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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 advice.

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

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on the Allotment. So sit back, grab a brew and enjoy today's episode.

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Hello and welcome to Gardening with Ben
for another new episode today, and

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wow, the weather has changed.
Well, it's been an absolutely atrocious day.

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It's absolutely chucked it down, as
we would say here in Yorkshire.

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It's been an awful, wet,
wet day. So basically I've not managed

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to do any jobs out in the
garden today. As I went to the

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supermarket to get some compost I didn't
know it was going to be but I

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went to get some composts because I'd
bought a lot of seeds the other day.

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As I mentioned in my podcast and
I thought, oh, I'll try

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and get these done today. So
obviously the weather made me sew all my

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seeds today, so I've been stuck
in my shed sowing my seeds. Some

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of them I'll probably think that it's
possible that it might be a bit too

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late from but we'll give them a
shot and give them a try. There's

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no harm in trying. Obviously you're
losing money by paying for the seeds and

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the compost. But I'm one of
these guys. I'll just experiment and give

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it a go. So what have
we been sewing today. Well, we've

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sown some more lettuce, some more
beetroot. We've sown some more climbing beans

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because hopefully then these ones will produce
a bit later than the ones that I've

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got in the ground at the moment, because the ones in the ground are

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growing fast. We've also planted some
more cucumbers because I've not got as many

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cucumber plants as I'd hoped, so
we've planted some more cucumbers. We've also

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planted some sweet con again possibly too
late. It does sell on the packet

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up to May to plant them,
so we're giving it a try. We're

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giving it a shot. Is no
harms lost if we don't get any sweet

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core from them, but we want
to give it a try. Some more

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sweet corn we grow the better and
hopefully get some fantastic produce. But we

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are getting at a time when I'm
going to be starting to harvest all my

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lettuce now, so we need some
more lettuce growing for when that's ready so

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that we keep the continuous crop growing. And again the same with the beetroot.

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I planted that a few weeks ago
outside, so hopefully it will get

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a continuous crop rather than it just
all being ready at the same time.

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So then I've got some all through
the summer, which is what I want

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really, because that's the thing about
growing in allotments. Sometimes you just plant

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all the same stuff at the same
time rather than a continuous crop, so

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once you've picked it, it's finished
with. So if you want to continuous

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crops on your allotment and in your
garden, you need to keep that flow

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of sowing the seeds and certain stuff
you can do that with, like you

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spring onions, your lettuce, your
carrots, your beetroot, your radish.

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These are the things that will continue
to keep cropping right up until end of

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September beginning of October. And I've
also heard the forecast today we are in

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fought and expected fifty days worth of
rain. Who believes that? Let me

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know, let me know if you
believe that. But we'll believe it when

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we see it. But so far
we have high a lot of rain in

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the UK, and every time when
I'm posting stuff on my Instagram and my

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Facebook, everybody's commenting saying, we
just want the rain to stop. We

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just want them to stop so that
we can do some growing. But we

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have had a few sunny days here
at Sheffield, so I am glad it's

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actually rained today. Then I didn't
have to water outside because I don't like

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watering. That's the worst job that
I absolutely hate doing, is water in

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my allotment. So that saved me
a job there. So hopefully tomorrow I'm

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going to start preparing some more areas
for planting stuff out because like I said,

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I've bought some sweet some spring onions. I'm going to sell them directly

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into the soil and yeah, hopefully
get some spring onions growing and possibly plant

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some radish out. So hopefully we'll
get some radish growing as well and keep

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them growing. But we'll see how
we get on. And I want to

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plant some more flowers outside, some
more summer bedding. I want to keep

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the bees happy, keep them coming
around my allotment. So we need to

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go and get some summer bedding to
fill the gaps where all my spring flowers

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were. And yeah, I've done
something what you shouldn't actually do. I've

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trimmed back all my spring bulbs because
I do hate it. Once I've died

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back and I just see all the
leaves and you're not meant to trim them

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back. You're meant to let them
all die back naturally. But I've just

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trimmed them back. So if I
lose them, I lose them, and

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we'll see if they grow next year. Fingers crossed. They still do grow

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next year. But hopefully I've not
lost the bulbs from doing that. I've

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done it a few times and I
still keep getting bulbs popping up, so

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hopefully I won't have ruined my spring
displays. But if not, we're going

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to be planting a load more bulbs
come November. I'll probably be still planting

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a load of bulbs anyway. There's
some areas that I do need to plant

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some spring bulbs in for next year, but that's later on in the year.

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But apart from that, everything else
seems to be growing really well.

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We've lost a lot of the my
Brassicus because I didn't net them up at

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the time and the pigeons of ate
them and destroy them, but the other

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stuff seems to be taking well.
The runner beans are growing well, the

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pumpkin plants have taken, the cottag
jet plants have taken, the peas are

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growing well, and the lettuce is
doing absolutely fantastic. So we're getting some

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great crops down at the plot,
and I'm definitely looking forward to what my

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fruit this year. The strawberries are
starting to grow and obviously all this rain

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will help them swell and get growing
bigger, so hopefully we'll get some good

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crops off strawberries. But again the
same with strawberries, you need to start

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netting them up soon because when they
start going mark, that's when the birds

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will come down and peck at them
and eat them all. So make sure

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you net them over to stop any
birds from coming and pinching them. So

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hopefully we'll be back down at the
allotment tomorrow I'm writing my little list of

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jobs that I need to do because
I'm back on night shift on Thursday,

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so hopefully we can get on and
crack on and get some work done.

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And obviously I'm going to keep you
updated and hopefully we're going to have a

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few more podcasts coming up soon.
Soon. We'll be doing our podcast for

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What to Plant in June, so
stay tuned for that. I didn't post

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my May episode of What to Plant
in May this month, so I do

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apologize, but we'll be back with
our What to Plant in June episodes,

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so make sure you stay tuned for
that. If you're not following us,

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do give us a follow and then
you'll get to stay up to date with

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it all. I hope you're enjoying
that the podcasts are back, and like

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I said, I've got this new
equipment now, so it is sounding a

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lot better on the phone to listen
to or wherever you listen to it to.

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So yeah, remember, keep smiling, keep shining, and keep gardening

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with bet. Everyone. Thank you
for joining me on this episode of Gardening

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with Ben. I hope you have
found some useful tips and integration for your

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own gardening and a lotment Journey.
If you have enjoyed today's episode, please

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make sure to follow and subscribe to
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episode. And if you have a
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a review and share the podcast with
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on social media on every platform for
All Gardening with Ben, for daily gardening

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tips and on days, happy gardening, and until next time, remember keep

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smiling, keep shining, and keep
gardening with Ben