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

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

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

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

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

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

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i'd advice. We will also have
regular episodes talking about what we have been

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

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today's episode. Hey everyone, and
welcome back to Gardening with Ben. When

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is the summer coming? Well,
somebody please tell me sorry if that came

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over aloud and wanting summer to come. It's Sunday and it's in July,

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and yeah, the summer still hasn't
come yet. It came briefly for one

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week the other week, but yeah, we seem to have lost it again.

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I went to the allotment this morning. It was nice and warm when

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I left the house and guess what, it absolutely chucked it down while I

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was at the allotment, so when
it chucks it down, it's a case

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of doing jobs inside the ament polytunnel
and in my shed usually. And one

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of the daily tips I shared today
on my Instagram and Facebook was to make

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sure you're tying up all your climbing
plants, et cetera. Make sure you

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keep on top of that. As
the do start to grow fast when it

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is warm and with the rain,
they'll start to shoot and sometimes get out

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of control, so you need to
make sure that you keep them well ted.

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And that is one thing that we
did today. I've sorted out my

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cucumbers. I've fastened all them up, fasten them to the netting. You

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have to watch cucumbers if you're growing
them up netting because I use the small

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square netting and sometimes like the leaves
will get stuck in the netting and sometimes

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they get all caught up, so
you have to pull them out gently and

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tidy them back up and tie them
all back up gently. But make sure

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when you're tying your cucumbers up,
don't pull the wires too tight because just

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in case the stems get a bit
fatter or stuff like that, you can

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actually damage them. So just fasten
them loosely around the plant as you fasten

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them onto the netting. So I've
tied it all them up and I've even

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posted a photo on Instagram today of
my cucumbers growing, and yeah, I've

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got a decent size one growing,
and I did notice quite a lot growing

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on the plant. Now I'm only
growing think four or five plants in my

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polytunnel. A lot. They didn't
grow very well, so we started some

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more off and we planted all them
ones outdoors. So obviously they're running a

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bit slower than the ones in the
polytunnel. And the reason why I plant

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them outdoors is because I'd got a
new well an old border what I'd filled

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with compost to fill it back up, and I thought, why go out

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and buy loads compost to fill my
buckets up when I can just plant them

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outside. So this is the first
time that I'm growing my cucumbers outside.

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I don't know how well they'll get
on whether we'll get any cucumbers on them.

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They're growing very slowly at the moment. The slugs haven't eaten them yet,

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so that's one main thing sorted.
But yeah, we're growing them outside.

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I keep feeding them with some chicken
palets every week and for some blood

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and fish oil, bone meal down
and yeah, they are taking they are

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growing a bit. So hopefully once
we get some warm more weather they'll start

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to shoot up. Because once you
do start growing cucumber plants, the douce

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who seem to start shooting up and
expanding, and before you know it,

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you've got cucumbers all over the planet. And they often hide to say how

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big cucumbers are. They often hide
and you'll find one that's been growing massive

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and you'll suddenly realize you've got a
huge cucumber that needs eating. So we've

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been tying all them up and sorting
all them out. And we've also been

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sorting out my climbing rose as I've
got climbing rose in my entrance to my

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plot. It's been in a few
years now, it's getting taller and I've

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got an archway over the entrance on
my plot. It's not very sturdy,

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to be honest with you. I
would prefer a nice wooden one or something

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like that. May be on my
to douelist to get a nice wooden arch

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well my entrance to my plot,
but it's a metal one for the time

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being. And they are quite flimsy. I don't know if anybody else has

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had one, but I find them
quite flimsy. So we've been fascinating all

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up to the archway and sorting all
that out, tidying it up. And

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yeah, as i've been tidying it
up, i've been beheading it all as

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that's one thing that you've got to
make sure you do with roses. Make

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sure you keep your heading them so
then they'll keep flowering, because if you

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don't dehead them, they'll think that
they're going to seed and they'll stop flowering.

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So you need to make sure you
keep your head in your roses,

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even if it's just going around once
a day round your allotment or round your

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garden, just snipping off the dead
heads, and yeah, it'll encourage mark

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growth on the roses. So I've
tided them all up and they look a

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lot better now. And obviously I've
got spike to death while I were doing

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it, as I did in my
gloves I never usually do. And we've

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also took some cuttings from it because
there were some scraggly bits that weren't growing

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in the right places and stuff like
that, so I trimmed them off and

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I've posted them up good Honestly taking
cuttings I learned by my mistakes and stuff

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like that, same with anyone now. Often people had obviously put them in

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a jar from to root, but
I thought I'll just plant them straight into

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the soil in some compost in my
polytunnel, and yeah, water were men.

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I have potted up about twenty cuttings, so we'll see if if they

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come. Even if we just get
three or four, I'll be happy with

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it. It's trial by error,
and obviously I can take loads more cuttings

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if I want to, so figures
crossed. If they all take then my

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allotment will be a massive red roses
all over the place. But we'll see

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how we get on. Hopefully we
get some nice roses growing. But it's

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nothing to lose, and now is
the time to be taking cuttings and stuff

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like that. So if you've got
a favorite plan or a favorite flower,

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go around taking some cuttings off them, because you're not wasting any money.

