Hello, and welcome to Gardening with Ben. You'll go to a podcast for
all things green and growing. I'm Ben, your allotment guide and here to
help you cultivate your garden and your passion for plants. Whether you're a seasoned
gardener or just starting out, this podcast is for you. Each episode will
dig into tips, tricks, and techniques to make your garden and allotment thrive
from planting, sewing, and growing. We will share all the tips and
add advice. We will also have regular episodes talking about what we have been
up to on the Alltment. So sit back, grab a brew and enjoy
today's episode. Hello, and welcome back to Gardening with Ben for a brand
new episode today here on Thursday. Well, it's my last day of working
and then I've got four days off, so you'll be getting podcast talking all
about what I've been getting up to down at the Allotment. Again, some
of you may enjoy that, or some of you may enjoy these different sorts
of podcasts that we've been doing this week now. We've been talking about all
the different topics regarding what I've been posting on my Instagram and my Facebook,
different questions and different tips and advice each and every single day. It's something
new that I've been trying over the past week and it seems to be taking
a good reaction from my followers and from my listeners as well, as we're
getting more than more people getting involved in them daily tips and Advice, So
thank you for all those that are contributing, as it does help build a
podcast as well different questions. Each day we can talk about the different topics
that have come up. Now, yesterday's daily tip, what we talked about
was talking about what's the piece best piece of gardening advice and tips that you
have ever been given? And I've learned quite a few tips and advice from
this post as well as obviously I shared my tip yesterday talking about putting the
plastic bottles over the sweet corn, which quite a few people have acknowledged and
liked it. So thank you for those that have done and I hope that
you find it useful for when you're growing sweet corn as well. And let's
go through each of the tips that people have responded to on my Instagram post,
as it's good to talk over them and see what people have been told
and how well it works as well. So first off. One of the
tips was enjoy it and take your time. Now, this is one tip
that I do live by. And like I said, I've had my plot
going on twenty years in total, and it's a big size plot for one
person definitely, And it's took me around twenty years just to get to the
top of my plot to the boundary. And you might actually twenty years to
get to the top, but yeah, twenty years it's taken me to get
to the allotment top. I've just been working a bit every single year and
getting a bit further, doing improvements to certain areas and working on different pieces
every single year. And I like to try and spend a bit of money
on a certain area and like improve it and make it better. So that
is a bit less maintenance for me as well. So I like to try
and improve it a bit every single year. And that's one of my winter
projects. What I usually do. I usually concentrate on a certain area and
improve it and make it look better. Now we've we had a lot of
winter projects this year. Trust me. I spent so much time and quite
a lot of money on doing certain improvements down at my plot. And some
of the improvements were not that necessary, but I'm happy with what I've done
and how I've improved it. Like, one of my main projects was rebuilding
my shed because my shed had collapsed, so I've got nowhere to grow all
my seeds. So that was the main big project what I did with my
dad, and he gave me a massive helping hand with it. He did
most of it, and I'm so thankful for him for what he's done for
that. And what else I've did up was around my rhubarb, my roubarb
beds being in like fifteen sixteen years now, and this year I mulched all
around it, which I've never had mulch down on it, so I mulched
it all made that look better. I also built a seating area so that
I can actually sit down, relax and enjoy it. And I know you
think, well, you've not got much time to relax and enjoy it,
But I am finding time to actually sit down and enjoy it, and I
have a drink my coffee on my seat and look at it all and think,
wow, I'm happy with that. I'm happy with how it's all gone
on. So take your time and enjoy what you do. Another comment was
Tomato feed works for everything, said my mum works for me, no faving
around trying to decide which one to use. It's generally cheaper and leaves me
more in the kitty for the best rose feed from David Austin Roses. So
yeah, try different feeds, whichever feed works best for you. Tomorrow Feed
has got a lot of nutrition in it and obviously it works well for this
follower, and it's good tips go by. And obviously I use it on
my cucumbers, I use it on the tomatoes, on my pumpkins, on
my coach jats, So you can pretty much use it for a lot of
things and it all gets going well and it all helps. So yeah,
if you find a product that you like, try it and see if it
does work on everything. Obviously risking it if like it doesn't work connect but
if you go by the instructions of how much to use per millimeters of water,
etc. You won't go wrong. So I've learned at it for that.
