She looks happy and I've got a great big pumpkin down here as well. She's happy and then on this side the lead shoot was going exactly the right direction so look, see he is growing up and I'm finding it really easy to tie him in and the whole plant is being elevated from the ground which is excellent. So I've learned that if you want them to grow up you have to get like the main big shoot to go up but on the other ones they're just not cooperating so I'll tie the little ones in but I'm not going to because look this is the big one. This is the main shoot of the pumpkin and he's sort of lying on the ground. He wants to go this way and these are little shoots I'm tying up. I don't know if that makes any sense but I'm learning as I go. I'm determined to get some to grow up. I'm determined. I think it's just better for the pumpkins to be off the ground. You don't have to worry about them rotting or like snails getting to them and stuff but yeah that one over there that's the winner at the moment. That's the one I'm counting on. I hope you can hear that pumpkin. I'm counting on you. Don't let me down. Here's my little harvest for the day. So I got some dodgy carrots, some chard and some beetroot which is not too bad is it really? I hope you enjoyed the vlog. It's really hot now. It's getting up to midday so I'm going to kind of stop here and just have to keep coming and doing little bits when and where I can. I'm getting a little bit overwhelmed at the moment because there's so much to do but I'm trying to stay on top of it as much as I can and then when the weather goes back down I think I'll have more energy to get stuff done so I'm not too worried but yeah it can be a bit overwhelming sometimes especially as it's not massive plot but I have got quite a few things going on so there's a lot to look after. Right see you in my next vlog guys. Have a lovely week. Hope you get to your plots and enjoy the sunshine. See you later. Bye.