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Welcome to Gardening with Ben, the
podcast where we dig into the soil of

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our gardens and the depths of our
green funds. I'm your host, Ben,

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here to guide you through the joys
of gardening, from sowing seeds to

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reaping bountiful harvests. Each episode will
explore tips, tricks, and tales from

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the garden and allotment, sharing insights
from ourself and stories from our own back

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garden adventures. Whether you're a seasoned
gardener or just getting your hands dirty for

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the first time, there's something here
for everyone, So grab your brew and

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gardening gloves and let's get growing with
Gardening with Ben. Good evening, and

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welcome to our latest podcast, January
Roundup. Well, it's been a while

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since my last podcast, and I
do apologize because I did get into a

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good swing of doing all the podcasts, but there has been a bit of

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a break and the reason for that
is because I've not been very well.

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I've been absolutely wiped out. I
had that flute out thing what we're going

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around, where I just couldn't get
up. I had hot on cold shimmers

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our earl. They were absolutely awful. But thankfully we are back to full

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strength now. And I'm hopefully going
to start looking after myself a bit more

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better because I don't really look after
myself, but I think that's given me

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the wake up call to get myself
back in shape and back healthy again and

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start looking after myself a bit more. So I'm not going out drinking as

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much as I used to, and
I'm trying to turn things down a bit,

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so hopefully we should see an improvement
in myself and my mental health and

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everything along those lines as well.
So, yeah, I do apologize for

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no podcasts for the last week or
so, but I hope you've managed to

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catch up on all of the podcasts
what we've been broadcasting. Now. A

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few people have been asking how they
can support me, and I've now added

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an Amazon wish list to the description, so if anybody does feel like they

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want to help in any way,
I've popped a few items in there.

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For the time being, I will
be adding some more lay to some what

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I could think of really some funny
gnomes and stuff like that for the allotment.

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But yeah, like I say,
it's not you have to do it,

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But some people have asked how they
can help me, so I've popped

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an Amazon wish list in there,
so thank you to those that do want

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to support me. So this is
the last episode of January? Is it

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me? Or does January seem to
be like one hundred days long? I

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think it's whether it's because you get
paid early in December before Christmas and it

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just seems to last forever January.
But we have finally got through it.

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We've had so many storms in January. Wow, every time I fix my

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shed, some more plastic has blurren
off it. But yeah, let's see

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if the weather improves. Now,
that's what we need. We need the

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weather to improve and start looking towards
spring really and hopefully we can get the

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weather a lot better. And spring
has started to sprung. Spring has sprung

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at my allotment and the bulbs are
starting to open up. I shed a

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photo the other day on my Instagram
account gardening with Ben of the crocuses.

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What are opening on the plot?
There were a couple of yellow ones,

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but the purple ones are also popping
through now, so I can't wait.

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And trust me, when these bulbs
start to open, you'll be inundated with

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pictures all over Instagram or the bulbs
coming out and I pay so much for

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these bulbs, but I do love
to see them. It looks absolutely fantastic

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and the smell is awesome as well, So stay tuned for springtime. We'll

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start sharing lots and lots of flower
photos on there. So what have we

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been up to in January, what
have we achieved at the allotment? And

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where are we going to in February. Obviously, tomorrow's episode will be talking

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about all the things that you can
start to sew in February because we're getting

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closer to when we can start planting
stuff again. And then the episode after

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that will be what jobs need doing
in February. So if you're a new

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listener to this, make sure you
click that follow button or subscribe button and

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then you'll be able to stay up
to date with all these podcasts and you'll

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be able to tune in and yeah, what have we been up to in

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January? Well, we've got this
podcast backup and money last year were absolutely

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atrocious. We hardly did any episodes. I think did about five episodes in

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the year, but people stuck by
mate and they've come back to the podcast

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and it's doing absolutely fantastic. So
hopefully we'll start to get the listeners back

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in and it will start to pay
off. And I hope you all enjoy

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these podcasts and that we've got them
all backup of money. So we've got

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this podcast backup of money. We've
got us Instagram going again. We've got

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lots of posts coming on there.
I've not been going live on Facebook yet,

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so stay tuned for that. We'll
hopefully fetch the lives back on Facebook.

