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Hello and welcome to Gardening with Ben. You'll go to a podcast for all

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things green and growing. I'm Ben, your allotment guide and here to help

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you cultivate your garden and your passion
for plants. Whether you're a seasoned gardener

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or just starting out, this podcast
is for you. Each episode will dig

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into tips, tricks, and techniques
to make your garden and allotment thrive from

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planting, sewing, and growing.
We will share all the tips and add

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advise. We will also have regular
episodes talking about what we have been up

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to on the a lotment. So
sit back, grab a brew and enjoy

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today's episode. Hello and welcome back
to Gardening with Ben with a brand new

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episode. It's been a while since
our last episode, but guess what.

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The sound is sounding a lot better. And yeah, We've got a new

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microphone and new laptop, so I'm
hoping to start bringing you a lot more

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content back on social media again,
from my YouTube channel, to my Instagram

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to my podcasting. I want these
podcasts to really take off and get started

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again. They've been doing so well, so hopefully we can continue them and

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get lots of people listening to them
again. So what have we been up

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to. It's been a while,
like say, since our last episode,

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and we've been busy down at the
allotment. We've had some good stuff,

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we've had some bad stuff, and
yeah, we've been cracking on. We've

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been suffering a bit with our mental
health at the moment. I've got a

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few things going off in my personal
life, but hopefully we'll get through them

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and keep things motivated and keep things
growing. And as you know, being

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down at the allotment in the garden
is so good for the mental health.

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And I love creating stuff and bringing
new new content on a regular basis.

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Have we been up to, Well, all the spring flowers have died off.

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Now they've all gone, they've all
died away, and yeah, it's

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time for getting this summer bedding in. So we've been getting some summer plants

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in. We've put some in near
our entrance off the plot. We've got

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lots of fruit growing as well at
the moment, which I'm excited about.

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My blueberries are growing, my strawberries
are growing. I've got some plums on

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this year. I've got some cooking
apples growing. I've got normal apples.

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I've got pears growing. Our fruit
is going to be fantastic this year,

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and we've been having hot weather and
we've been having rainy weather, so that

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will help produce the fruit and get
them growing. Fingers crossed down at the

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plot, so we've got all that
to come. You never know, fingers

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crossed, we will get some good
crops. And I've not had many blueberries

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for a long time on the plot
as many as I've got this year,

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so hopefully we'll get some successful plants
growing. And we've also got some gooseberries

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growing as well. These are my
red gooseberries, which tastes sweet rather than

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sour, so I'm looking forward to
hopefully getting some good crops of them.

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And if you've not seen it on
my social media, I've actually got some

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bluet its nesting in my bird boxes. In both of my bird boxes now.

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I've only just noticed them, and
I'm thinking maybe it's a little late

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for birds nesting because I had a
video pop up the other day of when

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my bluet it's fledged. So I'm
just wondering if they've had babies already and

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they've fledged, or if they're looking
at making a nest. So if you

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know much about bluet it's and if
this is the time for them nesting,

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let me know. So it's exciting
times. We've got sunflowers planted. They're

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all in and growing away, and
hopefully we'll get some good sunflowers down at

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the plot this year. We've got
as peas growing, lettuces growing fantastic.

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We've got beet rooting. We've got
as marrows in, We've got as pumpkins

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in, we've got as corgetes in. As potatoes are growing absolutely fantastic.

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Really well, I'm growing them in
boxes this year like I did previously because

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it's a lot easier because yeah,
you can plant them in the ground,

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but he's getting them all out without
stabbing them and making sure you've got them

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all out or they'll keep coming year
after year, whereas if they're in the

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box, you can just empty them
out and hay, presto, you've got

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your potatoes. We've also got as
carrots growing now. This is the first

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time that I've grown them in a
tub. So fingers crossed, we are

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going to get a good crop of
cars And looking at how well they're growing,

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they seem to be looking healthy and
yeah, well not know until we

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pull them up, which is going
to be a while yet. They don't

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look ready to pull yet, so
hopefully we get some delicious carrots as well.

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This year. We've also been out
and purchase some more seeds because I've

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lost some crops. I've lost my
cauliflowers and my cabbages and my broccoli.

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They've not done very well, so
we've got some more seeds. Plan it

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says on the packet there's plenty of
time to start them off, so we'll

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give them a shot. We'll give
them a try. We'll see how well

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they grow. You can only try
and do your best. So we've got

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them. And the reason why they
didn't grow very well is because I didn't

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net them in time and the pigeons
there them all. Now I'm going to

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cover the ones up, what are
in the ground, what have been eaten

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by the pigeons, to see if
if they do grow, You never know,

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they might grow back. Hopefully they
will, so we'll give them a

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try. We've also got us tomatoes
out in the ground at the moment.

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We've planted them outdoors this year.
We did it last year and they grew

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absolutely fantastic. Now I'm doing it
again this year. If they worked well

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last year. There's no doubt they
should work well this year, so you'll

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have to keep tuned on them and
see how well they get on. So

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what else have we got to plant? We've got cucumbers to plant. We

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need to get some compost this week
and get all those cucumbers potted up and

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planted. I've got market most cucumbers
growing. I've got lemon variety cucumbers growing.

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So we've got a couple of varieties
this year to try. I've never

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tried the lemon cucumbers before, so
that's going to be a new one for

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me. They don't taste of lemon, but they do look like lemons,

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and apparently they are very tasty as
well, so we'll see. We'll see

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how they come on. We can
only try new things. I do like

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to try new things every single year. So hopefully we're going to get a

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good crop of stuff this year.
But this is going to be a short

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little episode. It's just catching back
up with you all and to make you

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aware that I am still around and
that I'm still here. And like I

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said, I have been struggling quite
a lot recently, but I've got some

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ideas and I want to start doing
my videos again, So hopefully we're going

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to start bringing out a lot more
video content for you all and showing your

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tips and advice on a regular basis
if I can try and do it daily.

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But we'll see how we get on. I don't want to put too

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much pressure on myself, but we
can only try and do us best.

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So I hope that you've got the
podcasts are back, and yeah, I

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hope you're going to stay tuned and
keep listening. We're going to be fetching

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these back on a regular basis,
like I said, but make sure you

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turn your notifications on and then you'll
get notified when the new podcasts come up.

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So until next time, remember keep
smiling, keep shining, and keep

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gardening with Ben. Thank you for
joining me on this episode of Gardening with

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Ben. I hope you have found
some useful tips and instegration for your own

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gardening and a lot them journey.
If you have enjoyed today's episode, please

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make sure to follow and subscribe to
the podcast so you never miss a new

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episode, and if you have a
moment, love for you to leave a

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review and share the podcast with fellow
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this community and continue bringing you great
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social media on every platform, or
Gardening with Ben for daily gardening tips and

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the days. Happy gardening, and
until next time, remember keep smiling,

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keep shining, and keep gardening with
Ben