Hello and welcome to Gardening with Ben. You'll go to a podcast for all
things green and growing. I'm Ben, your allotment guide and here to help
you cultivate your garden and your passion for plants. Whether you're a seasoned gardener
or just starting out, this podcast is for you. Each episode will dig
into tips, tricks, and techniques to make your garden and allotment thrive from
planting, sewing, and growing. We will share all the tips and add
advice. We will also have regular episodes talking about what we have been up
to on the Alltment. So sit back, grab a brew and enjoy today's
episode. Hello, and welcome back to Gardening with Ben for a brand new
podcast. It's been a few days since our last podcast, but we're back
with another one. And yeah, we've got a few days off work now,
so we're back here recordings some more podcasts for you to listen to while
you're out in the garden in the allotment, walking your dog, or sat
with your morning brew. While we're back with another episode. And today it's
Saturday, and I really do wish summer would come. I think we're all
wishing that at the moment. One week it's absolutely boiling, and then the
rest it's back to really miserable UK weather, which we'd expect in winter time,
but it's still quite warm and we're still getting lots of produce off.
To be honest with you, we've been down at the allotment today and yeah,
I've had a busy day down there, and today's job has mainly been
weeding, as per usual, always lots of weeding to be done and watering,
yes, watering. It's not rained here much in Sheffield, so I've
had to water it like when I've been digging and stuff. It's been quite
damp on top but really bone dry underneath. So we've been giving plenty of
water to the crops today. And also I've been harvesting. I've been harvesting
my peas. My peas are absolutely getting ready and we're picking a load of
those off at the moment and they taste absolutely delicious. I'm so happy with
how well we've done with the peas this year. This has probably been the
best crop that I've ever had on my allotment side, and more often than
not I've had them eaten in the past by my birds, pigeons, you
name it. They've all been eaten. But this year we've had a fantastic
crop, and I think it's all down to how well I protected them this
year from the animals and the elements. I started them off in my shed
in seed trays grow to a decent height, and then once we were ready,
I transplanted them all outside into the ground and we made sure we covered
them with plenty off netting so that nothing could attack them, and it worked
really well, and I've had a fantastic crop, and I've got loads more
left to pick, Like this is the second picking I've had, and yeah,
we've still got loads more on there. And obviously if we keep picking
them, hopefully they'll keep flowering and they'll keep harvesting. But we have planted
a later crop as well the other week, so hopefully we'll get a later
crop of peas towards the end of the year. Fingers crossed, And again
we've given them plenty of protection to stop them from getting eating and nibbled away.
Hopefully the mice and the rats don't find them and eat them. But
touch wood, they're still growing pretty well at the moment, and we're keeping
them watered and not we're keeping them a bit weed free. Obviously, we
get quite a lot of weeds growing, but we're keeping them plenty of weed
free. And you need some weeds as well anyway, because it deters the
slugs from eating them all. If it will completely weed free, all the
slugs go fam So that's my excuse anyway, and that's what I'm sticking to.
We've also been busy working on our website at the moment. We're getting
that built so that we can bring in more information and share more tips and
advice with you. And also I've launched a new newsletter what's going to be
coming out in August. Hopefully it will produce regular updates for you all and
sharing with you what's going often, what's happening on our social media, and
just sharing daily tips, earn regular advice with you all to help teach you
and show you what I'm getting up to down at the allotment. So there
should be a link in the description so that you can sign up to the
newsletter to get these updates. So all you have to do is click on
the link and fill in your name and your email address, and then you
will receive regular updates from me as well. And we'll be sharing regular updates
off when we upload new YouTube videos, sharing the podcasts, sharing regular tips
and advice with you all. So make sure you all click it and sign
up to the newsletter. We've already had quite a few people signed up already,
so thank you for those that have recently signed up to it, and
I hope you enjoy it. I'm trying to bring you as much content as
possible and share lots and lots of tips and advice with you. We've also
recently been featured on MSN dot com as well, sharing what I get out
of gardening, from my mental health to the fresh produce and all the delights
of having an allotment. And yeah, that got posted on MSN the other
day. I did share it on my Instagram for you to see and on
my Facebook page, So if you've not seen it, go on to my
Facebook page because it will still be there and the link should be there for
you to read as well, So have a look at that. So the
website will be launching soon. We're working hard on that at the moment,
and hopefully lots more stuff will be coming onto it. So what else are
we getting up to this weekend? Well, tomorrow I might do some more
harvesting. I've got some lettuce ready for harvesting as it's starting to get to
the end of it now and it's starting to turn, so we need to
get that lettuce harvested and eaten. We've also got some beetroot to harvest.