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But honestly, there's not much to
show you at the moment. It's

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just me messing around building beds and
getting all them sorts of So hopefully we'll

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get the Facebook lives back again soon. But I have achieved so much on

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my allotment in January and people think, well it's absolutely awful. Whether there's

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not to do down at the allotment, there's nothing to be doing over the

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winter, Well there is. It's
the most crucial time of the year,

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the winter period at the allotment,
because it's the time when you get all

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you a lotment ready for the year
ahead. It's time to build. Do

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your building, so your beds out, tidy up, get burned stuff,

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clear stuff away, invest in areas
what you want to improve on and get

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planning for the year ahead, and
trust me, I am putting so much

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time and effort into my plot this
year. This has been the biggest turnover

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of my plot in years of having
it. It's going to look the best

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that it's ever looked out of all
the years of having the plot. I've

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got all my shed rebuilt. Until
the plastic keeps coming off with the wind,

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We've got all that rebuilt. We've
built all the shelving inside it.

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All the shelving is ready. It
does need a pain on the inside,

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but that's not crucial. That can
wait. I want to get all my

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plots sorted first. But yeah,
my shed is all ready for growing this

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year, and come March it will
be absolutely full to busting with growing seeds

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in there, growing planting there,
taking all my cuttings, doing all my

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transplanting. I'll be doing all my
filming and my videos in there so that

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i can share with you all what
I'm getting up to, because I want

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to bring back the video blogs as
well, but it's one step at a

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time. I don't want to push
myself too hard in the stuff what I'm

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doing, so yeah, make sure
you stay tuned for the video blogs coming

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back as well on YouTube. If
you're not following me on YouTube, do

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give me a followup because I'm going
to get my YouTube channel back up and

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running as well and get that cracking
because a lot of people do enjoy my

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YouTube videos and showing you around the
plot and sharing what I've been getting up

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to down at the plot. So
yeah, we've got that to fetch back.

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Then we have obviously done my shad
I've talked about that, I've sorted

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out round my fruit trees. I've
pruned them all, got them all pruned,

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all looking very tidy and healthy and
shaped and they look absolutely fantastic.

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I still need to give them a
winter wash and you can get that off

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Amazon winter wash for trees. You
just spray them down and it stops like

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all the moths hibernating in and what
can eat all your fruit and stuff like

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that. So I've got that to
put on, and I need to put

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some new tape around the bottom to
stop creepy crawling from climbing up the trees,

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because that's what they do. If
you put this tape around, it's

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a special fruit tree tape and it
protects them from things crawling up and to

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start eating them as well, so
that's a good thing to get. I've

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shaped them up and I've also wood
chipped all the area and wow, it

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looks so posh now, it's unbelievable. Yeah, it costs me a lot

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of money and wood chip, and
obviously it will rot down eventually and I'll

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have to keep filling it up.
But it does look absolutely fantastic. It

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looks so nice and professional, and
I'm just happy with how it's all turned

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out. And because I've got my
rubib plants there as well, and I've

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put the wood chet round it,
it's warming the rhubarb up and it's mulching

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it and giving it food and energy. And the rhubarbars started growing. The

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cold spell did kill it off and
it withered away, but it is going

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back again. It will probably get
killed off again if we do get some

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more frost or snow, but it
will be all ready for growing come March

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time. It shouldn't be growing yet
anyway. March time it will start and

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it will come up and you'll probably
be picking your first harvest towards the end

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of April beginning of May for your
rhubarb. And trust me, I do

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love a lot of rhubarb crumble.
So we've got all that area prepared almost

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surely. By the area is prepared, I'm hoping that they'll grow back because

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it seemed to have withered down a
bit too much. Hopefully they'll start shooting

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and sending out some news shoots soon
and start growing for this year. So

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we've got all that done. We've
got all the top of my plot.

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Last year, at the top of
my plot, I cleared an area which

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had not touched in the eighteen years
of having my allotment. It was just

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like a junk area, and I
cleared it all and I've trimmed it all.

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Last year, I built some new
beds out of bricks and made it

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a bit of a herb garden type
area. Because it's quite shaded, it

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doesn't get a lot of sunlight,
so we made that nice and it had

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all black membrane down for the paths
and everything like that. And again I've

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wood chipped all that area and again
it looks absolutely fantastic the top half of

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my plot now, so we've got
that sorted. I'm possibly going to have

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to get a few more herbs to
stick in because I've ended up digging some

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of them out. When I were
clearing all the beds out, I couldn't

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tell the weeds from the herbs,
and I've ended up digging some of them

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out. So we need to get
some more herb plants to stick in the

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top. But we'll not be planting
those two about April time March April time

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outside when it's a bit warmer.
So we've got all that to do,

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but then I'm focusing on my main
allotment growing area at the moment. This

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is an area probably that I've not
improved for last five or six years.

