Welcome to Gardening with Ben, the podcast where we dig into the soil of
our gardens and the depths of our green funds. I'm your host, Ben,
here to guide you through the joint of gardening, from sowing seeds to
reaping bountiful harvests. Each episode will explore tips, tricks and tails from the
garden and allotment, sharing insights from ourself and stories from our own back garden
adventures. Whether you're a seasoned gardener or just getting your hands dirty for the
first time, there's something here for everyone, So grab your brew and gardening
gloves and let's get growing with Gardening with Ben. Hello, garden enthusiasts,
and welcome to Weekend Gardening, the podcast where we dig deep into the soil
of our green and blooming world. I'm your host Gardening with Ben, here
to cultivate your passion for all things gardening, from the tiniest of terraces to
the grandest of greenhouses and allotments. Every episode, we'll explore tips and tricks
to make your garden five, share stories from fellow gardeners, and answer your
burning horticultural questions. Whether you're seasoned, green from or just starting to plant
your first seedlings. There's something here for everyone, so grab our gardening gloves
and let's get our hands thirty. Well, welcome back to a brand new
gardening episode with Gardening with Ben. It's been a few days since our last
podcast, but we're here with a brand new episode. And guess what.
It's Friday, so the weekend is finally here. And what a week we've
had. I don't think it's got above zero where I am in temperature.
It's been absolutely freezing cold, so cold, it's been frosty all the time
it's been, I say, and today was my first day off work,
so I thought, I'm going to go down to the allotment and go and
have a look and see if I can actually do anything. And guess what
I got down there. I couldn't do a single thing as the ground is
rock hard and it was all frozen over. And I say, but I've
popped down for ten minutes or so. But at least it got me out
of the house, which was the main thing. And yeah, I just
don't like being stuck in the house all the time, so it's nice to
just go outside and be in the fresh effort bit. So we enjoyed a
bit of peace and quiet down there. So what's happening down at the allotment
at the moment. Well, I went down and it was all frosty and
iced over. I was looking at my roob barb and my roobarb had all
died again. It were all doing really well. It was shooting up really
good. But obviously this cold weather and frost has killed it off again and
it'll have gone back into hibernation which happens all the time, and it won't
It had started growing too early. It wasn't time for the rhubarb to be
growing at this time of year, so it was it doesn't matter that it's
died off again. It's it doesn't usually start growing properly till March April time,
so I'm not too fuss that it's died off and withered back again.
So what's our plans for the allotment this weekend? Well, looking at the
weather forecast, it's going to turn back into double digits again the temperature,
so it's looking about thirteen degrees on Sunday. But there is a storm forecast
as well, so we've got to keep his eye on that. But I'm
hoping to get down to the plot tomorrow and start working on resorting on my
beds out and getting them all ready for this year. As we're middle of
January now, so we've got plenty of time to get all my plot tidy
and sorted. We've still got plenty of time to get that done well on
track for that, but I'm going to be digging up all my old beds.
I'm going to be moving all my paths, resorting out all my edging
and everything like that. So it's quite a big job which I'm hoping to
get done. But once it's all done and sorted, it should look absolutely
fantastic. So I can't wait to share the photos with you on that.
And if you're not following me on Instagram, make sure you're head over there
now and give me a follow called Gardening with Ben and come and say hello.
It's always good to form new people and new followers, so we're going
to be doing that. And just as I've been thinking about it, actually
I need to pop over to the shops and get some bird seed as all
my bird seed had gone from my bird feeders because of us. Like I
say, the ground is frozen up at the moment, so it's hard for
the birds to get their seeds and the protein and the fat what they need
to keep them going through the wintertime. So we need to go to the
supermarket and get some seed for them to keep them filled up. So I
love looking after the birds. It's great to see the birds down there.
Yes, it does attract the rats and everything like that, but I do
like to see the birds down there and attract the blue tis, the robins,
the sparrows, the fringe. But yeah, we'll have to see if
we can get some blue. It's in our bluetick boxes again. That's the
key thing to try this year. And one of my other jobs this weekend
is that one of the ones what I was hoping to do last week was
to sew on my peppers. I need to get my peppers. So if
you could see what my tomato plants look like now, they look absolutely fantastic.