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However, and I'm tempted to go
and get some cuttings off my lavender plant,

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as I do want more lavender bushes
on my allotment. I'm sorted with

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all my futures. I could take
loads of cuttings off my futures, but

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I've got loads of future planting and
I'm really happy with how they've all come

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on. So eventually we might get
some more futures growing, but there's still

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quite small plants, so I don't
want to disturb them and take any cuttings

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off my futures at the moment.
And yeah, i want to get some

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lavender plants growing, so I'm going
to try and take some cuttings and some

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lavender this this week, hopefully get
some flowering and get them started ready for

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planting out next year on my allotment. So you'll have to stay tuned for

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that, but I'll keep you all
updated on how well the rose cuttings are

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doing. Like I always say,
I'm an honest gardener. I tell you

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how it is, if it's worked, if it's failed, if I'm rubbish

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it. It's better to be honest
with people. Like one year you can

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do absolutely brilliant and have fantastic and
stuff like that, and then the next

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year you could have a total failure, and you're not wanting to hide stuff

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from people. You want to be
honest with people, I don't know everything.

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I've always said that I'm always learning. I've been on my allotment now

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for twenty years, and every day
I'm learning new things. And I see

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tips online and stuff. A lot
of times you don't know if it's real

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or if it's fake just to get
a clickbait. But like I've seen my

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people start roses off in potatoes as
well, just shove them in potatoes because

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it's meant to feed them and help
make them root. But I don't know

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how true that is, whether it's
true or not, let me know if

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you've tried it. I always like
to hear back from people listening to the

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podcast, and I also want to
give a shout out to one of my

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listeners that they've recently found my podcasts
and this put a nice comment on my

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Instagram saying like how they're enjoying it
and how many tips they've learned from the

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podcast. And a lot of the
time I'm just waffling on. I don't

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have a set podcast recorded, I
don't type it all up beforehand. I'd

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just like to talk about a little
topic, maybe what I've been up to

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on the allotment or what you need
to do here and there and at this

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time. So I do just love
to chat about what I've been up to.

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I think a lot of people seem
to enjoy that. Like obviously I

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could spend hours writing the podcast episode, also getting people on to do a

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podcast with, which is time and
effort, and then editing it all and

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sorting it all out. But this
is just a raw podcast. I don't

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do no editing. It's straight from
it. I don't cut out all the

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years from a podcast. I just
like to talk and get it out there

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for you to listen to. And
I think a lot of people enjoy that.

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How it's just straight to the point
and from the heart. And whether

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I do things right, whether I
do things wrong, it's just good fun

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and that's what I enjoy in the
gardening world. If it fails, I

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don't give them monkeys. I'm just
happy that I've been out in my garden,

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that I've been enjoying it, and
that is good for the mental health.

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And everything seems to be coming together
well at the moment. I'm really

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pushing out the content to you all, sharing the daily tips on Instagram and

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Facebook, and a lot of people
seem to be liking them. They seem

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to be picking up on a daily
basis, more and more people are seeing

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them and liking them. If you
ever do see a post of mine on

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Instagram, please just give it a
like and feel free to leave a comment,

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as I do love to see how
people react to my posts, and

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obviously the more people that like it, the more they get pushed out as

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well. The same goes for this
podcast. Feel free to just leave a

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comment if you can, and give
it a like wherever you see any of

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my content, as it really does
help me and it doesn't cost you anything

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and that can push it out to
thousands of people just giving it a like

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and a comment. And yeah,
I don't always reply to him, which

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I should do, but if I've
applied to everybody's comment, it'd probably take

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me all day. But yeah,
and hopefully I'm going to be back down

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at the allotment tomorrow. Hopefully it
doesn't rain tomorrow because I want to spend

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some time outside. I might even
get them havingder cuttings tomorrow, so we'll

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have to stay tune for that and
see how well we'll get on. And

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what else are we planning to do
tomorrow? I might go out and get

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some more seeds and start some seeds
off for July, so make sure you

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stay tuned for that. If you've
not listened to my podcast talking about what

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to plant in July, go go
back and have a look and listen to

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that episode. You can still plan
plenty of stuff at this time. You

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can plany your spring onions, you
can plan autumn carrots, you can plant

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beet root, you can plant some
peas, you can even plant runner beans.

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There's still plenty to your stuff out
there that you can plan at this

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time a year, so make sure
you go and listen to that and let

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me know what everybody's planting. I
do love to hear back from everybody that's

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listening, So if you have enjoyed
this podcast, please do give it a

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like. Feel free to share it
onto your Instagram stories if you've got Instagram,

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and the more people that do listen
to it, the more people it

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will get pushed out to. So
thanks for listening. As always, remember

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keep smiling, keep shining, and
keep gardening with bet. Everyone. Thank

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you for joining me on this episode
of Gardening with Ben. I hope you

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have found some useful tips and instigration
for your own gardening and a lot more

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journey. If you have enjoyed today's
episode, please make sure to follow and

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subscribe to the podcast so you never
miss a new episode. And if you

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have a moment, I'd love for
you to leave a review and share the

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podcast. But fellow gardeningviews, your
support helps us throw this community and continue

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bringing you great content. We can
also follow us on social media on every

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platform The Whole Gardening with Ben for
daily gardening tips and of days, happy

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

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keep gardening with Ben