Welcome to Gardening with Ben, the podcast where we dig into the soil of
our gardens and the depths of our green funds. I'm your host, Ben,
here to guide you through the joints of gardening, from sowing seeds to
reaping bountiful harvests. Each episode will explore tips, tricks and tails from the
garden and allotment, sharing insights from ourself and stories from our own back garden
adventures. Whether you're a seasoned gardener or just getting your hands dirty for the
first time, there's something here for everyone, So grab your brew and gardening
gloves and let's get growing with Gardening with Ben. Hello everyone, and welcome
back to Gardening with Ben. Well, we're back for a brand new episode.
So what have we been up to down at the allotment today, Well,
it's about four days since we've blast been down to the allotment. Earned
since then, Wow, the weather has been mental. We've had wind with
high rain, we've had hot sunshine. So I wasn't knowing expecting what to
see when I went down to the plot because I don't get a chance to
go when I'm on day shifts to the a Lot Monks. Obviously, I
worked seven till seven, so I wanted to go down and it's always a
surprise when I get there to see what it actually looks like, or thinking
all my tulips are going to be battered and destroyed and it'll just look a
complete mess and horrible. But no, it actually looked really, really well.
Some of the tulips had had it, but there was still a lot
there that looked absolutely fine. And there's still a loads of more tulips coming
out every single day, Like a lot of my red ones and cream ones
have had it now, and now all the purple ones and the black ones
are coming out, and all the striping colored ones. So we're getting absolutely
loads of different tulips coming out at the moment. And it's been an absolutely
amazing sight down at my optment seeing all the different colors appearing down on the
plot and how well they've all grown this year. There's a lot of spaces
where some of the old ones haven't come up or they've not grown obviously from
where I've been digging and been tidying up and rearranging my plot. I've lost
some in the process. So I'm taking plenty of photos so that I know
where the gaps are, so hopefully next year we can fill them in and
get even more color down to the plot. But obviously that's going to be
another expensive job buying more tulips, because tulips are quite expensive, and obviously
high sims are as well. But higher sims are absolutely gorgeous when they come
out of this smell amazing. So hopefully we'll be investing in some more spring
bulbs in November. It'll soon be here before you know it. But hopefully
we'll get some more spring bulbs in this year for some amazing colors in springtime.
So that'll be a job on my to do list in November. But
yeah, what have we been up to today down at the plot? Well,
I'd ordered a load of seeds the other week and they've all been delivered
to my parents' house. So I went to go and collect more. And
what seeds did we get? We got some different varieties of squash. I
did this the other year. I grew some different varieties of squash and had
some good success and some bad success. Some didn't grow, some did grow.
But I thought I'd give it another try and grow plenty of different varieties
of squash again this year. So it was a multi pack off Amazon,
like six different varieties. So we've planted all them seeds and got them in
and hopefully they'll be germinating in a week or two. And yeah, we've
also planted some black tomatoes. I think they're called indigo indiago or something like
that, but they meant to be black. I think they were like a
bluey blackie color. And I've never go on black tomatoes before, so I
thought, I'm going to try and see what they look like, see what
they taste like, obviously, but I'm always up for trying something new each
year, and this year is the year that I'm going to try black tomatoes.
I'm also purchased some lemon cucumbers. Now, they don't taste of lemons,
apparently they look more like lemons rather than taste. And I've never tried
them before. I've always just stuck to growing market more cucumbers, so I'm
still growing the market more ones, don't get me wrong, but I am
trying some different varieties. I'm trying the lemon ones this year, so we're
going to give them a try and see how well they grow and if they
do get a good success. But we'll say, we'll see how they get
on and hopefully we'll get some good cucumbers from them. So what else did
we plant? Some flowers were planted all those sunflowers. Now again, I
did this the other year. I bought a lot of different varieties of some
flowers, planted them all and we had some amazing blooms. Now this we
didn't get any sunflowers last year, but the year before that, that's when
we did it, and it was absolutely fantastic. I had red ones,
I had black ones, I had yellow ones. So I've done the same
again this year. I bought a multipack six different variets, and we've got
the teddy bear ones, we've got the red ones, we've got the black
ones, we've got white ones, and we've got the giant ones. So
we're going to have hopefully a spectacular amount of sunflowers down at the plot again
this year. And a lot of the time I'm just growing some of these
obviously photos and stuff like that, and obviously for the insects and just to
make it look absolutely glorious. And I obviously see a lot of videos online
of tips and techniques, and one of the tips that I saw about people
saving the sunflower canes and using them for making wigwams for the beans to climb
up and stuff like that. So sunflowers coming handy for growing them. And
obviously canes are really expensive to buy, but sunflowers, the sunflower stem is
absolutely so thick and so strong that you will be able to have some good
wigwams from it, and it will be great for the appearance and to saving
money and there like. Obviously, sunflowers are easy to grow once you're getting
past the stage of the slugs not eating them. But if you don't plant
them out when they're too small, plants amount when they've grown quite a bit,
and you should be all right from the slugs. Obviously, just try
and protect them as well from them by putting like I use brambles and stuff
to protect stuff from slugs, like the brambles that crawl everywhere that are really
sharp, but I put them around the plants so that as soon as the
slugs try to crawl over them, they'll just pierce themselves. And obviously like
eggshells and stuff like that work well. So we're going to be planting a
lot of different sunflowers as well this year. So we've sorted all them out,
and we've also planted some climbing beans. Now, I grew some yellow
ones the other year, but we've got quite a few different varieties. We've
got some purple ones, we've got some yellow ones, and we've got some
speckled colored ones as well. So I planted all them as well today.
