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 tails 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 Gardening with Ben's podcast. For today, well spring is on its way,
yes, but we do have snow as well, well, certainly in
my region anyway. I've looked at the forecast for Thursday and it's starting to
snow and we could have quite a bit here in Yorkshire. It could be
here for a few days, but hopefully not too long. But thankfully I'm
back on night shifts so it won't affect anything that I'm getting up to,
but hopefully we can still get all our gardening jobs done this week. But
you'll find out about that in my next podcast when we do with the gardening,
we've ben catch up podcast on what we've been up to. So yeah,
spring is certainly on its way. I've been looking around my allotment and
I'm starting to get all the spring bulbs popping up. And yeah, we
won't get as high as Simpson as daffodils and tulips yet. My you someone
did tell me their daffodils out in their garden, so it might not be
too long. But the spring bulbs are starting to pop up already. We've
got croucuses popping up, which I've shared some fantastic beautiful photos off on my
Instagram profile. If you're not following that already, do give it a follow.
Gardening with Ben and yeah, today I noticed an iris out as well,
and one of these that when the flowers start to come out, I
will start spamming all the photos of it, because I absolutely love it when
the flowers are out in my plot. Yeah, we can get some good
pictures of all them my vegetables and stuff, but you can't beat the flower
pictures as well, as they look so nice and beautiful and delicate. And
I can't wait for more and more spoon bulbs to come out. But we
are getting in the mood and we are starting to buy plants for the allotment
already. Yes, I know it's only February, but I've started, and
if you know me, I'll always look for a bargain. I've got a
Tesco's near where I live, and usually they salad off all the reduice plants
because there's not a lot of gardens around near me, so I end up
buying loads of plants to plant on my allotment. But I've not bought any
bargains up to now. But we have been buying some plants for the plot
ready for this year because I want more perennials on my plot if possible.
And I bought a couple of red hot poker plants, which hopefully I'll be
start getting them planted soon because it says on the packet from February to April.
I need to plant them outside, so we'll get them in the ground
pretty soon, and I need to find somebody to put them to be honest,
because I've got that many bulbs in my garden. I don't want to
disturb the bulbs, so I need to find somewhere to put them. And
I've also bought today some loopings. Now there were seven in a pack for
five pound from my Tesco, so I pour four packets of those. So
I got seven fourteen twenty twenty eight looping plants plant and the mixed colors,
so I'm looking forward to them. We had some loopings on my allotment last
year and they looked absolutely fantastic, and they were first plants last year,
so hopefully they'll be a lot bigger this year. And because I liked them
so much they did so good on my allotment, I've been out and bought
some more because if something does good on my plot, I'm going to buy
more of it and definitely make it look nicer. So we've got twenty one
of those plants, so that's going to look absolutely beautiful. But I do
want to get a load of lavender this year. That's on my target list
to get for my allotment. Lots and lots of lavender. I just wanted
to smell absolutely fragrant this year, so we've been about buying some of them,
and we've also bought some spring meadow seeds as well as what you do,
you can just sprinkle those on the compost and make them over, and
yeah, hopefully we'll get lots of spring meadow flowers. But the only issue
with stuff like that is that you can never tell them from the weeds to
the flowers that are growing, so it's a bit un predictable really. But
I'm going to be sprinkling those all dam the borders and we'll see what grows.