So yeah, I'm going to start using tomato feed on a lot of
stuff now, as I've been using chicken pellets main lay and I've been using
bone meal and that seems to be working. Well, at the moment,
my sweet corn growing fantastic. But for that liquid feed, I might try
using some tomato food on them, So thank you for that tip that was
submitted. Also, somebody said look after the soil instead of feeding your plants.
Obviously, the nutrition in the soil feeds your plants, so that's a
good one as well. So why not look after it and put the food
back into the soil to feed the plants as it's the soil what's used literally
to feed the plants. So yeah, looking after the soil is instead of
feeding you plants. Another comment is fill the planting hole with a water with
water a minute before planting. Those routes will establish while they search for a
drink, So if you're planting out, make sure you fill it with water
first and then the plants routes will find that water and they will establish a
lot faster and a lot quicker. So that's another good tip there. So
yeah, I'm learning. Like I always say gardening, you are always learning
every single day, and the tips and advice what people give me, I
always take it on board. I learn new stuff every single day and I'm
so glad. I posted this on my Instagram because people are sharing so many
great tips with me, so thank you for everybody that has got involved.
Another one is by somebody knew that started following me and listening to my podcasts.
This is my life, this is my village life, and she's loving
the podcast. And if you're listening, hello to you. This is my
village life. Thank you for being a great supporter. And this comment is
to give everything a go. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
So yeah, putting all you have nothing to lose. Yes, it
might be a few pence from sowing the seeds and they don't germinate or something
like that, but it's all trial and ever. It's all about having fun
and having a laugh at the end of the day. Yes you get produced
from it, Yes you get great delicious fruit and vegetables from it, but
you've got nothing to lose at the end of the day. It's all about
having fun and enjoying it. And this is why I'm enjoying trying all these
cuttings out what I'm doing because it's all trial and ever, and if they
don't grow, they don't grow. I've not lost anything. I've just given
my plan A haircut by trimming it down to take the cuttings. So yeah,
you have nothing to lose with gardening. Another comment, which I'm going
to try, is to use plastic bottles to water your tomatoes, pumpkins,
et cetera. Plant them as close to the roots as you can. It
saves water in the long run. So basically, plant a water bottle at
the side of your vegetable, oil your tomatoes or something like that. Put
some holes obviously in the bottle top so that the water can drip out,
and make the holes as big as how fast you want it to drip out
or not. Obviously, the smaller hole it'll take longer to drip out,
so it'll lasts longer. And obviously you can fill them up with food as
well. If you're feeding them for a few days, you can put a
tiny bit of food in as well to give it that extra kick and that
extra boost, and it will feed it straight to the roots as well.
You won't lose none of that special nutrition that you're trying to put into the
soil. So another good tip there from Hyday to grow what you like to
eat first. Allotment yet grew loads of broadbeans and was so proud, but
none of us liked them. Who's done that? Who's grown stuff that they
don't actually like? We've done that. We've grown radishers, we've grown gooseberries,
we've grown Brussels sprouts, and nobody actually likes them. But the joy
of doing that is that you can give it away and people who will enjoy
receiving them, and they will certainly become your best friends straight away from all
the fresh produce that you're giving them. So yeah, I do love that
people have been sharing these tips with men. I've learned a lot from it,
and I hope you've learned a lot from it. It's good to get
people's advice, and passing tips from one another is amazing because you're passing it
down to different generations. When I first got onto my allotment site, there
was one person left on the allotment site and it'd all become derelict around him
before the council did it all and got it all back up and win again.
And he'd been on there keeping that allotment site open and running, and
all the weeds were growing around him and everything, but his allotment was pristine.
He learned. He taught me so much, and he used to go
down to his allotment and he used to hoe his beds every single day.
He'd not got a single weed on it. And from hoeing it every single
day, nothing will grow because you're doing it every day. And yeah,
it might only be of ten to fifteen minutes just going round holing every single
bed, but in the long run it's a lot faster because no weeds have
taken route. You're not spending time getting all the weeds out. If you
keep on top of it, you will beat the weeds. The weeds won't
win. You will win the battle in the weeds. So that is one
fantastic tip that I learned from him as well. So what was the daily
tip that we put on the allotment today on the Instagram today? The daily
tip of the day what we put on yesterday, actually not today because I'm
pre recording. This is start start planning for autumn planting and order seeds exactly,
start looking at what seeds you can grow for next year. And now
is about the time around this month next month to start planting potatoes for Christmas.
