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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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add advice. We will also have
regular episodes talking about what we have been

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

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today's episode. Hello everyone, and
welcome back to Gardening with Ben for a

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brand new episode on a brand new
week. Well it's now Monday, the

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weekend has finished, Live has finished, and my legs have finally just recovered.

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They are back to normal, back
to full strength. And yeah,

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we hopefully will be back in the
garden as well soon as we're currently on

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night shifts at the moment, so
we're not getting chances to go down.

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We might pop down just to do
a bit of watering, but we're not

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getting chances to do any actual work
down there as usually I'm pretty drained when

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I'm on the night shifts. So
what have we been up to? Well,

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it's a brand new week and hopefully
we've got a few planned for this

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week down at the Allotment. This
episode is our weekly catch up one where

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we talk about what being up to
and what's been happening down at the Allotment.

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Well, as you know, I
went to BBC Gardener's World Life and

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the videos are up on my YouTube
channel now of my experience there and also

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what I actually purchased there as well
well, So have a look at that

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you'll be able to see what items
are purchased. I did talk about it

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in these episodes, but I show
the actual items that I purchased in the

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video so you can actually see them
and see what I'm planting. And I

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managed to get all them planted.
I planted them in one of my flower

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beds. I've not shown whereabouts planted
are at the moment, but that'll be

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my tour video which we'll be coming
up next week from the Allotment. So

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yeah, we have been pretty busy
down at the lot. But we've picked

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us first lettuce this week that was
absolutely delicious and crunchy with an iceberg lettuce.

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I always liked to grow the iceberg
lettices. They always seem to grow

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well on my allotment. I've never
had any issues with growing them. They

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get a decent size and they don't
get eaten much, to be honest.

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And when I was looking inside,
I didn't find any slugs or anything like

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that hiding away. Only a few
little tiny ones, but nothing too major.

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So yeah, we had some decent
iceberg lettuces, and hopefully we'll be

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able to pick some mare soom because
we've had that much rain at the moment,

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so hopefully it'll make them swell and
build that big heart inside. What

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provides a delicious lettuce to crunchy lettice. You can obviously eat all the leaves

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on the outside and everything like that, but it's the crunchy lettuce inside which

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is absolutely delicious. Well, hopefully
been planting out some more plants as well,

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what I've been growing in my greenhouse. That's the plan for this week.

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We've obviously got a load more peas
growing, We've got a load more

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climbing beans growing what we can plant
out. So we've even got some more

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lettuce growing, to be honest,
But that's not quite ready to plant out

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yet. We've also got a load
more beetroot to plant out, so hopefully

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we'll be able to fill some gaps
in. And we've got a load more

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sweet corn to plant out. So
I'm hoping to dig up my garlic this

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week, as my garlic has probably
stop growing now it's about ready to pick,

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so hopefully we'll get some decent garlic. Cough. We'll hang them up

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in my polytunnel to dry out for
the next few weeks. And yeah,

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we'll be cooking with some garlics,
so if anyone's got any garlic recipes,

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let me know, because I'm not
a very good chef, so it's good

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to find out what people cook with
garlic, so let me know. So

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hopefully we're gonna be digging them up. And hopefully we're going to be picking

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some more strawberries this week, as
they're just starting to ripe, and we

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picked off as first one the other
day, absolutely delicious, so hopefully we're

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gonna be picking some more of those. I've netted all my blueberries up as

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I are starting to turn blue,
and I don't want the birds to eat

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them all. They've already eaten all
my gooseberries. The blackbirds they've eaten all

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my gooseberries. My gooseberries have all
gone, so I've got no goozberries this

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year, so I need to remember
to net them next year from the pesky

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blackbirds. So yeah, hopefully we're
gonna get some nice blueberries as well this

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year. So we've got that to
do. We've got a sweet corns plant

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out, which I just said as
I absolutely love sweet corn. Sweet corn

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is absolutely delicious. And then I've
got fifty cucumber plants growing. All my

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seeds germinated what I planted for them. Recently, I've got a few growing

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in my polyton on. At the
moment, I've probably got about five plants,

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but I planted some marks I fought
five is not enough. Usually I

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grow about ten to fifteen plants so
that I get a decent amount of cucumbers

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through the summer on a regular basis, rather than just like one every so

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often. I like to have a
few plants. So I'm tempted to try

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and plant all fifty plants just to
have a laugh to see how many I

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actually grow. It'll be quite interesting
whether I try growing some outside. I

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might do that as well this year. Try growing some cucumbers outside in the

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UK to see how well they grow. But after all the rubbish weather what

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we've had at the moment, I
don't think it's worth it you. I

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don't think it will be getting much
great outside this year at all. Or

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talking to somebody at the BBC Gardener's
Worldlife from the National Allotment Society and they

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were saying, what sort of year
have you had with your crops so far

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this year? I said, very
slow, extremely slow. Yes, the

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rain is fantastic for making things grow, but we need the sunshine and the

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warmth as well to make things grow, and it's been pretty cold at the

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moment. I'll tell you that for
sure. It's not been ideal gardening weather

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this year. If there's a shortage
of things on things growing in the UK

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this year, I wouldn't not believe
it as it has been absolutely terrible.

