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
advise. We will also have regular episodes talking about what we have been up
to on the a lotment. So sit back, grab a brew and enjoy
today's episode. Hello and welcome back to Gardening with Ben with a brand new
episode. It's been a while since our last episode, but guess what.
The sound is sounding a lot better. And yeah, We've got a new
microphone and new laptop, so I'm hoping to start bringing you a lot more
content back on social media again, from my YouTube channel, to my Instagram
to my podcasting. I want these podcasts to really take off and get started
again. They've been doing so well, so hopefully we can continue them and
get lots of people listening to them again. So what have we been up
to. It's been a while, like say, since our last episode,
and we've been busy down at the allotment. We've had some good stuff,
we've had some bad stuff, and yeah, we've been cracking on. We've
been suffering a bit with our mental health at the moment. I've got a
few things going off in my personal life, but hopefully we'll get through them
and keep things motivated and keep things growing. And as you know, being
down at the allotment in the garden is so good for the mental health.
And I love creating stuff and bringing new new content on a regular basis.
Have we been up to, Well, all the spring flowers have died off.
Now they've all gone, they've all died away, and yeah, it's
time for getting this summer bedding in. So we've been getting some summer plants
in. We've put some in near our entrance off the plot. We've got
lots of fruit growing as well at the moment, which I'm excited about.
My blueberries are growing, my strawberries are growing. I've got some plums on
this year. I've got some cooking apples growing. I've got normal apples.
I've got pears growing. Our fruit is going to be fantastic this year,
and we've been having hot weather and we've been having rainy weather, so that
will help produce the fruit and get them growing. Fingers crossed down at the
plot, so we've got all that to come. You never know, fingers
crossed, we will get some good crops. And I've not had many blueberries
for a long time on the plot as many as I've got this year,
so hopefully we'll get some successful plants growing. And we've also got some gooseberries
growing as well. These are my red gooseberries, which tastes sweet rather than
sour, so I'm looking forward to hopefully getting some good crops of them.
And if you've not seen it on my social media, I've actually got some
bluet its nesting in my bird boxes. In both of my bird boxes now.
I've only just noticed them, and I'm thinking maybe it's a little late
for birds nesting because I had a video pop up the other day of when
my bluet it's fledged. So I'm just wondering if they've had babies already and
they've fledged, or if they're looking at making a nest. So if you
know much about bluet it's and if this is the time for them nesting,
let me know. So it's exciting times. We've got sunflowers planted. They're
all in and growing away, and hopefully we'll get some good sunflowers down at
the plot this year. We've got as peas growing, lettuces growing fantastic.
We've got beet rooting. We've got as marrows in, We've got as pumpkins
in, we've got as corgetes in. As potatoes are growing absolutely fantastic.
Really well, I'm growing them in boxes this year like I did previously because
it's a lot easier because yeah, you can plant them in the ground,
but he's getting them all out without stabbing them and making sure you've got them
all out or they'll keep coming year after year, whereas if they're in the
box, you can just empty them out and hay, presto, you've got
your potatoes. We've also got as carrots growing now. This is the first
time that I've grown them in a tub. So fingers crossed, we are
going to get a good crop of cars And looking at how well they're growing,
they seem to be looking healthy and yeah, well not know until we
pull them up, which is going to be a while yet. They don't
look ready to pull yet, so hopefully we get some delicious carrots as well.
This year. We've also been out and purchase some more seeds because I've
lost some crops. I've lost my cauliflowers and my cabbages and my broccoli.
They've not done very well, so we've got some more seeds. Plan it
says on the packet there's plenty of time to start them off, so we'll
give them a shot. We'll give them a try. We'll see how well
they grow. You can only try and do your best. So we've got
them. And the reason why they didn't grow very well is because I didn't
net them in time and the pigeons there them all. Now I'm going to
cover the ones up, what are in the ground, what have been eaten
by the pigeons, to see if if they do grow, You never know,
they might grow back. Hopefully they will, so we'll give them a
try. We've also got us tomatoes out in the ground at the moment.
We've planted them outdoors this year. We did it last year and they grew
absolutely fantastic. Now I'm doing it again this year. If they worked well
last year. There's no doubt they should work well this year, so you'll
have to keep tuned on them and see how well they get on. So
what else have we got to plant? We've got cucumbers to plant. We
need to get some compost this week and get all those cucumbers potted up and
planted. I've got market most cucumbers growing. I've got lemon variety cucumbers growing.
So we've got a couple of varieties this year to try. I've never
tried the lemon cucumbers before, so that's going to be a new one for
me. They don't taste of lemon, but they do look like lemons,
and apparently they are very tasty as well, so we'll see. We'll see
how they come on. We can only try new things. I do like
to try new things every single year. So hopefully we're going to get a
good crop of stuff this year. But this is going to be a short
little episode. It's just catching back up with you all and to make you
aware that I am still around and that I'm still here. And like I
said, I have been struggling quite a lot recently, but I've got some
ideas and I want to start doing my videos again, So hopefully we're going
to start bringing out a lot more video content for you all and showing your
tips and advice on a regular basis if I can try and do it daily.
But we'll see how we get on. I don't want to put too
much pressure on myself, but we can only try and do us best.
So I hope that you've got the podcasts are back, and yeah, I
hope you're going to stay tuned and keep listening. We're going to be fetching
these back on a regular basis, like I said, but make sure you
turn your notifications on and then you'll get notified when the new podcasts come up.
So until next time, remember keep smiling, keep shining, and keep
gardening with Ben. Thank you for joining me on this episode of Gardening with
Ben. I hope you have found some useful tips and instegration for your own
gardening and a lot them journey. If you have enjoyed today's episode, please
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keep shining, and keep gardening with Ben