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Welcome to Gardening with Ben, the
podcast where we dig into the soil of

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our gardens and the depths of our
green funds. I'm your host, Ben,

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here to guide you through the joints
of gardening, from sowing seeds to

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reaping bountiful harvests. Each episode will
explore tips, tricks, and tales from

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the garden and allotment, sharing insights
from ourself and stories from our own back

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garden adventures. Whether you're a seasoned
gardener or just getting your hands dirty for

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the first time, there's something here
for everyone. So grab your brew and

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gardening gloves and let's get growing.
With Gardening with Ben. Hello, and

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welcome to our latest podcast, Make
a Garden Plan, the podcast where we

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turn your green dreams into a thriving
reality. I'm your host Gardening with Ben,

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inviting you on a journey to create
the garden of your dreams. Each

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episode will dive into the essentials of
garden planning, from the basics of seat

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selection and to the design. Whether
you're a balcony gardener or have acres to

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cultivate, our tips and tricks will
help you craft the garden that reflects your

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personal style and needs. So grab
your notepad and let's plot out your gardening

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success right here on Gardening with Ben. Hello, and welcome to your latest

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episode of Gardening with Ben. In
this episode, we're going to talk about

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all the things that we are planning
on doing down at the allotment this year,

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and how to make that allotment plan
and put it through to fruition and

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getting the success that you need from
your allotment and garden for this year down

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at the plot. And what better
time to start than in January than making

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your plan and working out what you
want to do exactly on your allotment this

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year, which is always the hardest
and trickiest part to do when growing vegetables

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and fruit and flowers and stuff like
that. It's hard making that plan.

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And the best thing that I always
say to do is get a piece of

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paper and start from scratch. What
I always do every single year is I

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get an a four sheet paper because
that is the scale of my plot.

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Is what my plot looks like a
piece of a four paper. It's I

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use it with length. It looks
pretty much similar to how my plot is

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basically, and what I do every
year I draw my allotment down. I'm

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not going to show you these drawings
because I am no artist whatsoever, And

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yeah, I cannot draw for anything. I didn't do art, and I

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didn't do art for a reason.
These pictures will never get published. But

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yeah, I make a plant every
year, and sometimes when i'm doing my

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allotment, like this year, I'll
rip all the beds up and I'll start

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from scratch and make it all from
start from the beginning and just clear all

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the plot and relay all the paths
and relay all the beds and tidy it

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all up. And that's what I'm
doing this year. On a lot of

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the plot, I'm taking it all
up and just starting from scratch again because

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it does need a lot of improvement
to it. So I always get a

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sheet of a four paper and I
draw my plot, and I draw all

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my beds, and I draw my
polyton or draw my shed on it.

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And what I tend to do is, once I've drawn my paths where my

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paths to be, I always make
my paths the width of a paving slab.

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So if I get any paving slabs, I can just easily slot them

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into play on top of the black
membrane and they will be my main paths

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and eventually they'll bed down and they'll
be level and stuff like that, well

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levelish. But I always met my
paths wide enough for paving slab because they

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are like gold dust. If you
find them, get them, because they

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are worth the weight in gold.
Yes they are heavy, but yeah,

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they're definitely worth the weight in gold
to have a paving slabs. And eventually

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the plan is to have all my
paths paved. I'm getting there about halfway

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there, but we'll get there eventually
and get it all paved. Fingers crossed.

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The plant is by the end of
the year on to it all paved

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and looking ship shape. So we've
got all that to do. So we

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draws paths and then we draw all
those beds out and we draws polytunnel as

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shed. And what I tend to
do is right on my beds. I

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don't don't draw the pictures of the
fruit and vegetables. There's no point.

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Right on the beds. What I'm
going to grow in each one, well,

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what I plan to grow, how
I'm going to grow it. And

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I've learned from previous mistake on trying
to fit too much stuff into each bed.

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I'd rather grow a few things in
each bed rather than trying stuff it

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full of vegetables because you can't get
around with weeding. The weeds tend to

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get in between them and you can't
get the weeds out, and they stop

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stuff from growing because the weed are
taking on the nutrients and stuff like that

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because you can't get them out.
So I tend to just grow a few

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stuff in each bed so that can
keep stuff easily weeded and maintained. And

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obviously you don't want to be growing
stuff in the same beds that it were

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in previously the year before. You
like to use crop rotation, so that's

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not used all the nutrients up from
the year before for that vegetable. Obviously

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you try to improve the soil quality
each year by adding nutrients and stuff like

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that. But you want to grow
stuff in a different bed every year,

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so we tend to do that.
We write down what we want to grow

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in each bed, like some stuff
can't be removed, like my strawberries and

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my raspberries and stuff like that.
But as main growing areas, we move

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around on a regular basis and try
and grow stuff differently, and then the