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So I got them to do and
we'll be getting to that time picking as

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potatoes soon. They must be nearly
ready. That's the thing when you're growing

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potatoes. You never know when they're
ready because they're obviously under the ground and

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you don't want to disturb them just
in case they're not ready, So usually

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I don't usually start picking them until
my plants start dying off, and they're

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still green and healthy at the moment, so I'm going to leave them until

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they start dying off, and then
I'll know that they're definitely ready. So

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I'm going to keep giving them some
water and keep getting them growing. Obviously,

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I've been sharing my videos as well
recently that I like to look after

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my pumpkins and my corse jets by
feeding them once a week with some organic

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feed I just put into my watering
can and I give them a drink of

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that every week because that will help
things grow and helthings swell. Because we

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want a nice large pumpkin this year. Hopefully we'll get one, but we

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can give it a try. But
yeah, we've got a few pumpkins growing

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all ready, so I'm pleased with
how well they're coming along. So hopefully

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we can get another decent sized one
to grow, and then things are just

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growing really really well. Down at
my allotment, I'd say it is bad

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weather. My plum tree is not
very good at all. It's dying off,

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it's not looking health. But I'm
going to prune that back in the

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next couple of days. I think
it's you prune your plum trees in the

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summertime, which I know you might
think what you're meant to prune them in

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the winter. No, plum trees, you prune them in the summer because

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it can affect them and you can
get silver leaf from it if you're pune

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them in the winter. And this
is probably what it's got. It's probably

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got silver leaf because I did give
it a little trim in the winter as

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it was getting too big. So
we'll have to have a look at maybe

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pruning it and having a look at
that and getting it salted. So what

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else my pears, My pears are
doing fantastic. We've got so many pairs

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on my pear tree. We've also
got a lot of eating apples as well

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on my apple trees. We've got
a few cooking apple trees, not too

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many. As I did prune that
back a lot this year. I'm not

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going to prune it back, I
don't think this winter. I'm just gonna

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leave it and hopefully get some cooking
apples growing on it. But we'll see

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how well it's doing. It's grown
a lot this year, it certainly has.

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It's done really well, so we're
getting some good fruit on as we're

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getting loads of raspberries coming. My
BlackBerry canes are growing absolutely out of this

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world, and they're phoneless as well, so you don't spike yourself every time

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you try and pick a BlackBerry.
As flowers are doing absolutely beautiful. They're

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looking gorgeous. As sunflowers are getting
nice and tall again. I feed them

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every week to give them that boost
to get them nice and big, so

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hopefully we'll get some decent zius ones. And like I've said in my podcast

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episodes, the ideal to save as
canes once to some flower heads die off,

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so you can use them for supports
for growing your pumpkins, up,

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your runner beans or peas up anything. The ideal they really really strong.

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So yeah, my allotment is coming
on absolutely fantastic, and hopefully we'll be

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sharing lots of Mork videos and advice
on what we get up to down there

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coming up. So if you've enjoyed
this podcast, please do give us a

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follow, Please give it a like, Please give it a share to a

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friend or two who you might think
might enjoy it, or stick it on

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your Instagram story as well. You
can click the share button and share it

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to your Instagram story. The more
exposure we get, the better, and

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it's going from jump to jump.
At the moment, there's so many people

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listening to them and I'm so excited
with how big it's getting this podcast.

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It really does make me smile to
see how many people are listening and where

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they are listening from as well.
It always amazes me. And like I

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said in the podcast the other day, it got to number one in India,

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which was absolutely phenomenal. So I'm
getting out there everywhere. So thanks

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for listening everyone. Until next time, remember keep smiling, keep shining,

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and keep gardening with Ben. Everyone, thank you for joining me on this

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episode of Gardening with Ben. I
hope you've have found some useful tips and

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inspiration for your own gardening and a
lotment journey. If you have enjoyed today's

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episode, please make sure to follow
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miss a new episode. And if
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you to leave a review and share
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support helps us grow this community and
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also follow us on social media on
every platform or Gardening with Ben for daily

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gardening tips and mondays. Happy gardening, and until next time, remember keep

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smiling, keep shining, and keep
gardening with Ben