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I've just left it as it is. And every time that people have said,

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oh, you want some paving slabs
and stuff like that, I've been

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and took them and I've just continued
laying them down. But are all my

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paths are wide enough for some paving
slabs, Like if people give me paving

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slabs to can't just slot them down
into the past because they're not wide enough

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and stuff like that. So I've
been sorting out all my beds, all

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my paths so that they're wide enough
that if people say I've got some paving

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slabs for you, they'll just fit
in straight in there. But we're going

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to sort out a couple of main
paths and all the other paths. I'm

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going to get some wood chip,
and I'm going to wood chip all the

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paths so that they all look nice
and professional and fantastic and look nice and

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asked. I know it's an allotment
at the end of the day, but

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I've not got a garden, so
i don't mind spending money on my allotment.

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A lot of people obviously don't want
to spend money on the allotment.

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They just try and recycle a lot
of stuff and use what they can to

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do with the allotment, because that's
what allotment should before. It shouldn't be

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about spending money on it. It
should be about getting stuff done cheap and

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growing it nice and everything like that. So we've got that to do,

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and I'm gonna have all the path
nicely we're chipped, and then I'm gonna

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paint all of the beds up.
I absolutely hate doing the painting part,

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but I'm not gonna be painting them
yet because we're still getting the bad weather

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and it'll just wash it off.
Even though you can put like a few

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layers of this paint staying on it
and stuff like that. It will wash

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off eventually. It only lasts probably
about a year and a half, so

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I end up doing it every year. So I'm leaving that probably till about

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March time before paying more. But
at the moment, I'm sorting out on

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my beds and rebuilding them all because
some of the woods rotted and stuff like

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that, and they've come unscrewed,
and some of the posts had put in

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for the beds they weren't level with
the wood, so when I were going

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around with the host pipe, they
were all catching on the posts what we're

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in for the beds and stuff like
that. So I'm making it all level

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and just making it all look really
nice. To be honest, it's a

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big job, a very big job. But I'm possibly about halfway through doing

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and main plot area now. I
want to get it all completed by the

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end of February and get it all
looking good, and then come March time,

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I'll get it all painted and sorted
out like that. And then obviously

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after sorting all my beds out,
i want sort all the edging out and

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sort all the fencing down the sides
of the plot because that could do with

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improving, but again that's not as
important job as making sure that my plot's

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all done. So yeah, we
have had a very busy January down at

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my allotment and I'm so pleased that
it's all coming along really well. And

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like I said, I'm looking so
forward seeing all the bulbs coming out in

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my plot because that's going to look
absolutely fantastic. I don't think they'll be

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as good as last year, but
we'll see what they were. Like,

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I will be taking lots of photos
so that I can see the areas where

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I need more bulbs in, and
there's still certain parts of my plot that

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haven't got spring bulbs in. I
want all my boarders to have spring bulbs

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in. I want all down the
sides of my path start spring bulbs in

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so that it looks fantastic come March
time. And obviously help with the bees

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as well, which I always going
about. Oh and another thing is is

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that obviously I've got my bird feeders
back up and we've started feeding the birds

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again, because I'd stopped doing that
for a while, but I've started feeding

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the birds again. I'm going to
make sure that I take some bird food

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down every single week to fill up
my bird feeders and make sure they've got

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some food now. And the time
when I saw that the bird feed go

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down the most was when we had
the cold weather for the other week,

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when it was absolutely frozen. They
could not obviously get the worms and stuff,

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so the bird feed did help the
birds out a lot. So yeah,

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it's all coming along extremely well.
I'm really pleased with how my plot's

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coming on, and this is the
year that I'm going to have the best

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year down on my plot, and
so many nice sunflowers, nice vegetables down

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there. It's going to be a
tranquil place, and I'm looking forward to

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sharing it all with you again this
year. And I'm so glad that I

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got back into this podcasting because I
do enjoy it. I do enjoy the

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comments and the messages I get from
people listening to this podcast, So thank

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you for your support. Make sure
you do carry on sharing it with people.

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Obviously, the more people that we
can get listening the better, really,

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So yeah, we are going to
be absolutely smashing it this year,

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and I'm looking forward to doing it
all with you again. Obviously, the

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Amazon wish listed is in my profile
description, so you can see that and

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obviously. Yeah, thank you for
the support everyone. Remember, keep smiling,

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keep shining, and keep gardening with
Ben. Everyone. I love you

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all. And that wraps up another
episode of Gardening with Ben. Thank you

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for joining me in this journey.
Remember, every seed planted is a step

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towards a greener world, and every
day is a chance to grow something beautiful.

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Keep nurturing your gardens and your souls. Until next time, I'm gardening

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with Ben, reminding you to let
your garden be your sanctuary. Happy gardening,

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and see you in the next episode. Remember keep smiling, keep shining,

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and keep gardening with Fine