So have a look at my podcast where I was talking about what seeds
you can plant this month and have a look right down a list of all
the seeds that you can start this month. There's plenty on there that you
can actually keep growing up until this year and ready for next year. So
have a look at that podcast. It's only quite a few episodes back.
It's not far back. It's beginning of July. So have a look at
that podcast and have a listen to what seeds and stuff you can start this
month. But yes, if you are wanting Christmas potatoes, have a look
around see if if you can order some online. Amazons sometimes have them,
or potato shops online, stuff like that. Garden centers online. You won't
find them in the actual garden centers or in any do it yourself shops,
but you will find them online if you are wanting to grow seed potatoes.
Now, I'm just going to grow normal potatoes from the supermarket. Yes,
you do. Hear a lot of stuff online say you shouldn't grow normal potatoes
because they've been treated and stuff like that, and it can spread diseasers.
But my dad's done it many years and we've had fantastic potatoes from them.
So I'm going to get a packing new potatoes from the supermarket. I'm going
to plant them in some of the boxes that I've just harvested all my earliest
from, so that I can start them off outside while it's meant to be
warm. It's not warm, it's it's raided. But you can start them
off outside in boxes. Don't start them off in the ground if you want
in Christmas potatoes, start them off in boxes. When the first frost starts
to appear, you need to take them inside before that happens, So possibly
like beginning of October, middle of October, take them inside inside a polytunnel,
inside a greenhouse somewhere where there's plenty of light and grown in there.
If you leave them outside, the frost will kill them. But if you
move them inside into a polytunnel or into a greenhouse, they will be protected
and you will be able to harvest potatoes for Christmas Day for your Christmas meal,
and they'll taste absolutely delicious. And potatoes are easy to grow. You
might not get loads in your tubs and stuff like that, but they will
be homegrown and they'll taste a lot more nicer than shop bought ones. Yes,
you may have started them from shop bought ones, but they'll still taste
as nice. As home grown ones from seed potato. So if you've never
tried growing potatoes at this time of year for Christmas, give it a try.
Let me know if you're going to try it. I'd love to hear
from you all. I'm going to start mine probably in probably about two or
three weeks, so make sure you stay tuned for that. I'll post it
on my Instagram and on my Facebook, so make sure you do follow my
socials Gardening with Ben, and I just want to say as well, thank
you for everybody that he's getting involved in my Instagram posts and asking the daily
questions and the tips. But if you do get a chance, please do
shareing them to your stories. I'm trying to get them out there as much
as possible to help as many people as possible in growing their own and encouraging
everybody to get involved as well. So that's been today's podcast. Hopefully tomorrow's
podcast we'll be talking about what we've been up to at the Allotment and telling
you what we what's growing and what's not growing. I'm an open and honest
gardener and I had a mess today saying that I like how you are not
posh, you down to earth and you speak it how it is literally,
and that's what I want to do. I'm not one of these gardeners I'll
use all the posh words and all the technical terms and everything like that.
I'll say it how it is because that's how I am. That's how I
want to know these things. I wouldn't know all the Latin names and everything
like that. But yeah, I'm glad that I'm getting comments like that because
that's how I want to come across to everyone. So I hope that you've
enjoyed this episode. Make sure you do give it a like, give it
a comment as well if you can, and make sure you follow me if
you're not already following me, and click the belt so you get notified when
new podcasts come up. So until next time, everyone, remember keep smiling,
keep shining, and keep gardening with everyone. Thank you for joining me
on this episode of Gardening with Ben. I hope you have found some useful
tips and inspiration for your own gardening and a lotment journey. If you have
enjoyed today's episode, please make sure to follow and subscribe to the podcast so
you'll never miss a new episode. And if you have a moment, i'd
love for you to leave a review and share the podcast with fellow gardening enthusiasts.
Your support helps us grow this community and continue bringing you great content.
You can also follow us on social media on every platform for all gardening with
Ben for daily gardening tips and mon days. Happy gardening, and until next
time, remember keep smiling, keep shining, and keep gardening with them,