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 joints of gardening, from sowing seeds to
reaping bountiful harvests. Each episode will explore tips, tricks, and tales 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, and
welcome to our latest podcast, Make a Garden Plan, the podcast where we
turn your green dreams into a thriving reality. I'm your host Gardening with Ben,
inviting you on a journey to create the garden of your dreams. Each
episode will dive into the essentials of garden planning, from the basics of seat
selection and to the design. Whether you're a balcony gardener or have acres to
cultivate, our tips and tricks will help you craft the garden that reflects your
personal style and needs. So grab your notepad and let's plot out your gardening
success right here on Gardening with Ben. Hello, and welcome to your latest
episode of Gardening with Ben. In this episode, we're going to talk about
all the things that we are planning on doing down at the allotment this year,
and how to make that allotment plan and put it through to fruition and
getting the success that you need from your allotment and garden for this year down
at the plot. And what better time to start than in January than making
your plan and working out what you want to do exactly on your allotment this
year, which is always the hardest and trickiest part to do when growing vegetables
and fruit and flowers and stuff like that. It's hard making that plan.
And the best thing that I always say to do is get a piece of
paper and start from scratch. What I always do every single year is I
get an a four sheet paper because that is the scale of my plot.
Is what my plot looks like a piece of a four paper. It's I
use it with length. It looks pretty much similar to how my plot is
basically, and what I do every year I draw my allotment down. I'm
not going to show you these drawings because I am no artist whatsoever, And
yeah, I cannot draw for anything. I didn't do art, and I
didn't do art for a reason. These pictures will never get published. But
yeah, I make a plant every year, and sometimes when i'm doing my
allotment, like this year, I'll rip all the beds up and I'll start
from scratch and make it all from start from the beginning and just clear all
the plot and relay all the paths and relay all the beds and tidy it
all up. And that's what I'm doing this year. On a lot of
the plot, I'm taking it all up and just starting from scratch again because
it does need a lot of improvement to it. So I always get a
sheet of a four paper and I draw my plot, and I draw all
my beds, and I draw my polyton or draw my shed on it.
And what I tend to do is, once I've drawn my paths where my
paths to be, I always make my paths the width of a paving slab.
So if I get any paving slabs, I can just easily slot them
into play on top of the black membrane and they will be my main paths
and eventually they'll bed down and they'll be level and stuff like that, well
levelish. But I always met my paths wide enough for paving slab because they
are like gold dust. If you find them, get them, because they
are worth the weight in gold. Yes they are heavy, but yeah,
they're definitely worth the weight in gold to have a paving slabs. And eventually
the plan is to have all my paths paved. I'm getting there about halfway
there, but we'll get there eventually and get it all paved. Fingers crossed.
The plant is by the end of the year on to it all paved
and looking ship shape. So we've got all that to do. So we
draws paths and then we draw all those beds out and we draws polytunnel as
shed. And what I tend to do is right on my beds. I
don't don't draw the pictures of the fruit and vegetables. There's no point.
Right on the beds. What I'm going to grow in each one, well,
what I plan to grow, how I'm going to grow it. And
I've learned from previous mistake on trying to fit too much stuff into each bed.