They're getting nice and taller. We just need there them to start getting
the second leaves on, the true leaves, as obviously the first ones aren't
the proper leaves. But we need them to start getting the proper leaves on
now and start picking up a bit. I keep turning them around every day
so that they don't get too lagging grow too bad. But yeah, we
need to get all those peppers planted this weekend. And I've got my normal
sized peppers, and then I've got my bite sized peppers, which are really
tiny peppers which will do look nice. I bought them from Tesco and took
all the seeds out and some dried all them out. So if we can
get all them planted tomorrow, that's another job well done. And it's all
coming on good. I've got a lot of good plans this year for my
alotman and we've got as melons to try and grow as well. We're going
to try and grow some melons down at the allotment again this year. We're
going to give them a good try. Now that I've sorted out all my
shed and everything, it should be a lot warmer in the summer and we
should get some really warm temperature in there, because obviously melons do like the
warmth to get growing nice and well, and the same for peppers. Peppers
need the warm weather. But the tomatoes, the small cherry tomatoes can be
grown outside. They're fine. The beef ones I'm going to be growing them
indoors. Those are the ones that have got started from seed at the moment.
I wanted to start them off a bit earlier so that we can get
lots and lots of beef tomates off them, because it will take a while
to ripen them once head obviously bigger to martyrs. But yeah, we're going
to give it a try this year. We're gonna get some good varieties of
stuff growing and a few new things that I've not tried growing before, which
I'm certainly looking forward to showing you all and letting you see how well we
can grow stuff. And I wouldn't class myself as a professional gardener. I'm
still an amateur. Even though I've been doing a lotment ting for about twenty
years now, I'm still learning every single day. There's new things to learn.
It's new stuff that I see magazines all the time, and yeah,
I enjoy it. I enjoy trying all the new things out and different things
to try from the allotment, so I will be sharing it with you all.
And this episode basically was just a little catch up and to get that
episode out there because I know people do love them, and if you're new
to these podcasts, make sure you do give us a follow up, Make
sure you do subscribe to the podcast so that you get notifications when you podcasts
come up. And we're going to be getting a lot of episodes out this
year. I'm going to aim for two hundred episodes in a year, so
that is a big target. It can be tricky to record some of these
episodes because obviously I do live a busy lifestyle with the allotment and work and
blog in for you all. But we're going to try and get two hundred
episodes out this year, and if we manage that, I'll be a happy
lad. But each episode of wanting to grow a little bit more, grow
a little bit more, get a few more followers. And it's good to
see how much people are supporting these podcasts and enjoying them. And I do
appreciate the support on them. And I love sharing my allotment journey with you
all and my gardening journal. I love seeing that you can see what I'm
up to down at my lotment, my successes, my failures, and I'm
always one for telling you all my failures. I don't mind. I'm not
one of these gardeners that will tire pumpkin to a plant just to pretend that
I've grown it and stuff like that. I show you how things are,
how real it is, and how many failures you can have. And if
you have failures, it's just a case of keep trying, just keep trying
and doing it again until you have success. Some years you can do really
well with crops. A year after you might do absolutely rubbish and wonder why
I've done rubbish when I'm doing exactly the same. But that's how gardening goes.
You have your successes, you have your failures, and yeah, it's
pretty much like that a lot of the time. So it's a case of
my motto in life what I always set at the end of my podcast,
which is keep smiling, keep shining, and keep guardening with Ben because you
do need to keep gardening and keep smiling throughout it all, as it does
help a lot with mental health and it helps me so much in what I
do. So I hope you've enjoyed this little catch up. We are hopefully,
like I said, back at the allotment tomorrow, so I'm going to
be sharing tales from the allotment tomorrow and sharing what I've been getting up to,
So stick around. Make sure you don't give us a follow. If
you've not listened to all my three hundred episodes, what are on you?
Crack them on? I've a listened to him. There's plenty of episodes for
you to listen to on you So until next time, remember, keep smiling,
keep shining, and keep gardening with Bed. Everybody until next time.
We'll see you all later. And that wraps up another episode of Gardening with
Ben. Thank you for joining me in this journey. Remember every seed planted
is a step towards a green world, and every day is a chance to
grow something beautiful. Keep nurturing your gardens and your souls. Until next time,
I'm gardening with Ben reminding you to let your garden be your sanctuary.
Happy gardening, and see you in the next episode. Remember, keep smiling,
keep shining, and keep gardening with Ben.