So I think fingers crossed. I am at the stage where I've planted all
of my seeds. Now I think I'm done with planting seeds for the time
being, until later on in the season when I'll be planting some more beetroot,
and some more lettuce, and more carrots, more spring onions. But
the best thing about growing them is that you've grown on like a rotation,
Like you plant a few and then you wait a few weeks, and then
you plant some more, so that you've got a continuous crop throughout the summer
period and you're not just picking them all at once. If you get me,
you've always got some crop on the go, because when you're growing like
lettuce, it all seems to be ready at the same time, and it's
hard to eat it all at the same time. You end up giving loads
away and it all seems to bolt as well at the same time, Like
it gets to a certain stage and then it goes to seed and it starts
growing all over the place and it's just a mess. But yeah, try
and keep growing crops throughout the season. So we'll probably wait until the end
of April and we'll start some more lettice off and again at end of May
and end of June, so that we've got a crop throughout all the year.
And yeah, I think I've done well with planting all my seeds.
We've got all growing in my greenhouse. My greenhouse is full to busting the
seeds. Like I've put up extra shelvy in this year and I've filled it
all up literally nearly already. And the worst thing is is that I'm obviously
going to be transplanting them also into all individual plot pots, so heaven knows
where I'm going to plant put them all in my house. And at the
moment, i'd been having a bit of trouble with kids down at the allotment.
They keep going in my shed touch wood. They've not caused any damage
in my shed, They've not disturbed anything. They've left my plants alone.
Whether they're just going in there to have a luck. I don't know,
but it seems to be on a weekly basis at the moment. So I
want to get a camera in there just to see if if we can identify
them and send it to the police, etc. But fingers crossed that don't
cause any damage, because if they're destroy my plants, I'd be absolutely heartbroken
and all that time and effort and money into the plants as well. So
fingers crossed they don't cause any damage down there. So it has been a
very busy day today and I'm going to be back down at the plot tomorrow.
I don't know what the weather forecast is, but it were absolutely gorgeous
today. I could should have been outside working outside in the garden, but
I had all these seeds to plant and that was my job on my list
today. So hopefully tomorrow we're going to be doing some planting. We've got
some lavender to get planted, what I purchased the other week. Now,
I've just left that in my shed. At the moment, it had dried
out, so I've left it soaking so that it's got a good chance of
surviving when we moving into the garden. But it's finding space to put it
at the moment because my all my beds are filled up with spring bulbs,
and there's areas that I'd like it to be, but obviously with the spring
bulbs that I can't disturb them at the moment, So I'm going to have
to find somewhere to put these five lavender plants that I purchased. I've always
wanted some lavender down on the plot to attract the bees, and again,
it smells absolutely gorgeous. So the more I can do in looking after my
plot and encouraging the bees to come down there, that's what it's all about
this year. So it's been a very busy day down at the plot and
fingers Crossed will have another busy day down there tomorrow and hopefully gets lots and
lots of stuff done and just continue my allotment journey. I want to show
you a lot of stuff of what I'm growing this year, and I'm trying
to do as many videos, many photographs, and just sharing it all with
you this year. Like last year, I let you all down, I
didn't share much, I didn't do any videos, I didn't do any live
streams down there. But this year I'm going over the top and I'm just
posting, posting, posting lots of photos every little day of everything that I'm
doing now on the plot, and I hope you're all enjoying it. If
you follow me on Facebook, Instagram or TikTok, that's why I share all
my videos and my streams, And if you do see my post, please
do give them a like. It helps push it out, and a comment,
a comment always pushes it out as well, So I like in a
comment, you don't have to share it like some comments push it out.
So please do keep liking and commenting. And I know I don't always apply
to all the comments, but I do read them and I do see a
lot of them. But I am trying to apply back to as much as
possible at the moment and keep up to date with you all because it's going
to be exciting year this year. I can feel it. We're going to
have an amazing year down at the allotment and hopefully a bountiful harvest to share
with you all. Well, not to share the fruit and vegetables with you,
but to share the pictures and the progress with you all. So thanks
for listening to today's episode. I hope you've enjoyed it. Hopefully we'll come
back tomorrow with another episode telling you everything what we've been up to down at
the plot. So remember, as always, keep smiling, keep shining,
and keep gardening with Ben. Everyone, and that wraps up another episode of
Gardening with Ben. Thank you for joining me in this journey. Remember,
every seed planted is a step towards a greener world, and every day is
a chance to grow something beautiful. Keep nurturing your gardens and your souls.
Until next time, I'm gardening with Ben, reminding you to let your garden
be your sanctuary. Happy gardening, and see you in the next episode.
Remember keep smiling, keep shining, and keep gardening with Ben.