I'd rather grow a few things in each bed rather than trying stuff it
full of vegetables because you can't get around with weeding. The weeds tend to
get in between them and you can't get the weeds out, and they stop
stuff from growing because the weed are taking on the nutrients and stuff like that
because you can't get them out. So I tend to just grow a few
stuff in each bed so that can keep stuff easily weeded and maintained. And
obviously you don't want to be growing stuff in the same beds that it were
in previously the year before. You like to use crop rotation, so that's
not used all the nutrients up from the year before for that vegetable. Obviously
you try to improve the soil quality each year by adding nutrients and stuff like
that. But you want to grow stuff in a different bed every year,
so we tend to do that. We write down what we want to grow
in each bed, like some stuff can't be removed, like my strawberries and
my raspberries and stuff like that. But as main growing areas, we move
around on a regular basis and try and grow stuff differently, and then the
same grows. For the polytunnel, I write down what I want to grow
in the polytunnel for that year, and I tend to grow more than I
should do in there, and then I struggle to keep it all watered because
it gets too hot in there, or we get a heat wave and we
have to keep going down everything there to try and water it. But I
do tend to write down what we're growing in it. And like I said,
this year, I'm hoping to grow some melons. I'm hoping to grow
some beef tomatoes in there, and obviously some cucumbers. I'm going to grow
some cucumbers in there as well this year, as I do like my cucumbers
absolutely delicious. The market more varieties I tend to grow. I don't grow
the telegraph ones. I grow the market more variety of cucumber and they're absolutely
delicious. So hopefully we can get some good stuff. And another thing what
I tend to do is I tend to look through the seed catalogs. I
tend to look through. I tend to go to the shops and just make
a list of all the things that you want to grow down at the plot,
and have looked for all your seed packets. If you like me,
I love loads and loads of seeds in the bag. I tend to get
loads with the magazine. Every month. I get the Grower Old magazine and
the Guard Kitchen Guarden mags, so I get ten three packets in each magazine
every month. So I've got absolutely loads and loads of seats and try and
look at growing something new each year. I tried to grow something new every
single year, and the joys of trying something new is that it might be
better than growing something else. Like one year, I grew red purple cauliflower,
and you think purple cauliflower, But the purple cauliflower grew better than my
allotment than the white cauliflower did. It did absolutely fantastic, and I have
no complaints whatsoever. So since then, I've started growing purple cauliflower every year
rather than the white one, because it's a lot better. There's plenty of
different varieties out there, and I'm sure I've seen that you can grow purple
Brussels spouts as well, so that is going to be one of my things
to try on my allotment. I might possibly try it this year, purple
bustle spouts, So keep your eyes peeled for that. And you never know
they may actually taste nice. Fingers crossed. We do try the green ones
every year and I still don't like them, but we're going to try the
purple ones. I think, give them a try and see what they actually
taste like. You never know. They could taste absolutely delicious or they could
be as horrible as the green ones. And again I've grown purple kale and
the purple kale did absolutely fantastic on the plot. It's just all about trying
different stuff. And obviously the different colored stuff you won't seeing the supermarkets because
it wouldn't sell because people only buy what they're known to know the vegetable or
the fruit. As it's like the market mark cucumbers. You don't see being
sold the ones that have bobbly and prickly because everybody's used to buying telegraph cucumbans
who wouldn't buy the market more variety ones. But they taste more delicious than
the telegraph ones, I think. So it's always good to try different types
of new products and different warrieters. And just like me, you might try
something new and it might be fantastic. So have a look around and see
what you can grow this year on your allotment. Let me know what you're
going to grow, if you're going to be trying anything new. Have you
made your plans for your allotment this year? Are you trying something new down
at the plot, and are you all prepared and ready for a fantastic gardening
year, Because I know I certainly am. We're going to have a good
year down this year at our plot, and I'm looking forward to showing you
my journey, hoping that you'll follow it and seeing everything that we grow down
at our plot. It's going to look spectacular and fingers crossed, I can
keep encouragement momentum up and my enjoyment in it, and I hope that you
all enjoy it. So that has been a short little episode today. Make
a plan for your allotment. Get your piece of paper out, get drawing,
get planning what you're going to do this year, and stick to it.
Whenever I go to the allotment, I always make myself a list of
jobs that I want to do, and I have a list of all the
jobs I want to do with this week, and I'll take them off as
i'm doing them, and that way I keep on top of the tasks and
get them all done, and when I've done them, I can tick them
and I go home. It helps me keep me on top of stuff.
I don't know if you are the same. When you're doing your allotments,
you've got yourself a little list of the jobs that you want to get done.
So yeah, that's my being my gardening tips for today. I hope
we've enjoyed it. As always, remember if you've not subscribed or followed this
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So yeah, until next time, everyone, Remember, keep smiling,
keep shining, and keep gardening with Ben everybody. 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 greener 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 Sanctra. Happy gardening and see you in the next episode.
Remember keep smiling, keep shining, and keep gardening with Ben