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. Hey everyone, and welcome
back to a new Gardening with Ben podcast. I hope you're well. We've
got a brand new episode for here today. It's been a week since our
last episode, or a bit longer. And yeah, what have we been
up to down at the plot while we've been up to not much. Basically,
it's been a busy week at work this week, so I've not been
down to the allotment much. And it was absolutely freezing this morning. I
was rating whether to go to the allotment or not, or whether to stay
at home. When it where I was warm, so I thought, I
need to pick up a parcel for my parents' house what I'd ordered, and
I thought, I'm going to pop down to take some photos for people to
see on Instagram and stuff like that. So I popped down and I thought
it's not as bad as I thought. So I ended up staying down there
for a couple of hours. Bearing in mind i'd not took my flask with
me, so i'd not got my hot drink, which was a pain because
I do a love my hot drinks while i'm down there to keep me going.
But yeah, we have been busy down there this morning, not too
busy, but we have got plenty done. What I have done recently is
I've done up the sides of my plot around the borders. I've refenced them
all, I've put some edging in to stop the soil from falling down onto
my neighbot because my plot is higher than the neighbor's plot. And I've filled
them all back up with fresh, brand new compost so they are worthy to
be planted in and obviously ready to plant stuff ready for the summer in there.
So I went to the being Qurre the other week and I bought some
gladiol eyebulbs, as I do love gladiolies. They don't last forever, but
they do add some nice color to the plot and they are brilliant for the
bees because the bees go in the little trumpets in the gladiolies. So we
have planted them. I bought four packets of them, thinking that they do
both sides of my plots, but nope, four packets has done one side
of the plot. I could have spaced about a lot more, but I've
really lined them up and clumped them up together so that we do get a
big spectacle of color down the side of my plot. So yeah, I
need to buy another four bags for the other side. So we need to
look into get in some of those this week before they all sell out,
because they do sell out fast summer bulbs and everything. So we do need
to go back and get another four bags, which is an expensive job.
But once they're planted, they'll come back year after year and hopefully it spread
and Germany from the corns will send out more little bulbs and stuff like that,
so hopefully we get more and more growing. And there is already some
down the side of my plot. So hopefully it'll add more and more color
to the sides. So we've got all them planted. I did post a
couple of photos on my Instagram, so if you're not following me on there,
do give me a follout on the Instagram and you'll be able to see
me plant in my gladiol like corns today. So next up is obviously to
get the bulbs, not the bulbs to carse. I always call them gladioli
bulbs. They're not bulbs, they call corns. So we need to get
some down the other side. But what else have I got to do?
Well? I bought a load of wildflower seed as well, because I thought,
what do I plant down the side of my plot. I can have
a plant beding plants and stuff like that, or I can have it as
a wildflower area. So I saw in the tesk near me some packs of
wildflower seed and they're like poppies and corn flowers and stuff like that. So
I'm going to sprinkle all them down the sides and get them all growing really
well, and hopefully we'll have a lot of color come somewhere down the sides
of the plot. And again it will hopefully attract the bees and everything like
that. So obviously I said that I'd had a package delivered, and yeah,
I'm getting addicted to buying these little things off the TikTok shop recently,
and obviously I can promote them as well. But I have purchased some of
those hangars what you put on the side of the shed with the little pouches
in so that you can grow flowers or strawberries and stuff like that, and
so I bought some of those. So I'm thinking this year because I've got
enough runners for my strawberries to plant in my allotment, but I've not got
enough runners to fill these up. So this year I think I'm going to
have flowers in them and possibly have the strawberries in them next year if I
get some more runners off them to have them on the side of my shed.
But this year we're going to have flowers, I think in them.
So I need tips and advice on best hanging flowers for down the side of
my plot. Obviously they'll dry out faster because they're in bags, so off
to keep them well watered and everything like that. But yeah, I want
it to look as spectacle. Obviously, I know opportunias hang down and labilia.
But yeah, if you've got any tips and advice on flowers to plant
in these down the side of my shed, let me know, because I
want to fill it with lots and lots of color. So we've got them.
We've also bought a little label printer. Now I've not seen these before
until I saw them online, and basically they're no ink, but it like
marks it onto the label the writing or the pictures and stuff like that.
So I bought a little label printer so that I can print all my labels
for when I'm growing all my seats and stuff like that. So we're going
to have a nice label print. It'll save me writing out stuff hundreds of
times because you can print how many copies you want off and stuff like that,
and then case of just snipping them and sticking them to the plant label.
So yeah, we've got that to do this year. So that's going
to be exciting. So I'll be showing you all that coming up when we
start planting all the seeds, which fingers crossed should be soon, but it's
turning that cold at the moment. There's no point trying to germinate seeds at
the moment, so we're waiting for it to warm up before we start sewing
all these seats in my shed and my greenhouse. But I'm excited to start
growing the more. We need to go out and buy all the seeds for
this year. That is one job I need to do. I need to
go to the range because they sell all the woolcose seeds and have a look
there and see what I'm going to be growing this year. Obviously I'll be
growing all the normal stuff like cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuce, sweet corn,
peas, runner beans and stuff like that. But yeah, we'll have a
look and see what we'll be growing this year down at the allotment. So
yeah, what else have we got to do. We've got sweet peas as
well down at the allotments plan I bought them from my Tesco. There were
three pots for six pound I believe it were on the club card points and
basically they've got about ten plants in each one. So we need to get
those planted down at the allotment because I absolutely love sweet peas, and obviously
with sweet peas, the more you pick them, the more they'll flower,
and they smell absolutely gorgeous, so you can just keep picking on them and
putting them in your flat, and when they've died off, they should be
some more ready to plant down to put in a vase and pick on a
regular basis to keep it smelling nice in your flat or in your house.
So, yeah, we've got all the sweet peas to plant, and yeah,
I need to go out and purchase some wood paint because we need to
start painting all those beds now. It is getting a bit drier at the
moment. We're not getting as much rain, thankfully, so the wood is
dried out, so hopefull like I can start painting it all and start sprucing
it all up, and then we'll be digging over all those beds and getting
that ready because the plot is literally nearly finished now, it is already for
growing in. I've spent so much time and effort down at the allotment this
year over the winter. I always stress how busy you should be down at
the allotment over the winter. You shouldn't packing. I used to do that.
I used to stop doing anything in September and then i'd start again in
March February, and I'd been rushing around at the last minute, but starting
September is the time to start getting all your plot and everything ready for the
year after. And that's what I must stress. How much time you must
put in over the winter. Yes it might be cold, yes it might
be icy and stuff like that, but there's plenty you can be doing.
You can be tidying out all your shed or your rubbish from the year.
I'm getting it all ship shape and looking spectacular for the year ahead. So
we've got another couple of days off work. Obviously tomorrow is Mother's Day,
and obviously I'll be spending some time with my mum's but hopefully we'll be down
at the allotment tomorrow and we'll progress with getting some more things done and getting
it all ready and continue the massive work that we are going to be putting
in for this year, as I do want to show off what can be
done on an allotment if you're put in the time and the effort, and
how well it can look. And it's going to spend a lot of time
getting it ready and getting it looking good. Fingers crossed, we do have
a good looking a lotment for you, and it does all go to disaster,
but stay tuned and make sure you are following my Instagram so that you
can see my progression throughout the year. And yeah, thank you for tuning
into today's podcast. If you don't follow it, do give it a follow,
do leave a comment, and remember, keep smiling, keep shining,
and keep guardening 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.