They're looking quite big at the moment, so we're going to harvest some bee
root and I'm going to try them in my air fire. I'm going to
be looking up recipes and seeing how I can actually try cooking them in the
airfire. I'm also going to try and cook some potatoes in the airfire as
like really thin slices as well, So hopefully we'll see how well they get
on, and I'll be sharing a picture with you how well we get on
with them. We've also got some more logan berries to harvest. I noticed
quite a lot of red ones on there as well, so make sure I
get all them picked. Because every time I go down to the allotment,
the blackbird flies off, so I know it's hanging around eating stuff at the
moment. So that blackbird must be getting absolutely fat off all my fruit and
everything at the moment, and I see it around my futures a lot as
well, so I don't know if they like eating futures, so I'm keeping
an arm mister blackbird. Obviously, I don't mind him being there eating some
of the fruits, so he can help himself to some of it, but
I'd best pick some for my own self as well. But I have got
to watch him next year because he ate all my gooseberries. So we need
to make sure that our gooseberries are well protected next year from mister blackbird so
that he doesn't eat them all. And I want some next year, yet
every single one of them. He must like gooseberries. Blackbirds must like them.
So if you want to feji blackbirds, get some goosebries because they'll absolutely
love them. So yeah, that is one thing I do need to make
sure off next year. But yeah, hopefully we're going to get some tomato
plants sorted out tomorrow. Our looking at them outside in my garden and they
are getting quite big now. They're not growing as fast as what they grow
in my greenhouse or the polytunnel, but they are getting quite big now,
so we need to start supporting them. We need to put some canes up
them. We need to nip off all the little shoots off them to make
them grow nice and tall and focus on growing the fruit as well. There's
lots of flowers coming on them, so they are doing pretty well. But
like I said, they're not growing as fast as what they would do inside
a polytunnel or greenhouse. But the reason why I grow them outside is so
that they keep watered. If they're in my polytunnel, they'd soon dry out
and I'd probably risk getting the tomatoes split and stuff like that through uneven watering.
So that's one of the reasons why I grow on my tomatoes outside so
that we do get a good crop of them. So we've got all them
to do tomorrow. We've also got to have a look at what other seeds
we're going to start planting. We're going to carry on planting some more seeds
so that we get a long harvest of produce. We'll probably look into growing
some beetroot, some more lettice. I want to get some more lettuce in.
We'll probably plant some spring onions, possibly some carrots, some more carrots,
so we need to look into them, and we need to look into
planting some more potatoes as well. As I'm starting to harvest on my early
potatoes now, so we need to get some more potatoes in so that we
get another crop later on in the year. And hopefully these will be ready
by possibly beginning of October something like that, and if it gets cold at
them or moving into the polytunnel so that they don't get killed off by the
frost or anything. So hopefully we're going to get some more potatoes in.
So if you wanted to grow some more potatoes, now is a good time
to start planting them so that you get like crop. Obviously, they won't
sell seed potatoes and stuff like that in the garden centers now, so if
you wanted to grow potatoes, I'm going to be growing from the supermarket ones.
Yes, people do say that they can cause issues, but my dad
has grown and from the supermarket for years and years and he's had never had
a single issue growing them. So we're going to have a look into growing
some more. So, yeah, that has been what we've been up to
at the allotment. Tomorrow, hopefully we'll get another episode for you tomorrow.
It'll probably be another late one as obviously I'm going to be talking about what
I've been up to the allotment, so make sure you stay tuned for that
episode. If you're not following my podcast, do give it a follow,
give it a like, leave a comment. Feel free to share it to
a few people or to loads of people. It's up to you. So
thank you for listening. Until next time, remember, keep smiling, keep
shining, and keep guardening with everyone. Thank you for joining me on this
episode of Gardening with Ben. I hope you've have found some useful tips and
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tips and of days, happy gardening, and until next time, remember,
keep smiling, keep shining, and keep gardening with Ben.