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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. Hey everyone, and
welcome back to Gardening with Ben for another

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brand new episode today. I hope
you're all well. I hope you all

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enjoyed yesterday's episode. Like I said, I'm going to get a few episodes

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recorded so that you've got quite a
few to listen to as they drop on

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a daily basis. As I know
people like to listen to them. And

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someone once said to me and said, why don't you create longer episodes?

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And sometimes I find it too hard
to find stuff to talk about too much

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really, because I just love these
short, little episodes, and I'm sure

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people further short little episodes. Let
me know if you would like longer episodes

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or not. As I would like
feedback on my podcasts. I've had a

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lot of good feedback back about the
quality of the sound. It sounds so

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much better for you all, and
you're enjoying the better quality. And obviously

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the investment that I put into this
microphone one hundred and forty five pounds,

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so it's not a cheap microphone,
it's a very good one. But like

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I say, everything that I get
from these podcasts, I put back into

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sharing stuff with you and the tips
and advice, and I do appreciate you

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all, thank you for my gardening
journey. And as I said, over

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the next few podcasts and episode,
I'm going to be sharing tips and advice

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on getting started on an allotment,
tips just general tips and advice, and

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also tips and advice on what I
do to try and get better vegetables and

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get a better quality of vegetable.
So today we're going to be talking about

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growing pumpkins. Yes, pumpkins.
Everybody loves to see how big they can

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grow a pumpkin, and not last
year, but the year before. I

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managed to grow quite a big pumpkin
myself and get a quite heavy one.

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It was that big that I took
it to my local pub where I do

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my quiz nite and they made pumpkin
soup for everybody, and it was absolutely

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delicious. Like I said, a
lot of the stuff that I grow,

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sometimes I give it away and share
it out with other people, as I

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don't get to eat it all myself. Rather than it good to waste,

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I'd like other people to enjoy it. So we got this massive pumpkin the

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other year, and I'm hoping to
try and get another big one this year,

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and we are going to give it
a good go. And the way

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that you get a good sized pumpkin
is that obviously they need the pollination for

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the pollination of the flower to get
the pumpkin growing in the first place.

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But it's obviously down to keep feeding
them on a regular basis. I'll feed

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mine once twice a week get by
giving it some plant food or tom right,

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as obviously the pumpkin needs the food
to help make it grow, and

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obviously it needs its water as well. But you've got to be careful with

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water in pumpkins, as you can
base rot on the stalk. So sometimes

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the best thing to do is stick
a plant pot at the side of it

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in the ground and water into the
plant pot. That way it waters down

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into the roots, rather than watering
the stem where it can cause the rotting

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of the stem. And then if
the stem rots off, then you've lost

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the full plant, which you don't
want whatsoever. You need to protect it

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at all costs and get it good
and growing. Now, another thing is

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that sometimes if you wanted a big, big pumpkin, it's best not to

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grow many pumpkins on the plant because
if there's a four or five pumpkins on

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the plant, the plant doesn't know
which one to put all the effort into,

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so you'll just get like general smallish
sized pumpkins off them. Whereas if

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you're wanted a big one, maximum
pumpkins on the plant is about two at

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least two or three, and then
you will get a good sized pumpkin it.

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Obviously I've been saying about feeding the
pumpkins. I've fed it and feeding

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it some produce called boost by Westland. I've just created a video on that.

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It should be on my YouTube either
today or in a couple of days,

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so stay tuned for that and I'll
show you what I've made and how

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I look after my pumpkins. I've
also put some chicken feed chicken palets around

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him as well. As chicken palets
break down over a few months, the

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last about three months, so I'll
put them down a couple of times up

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until the ripe. And you've got
to be careful with like chicken pallets,

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because if you get them on the
leaves, they'll burn the leaves and you'll

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end up burning the plant. So
you need to make sure they're around the

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base of the plant, not too
close to the stem. As I say,

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you don't want to burn the stem, so just place them around the

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bottom and when it rains, it
will water them and feed them at the

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same time. So that's another good
way to keep them fed and growing.

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Another good tip what I did as
well last year. And so as pumpkins

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grow, they'll end up sitting on
the soil and you don't want that.

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You want the pumpkins to be sat
on something because if they sat on the

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soil, they could get wet,
they could get damp, they could rot,

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and that is the last thing that
you want to happen. So what

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I do is I've got some old
roof tiles. The pieces are slight,

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and I just rest the pumpkin on
the site so that is not touching the

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soil. That way, it'll stop
it, not let it rot, and

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you will get a good pumpkin.
And it just lifts it off the ground

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a bit better, so then hopefully
it protects it and you'll get a beautiful

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pumpkin. Obviously, pumpkins are usually
ready around the end of October the beginning

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of November, and you don't want
to leave them on the plant when the

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frost is due. If the frost
is due, it would cause the pumpkin

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to either rot or explode, and
that is the last thing you want,

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so make sure you're keeping on on
them temperatures as well. Obviously we're safe

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around now because we're not going to
get frost now hopefully or snow. But

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yeah, stay checking off those temperatures
towards the end of October November, as

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you don't want them to get frost
and go mushy. So when it's about

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time, cut them off, pick
them off, store them in a cool

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place, not a hot place,
a cool place, as again it can

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cause them to rot if it's hot, so store them somewhere safe. So

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that is our tips for growing pumpkins. Make sure you feed them on a

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regular basis. I'll give them food
twice a week. Also put some chicken

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pets around the base to give them
feed over a time and to improve the

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soil and look after them. Give
them your full attention, keep an eye

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on them, Talk to them,
Talk to your plants, say come on,

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pumpkin, grow big. You must
think I'm mad, but it does

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work, trust me. So like
I said, I've got a YouTube video

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coming out on my pumpkins and showing
you how I've done my pumpkins, So

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stay tuned for that. If you're
not following me on YouTube, do give

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me a follow. There's lots of
new videos coming out at the moment,

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and I hope that you enjoyed it. I'll start sharing lots of photos of

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my pumpkins on my Instagram as well
so that you can stay tuned and see

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how big we can actually grow a
pumpkin. This year, hopefully we'll get

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a whopper fingers crossed, and hopefully
I'll be sharing it with my local pub

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again so they can make me some
delicious soup. So stay tuned for that.

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So until next time's episode, remember
keep smiling, keep shining, and

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

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of Gardening with Ben. I hope
you have found some useful tips and inspiration

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

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please make sure to follow and subscribe
to the podcast so you never miss

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a new episode. And if you
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to leave a review and share the
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support helps us grow this community and
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happy gardening, and until next time,

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remember keep smiling, keep shining,
and keep Gardening with Ben.