And hopefully we'll get lots of spring meadow flowers down the side of my
plot, just to make it look nicer and attract the bees and the butterflies
and the wildlife to the mad plot. But it won't stop there. I
am going to be buying lots more and more plans, and as you know,
these podcasts, the bits that I make from it go towards bits for
my plot. And yeah, I'm hopefully looking forward to you seeing my development
and my allotment this year. And I've really got back into sharing stuff with
you all again. As obviously, like I said, last year, we
took a nose dive and we didn't share hardly much at all. Last year,
we didn't do his podcast, we didn't do much on Instagram or Facebook,
but I'm getting back into sharing it all with you, and I've been
sharing regular posts as well as myself is. Obviously, I do like myself
is down in my allotment, but yeah, I like to show people that
I'm still here and still guarding. But yeah, I'm hopefully getting more and
more flowers on my plot this year. So if you've got any suggestions of
what sort of flowers I should try and grow on my allotment, please do
let me know, because I do like trying new things. Like I said,
last year was the first time that I grew some loopings, so I'm
getting more plants of those growing on my plot. And I'm going to be
planting loads and loads of gladiolis as well, beccause gladiolies always do well on
the plot and the absolutely beautiful ones are out and the peas can just go
straight into the trumpets and get the pollen and the nectar. But yeah,
hopefully we'll get a lot more flowers growing on the plot this year as well
as I'm hopefully going to have my sweet peas because I always do well with
my sweet peas sunflowers. I'm going to have absolutely loads sunflowers. You can't
beat lots of good sunflowers on the allotment. They are one thing that I
will be growing plenty of. I need to get them ordered off of Amazon.
Actually, the seeds for that, because last year I bought a mixed
packet of seeds and it must have been like a thousand seeds and I just
sewed loads and loads black ones, Teddy Bear wors red ones, all different
colors and it looks absolutely beautiful. Obviously you've got to keep them supported and
steaked and stuff like that, but it is pretty easy if you've got l
like a border and stuff to grow along or against a wall. But we'll
see how things grow and get on. And obviously, like I said on
my list, is lavender. I've never really had success with lavender, but
I want to get quite a few plants for that, so I'm saving up
some lavender plants down at my allotment. And once you get it growing,
it can bush out and fill in a good space. So hopefully we'll get
some beautiful lavender growd. And obviously that is one of the favorites for bees
as well, is lavender, as they do absolutely love it, so I
might have that for one of my borders. As well down one side of
our plot. But we get in there, and my main concentration at the
moment is must bring bulbs. I want to see where they're growing, how
well they do, and if I need to get more growing on it and
more planted at the end of the year, because I know there is one
certain side to it that isn't growing very well. But do do let me
know what your favorite flowers are to grow down at the moment, because I'm
still learning lots and lots more to grow down at the plot because I'm still
new flowers. Yeah, i might have been wearning five or six years,
but I'm still new to growing different types of flowers down at the plot.
Obviously, I shared my photo album Heather down at my plot at the moment,
which is absolutely looking beautiful. I bought that discounted again, discounted at
fifty pence from being Q when they were selling it off at end of it
sea and it's spread and it's filled up and it looks absolutely beautiful now.
And I've got about four or five of those plants. I've got obviously,
all my spring bulbs in and pants is in. I've grown geraniums from seed
before They've done really well and I'll hopefully be growing some again this year.
The previous ones I've forgot to dig them out, so the frost got them.
So if obviously growing geraniums, you can dig them out and put them
in your greenhouse and then plant them back out the year after. Just give
them a little trim and get them growing again. And there is more stuff
for what I want to learn and try and grow. And I've obviously got
some roses on my plot. My roses look absolutely beautiful last year and it's
small, beauty, fantastic, so make gets some more roses planted as well.
I've obviously got the test girl. I say, op as it may,
and at the moment they've got a trolley full. They're usually only just
like a little branch what's in a packet for like two pound, but they
do well. They grew so I've never had any bad success with some of
the plants that I've bought from the supermarket. They've always grown really well.
So I might get some more roses planted this year as well. So we'll
stay we'll keep you up to date with it all, and obviously I will
be sharing my journey with you all this year, and my Instagram's growing so
fast as well. I'm like eleven k followers now, so if you new
to follow him mate, if you're new to these podcasts, thank you very
much. I've been having so many nice comments at the moment, and it's
good to see how many people are listening to it as well. So I'm
glad that it's back up and running and you're enjoying it. So hopefully fingers
crossed, there will be another podcast to mother and I always say fingers crossed
because I don't guarantee it. It all depends how I'm feeling or if I'm
up for it because I do have a busy time. But yeah, as
always, 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 sanctuary. Happy gardening,
and see you in the next episode. Remember keep smiling, keep shining and
keep gardening with Ben