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same grows. For the polytunnel,
I write down what I want to grow

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in the polytunnel for that year,
and I tend to grow more than I

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should do in there, and then
I struggle to keep it all watered because

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it gets too hot in there,
or we get a heat wave and we

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have to keep going down everything there
to try and water it. But I

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do tend to write down what we're
growing in it. And like I said,

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this year, I'm hoping to grow
some melons. I'm hoping to grow

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some beef tomatoes in there, and
obviously some cucumbers. I'm going to grow

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some cucumbers in there as well this
year, as I do like my cucumbers

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absolutely delicious. The market more varieties
I tend to grow. I don't grow

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the telegraph ones. I grow the
market more variety of cucumber and they're absolutely

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delicious. So hopefully we can get
some good stuff. And another thing what

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I tend to do is I tend
to look through the seed catalogs. I

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tend to look through. I tend
to go to the shops and just make

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a list of all the things that
you want to grow down at the plot,

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and have looked for all your seed
packets. If you like me,

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I love loads and loads of seeds
in the bag. I tend to get

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loads with the magazine. Every month. I get the Grower Old magazine and

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the Guard Kitchen Guarden mags, so
I get ten three packets in each magazine

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every month. So I've got absolutely
loads and loads of seats and try and

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look at growing something new each year. I tried to grow something new every

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single year, and the joys of
trying something new is that it might be

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better than growing something else. Like
one year, I grew red purple cauliflower,

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and you think purple cauliflower, But
the purple cauliflower grew better than my

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allotment than the white cauliflower did.
It did absolutely fantastic, and I have

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no complaints whatsoever. So since then, I've started growing purple cauliflower every year

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rather than the white one, because
it's a lot better. There's plenty of

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different varieties out there, and I'm
sure I've seen that you can grow purple

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Brussels spouts as well, so that
is going to be one of my things

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to try on my allotment. I
might possibly try it this year, purple

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bustle spouts, So keep your eyes
peeled for that. And you never know

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they may actually taste nice. Fingers
crossed. We do try the green ones

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every year and I still don't like
them, but we're going to try the

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purple ones. I think, give
them a try and see what they actually

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taste like. You never know.
They could taste absolutely delicious or they could

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be as horrible as the green ones. And again I've grown purple kale and

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the purple kale did absolutely fantastic on
the plot. It's just all about trying

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different stuff. And obviously the different
colored stuff you won't seeing the supermarkets because

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it wouldn't sell because people only buy
what they're known to know the vegetable or

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the fruit. As it's like the
market mark cucumbers. You don't see being

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sold the ones that have bobbly and
prickly because everybody's used to buying telegraph cucumbans

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who wouldn't buy the market more variety
ones. But they taste more delicious than

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the telegraph ones, I think.
So it's always good to try different types

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of new products and different warrieters.
And just like me, you might try

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something new and it might be fantastic. So have a look around and see

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what you can grow this year on
your allotment. Let me know what you're

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going to grow, if you're going
to be trying anything new. Have you

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made your plans for your allotment this
year? Are you trying something new down

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at the plot, and are you
all prepared and ready for a fantastic gardening

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year, Because I know I certainly
am. We're going to have a good

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year down this year at our plot, and I'm looking forward to showing you

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my journey, hoping that you'll follow
it and seeing everything that we grow down

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at our plot. It's going to
look spectacular and fingers crossed, I can

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keep encouragement momentum up and my enjoyment
in it, and I hope that you

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all enjoy it. So that has
been a short little episode today. Make

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a plan for your allotment. Get
your piece of paper out, get drawing,

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get planning what you're going to do
this year, and stick to it.

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Whenever I go to the allotment,
I always make myself a list of

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jobs that I want to do,
and I have a list of all the

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jobs I want to do with this
week, and I'll take them off as

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i'm doing them, and that way
I keep on top of the tasks and

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get them all done, and when
I've done them, I can tick them

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and I go home. It helps
me keep me on top of stuff.

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I don't know if you are the
same. When you're doing your allotments,

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you've got yourself a little list of
the jobs that you want to get done.

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So yeah, that's my being my
gardening tips for today. I hope

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we've enjoyed it. As always,
remember if you've not subscribed or followed this

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can also leave a comment on podcast
now and Spotify, So leave a comment.

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So yeah, until next time,
everyone, Remember, keep smiling,

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keep shining, and keep gardening with
Ben everybody. And that wraps up another

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episode of Gardening with Ben. Thank
you for joining me in this journey.

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Remember, every seed planted is a
step towards a greener world, and every

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day is a chance to grow something
beautiful. Keep nurturing your gardens and your

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souls. Until next time, I'm
gardening with Ben, reminding you to let

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your garden be your Sanctra. Happy
gardening and see you in the next episode.

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Remember keep smiling, keep shining,
and keep gardening with Ben