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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 tails from the

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

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

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

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

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to Gardening with Ben's podcast. For
today, well spring is on its way,

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yes, but we do have snow
as well, well, certainly in

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my region anyway. I've looked at
the forecast for Thursday and it's starting to

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snow and we could have quite a
bit here in Yorkshire. It could be

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here for a few days, but
hopefully not too long. But thankfully I'm

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back on night shifts so it won't
affect anything that I'm getting up to,

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but hopefully we can still get all
our gardening jobs done this week. But

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you'll find out about that in my
next podcast when we do with the gardening,

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we've ben catch up podcast on what
we've been up to. So yeah,

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spring is certainly on its way.
I've been looking around my allotment and

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I'm starting to get all the spring
bulbs popping up. And yeah, we

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won't get as high as Simpson as
daffodils and tulips yet. My you someone

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did tell me their daffodils out in
their garden, so it might not be

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too long. But the spring bulbs
are starting to pop up already. We've

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got croucuses popping up, which I've
shared some fantastic beautiful photos off on my

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Instagram profile. If you're not following
that already, do give it a follow.

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Gardening with Ben and yeah, today
I noticed an iris out as well,

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and one of these that when the
flowers start to come out, I

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will start spamming all the photos of
it, because I absolutely love it when

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the flowers are out in my plot. Yeah, we can get some good

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pictures of all them my vegetables and
stuff, but you can't beat the flower

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pictures as well, as they look
so nice and beautiful and delicate. And

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I can't wait for more and more
spoon bulbs to come out. But we

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are getting in the mood and we
are starting to buy plants for the allotment

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already. Yes, I know it's
only February, but I've started, and

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if you know me, I'll always
look for a bargain. I've got a

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Tesco's near where I live, and
usually they salad off all the reduice plants

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because there's not a lot of gardens
around near me, so I end up

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buying loads of plants to plant on
my allotment. But I've not bought any

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bargains up to now. But we
have been buying some plants for the plot

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ready for this year because I want
more perennials on my plot if possible.

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And I bought a couple of red
hot poker plants, which hopefully I'll be

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start getting them planted soon because it
says on the packet from February to April.

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I need to plant them outside,
so we'll get them in the ground

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pretty soon, and I need to
find somebody to put them to be honest,

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because I've got that many bulbs in
my garden. I don't want to

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disturb the bulbs, so I need
to find somewhere to put them. And

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I've also bought today some loopings.
Now there were seven in a pack for

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five pound from my Tesco, so
I pour four packets of those. So

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I got seven fourteen twenty twenty eight
looping plants plant and the mixed colors,

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so I'm looking forward to them.
We had some loopings on my allotment last

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year and they looked absolutely fantastic,
and they were first plants last year,

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so hopefully they'll be a lot bigger
this year. And because I liked them

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so much they did so good on
my allotment, I've been out and bought

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some more because if something does good
on my plot, I'm going to buy

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more of it and definitely make it
look nicer. So we've got twenty one

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of those plants, so that's going
to look absolutely beautiful. But I do

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want to get a load of lavender
this year. That's on my target list

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to get for my allotment. Lots
and lots of lavender. I just wanted

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to smell absolutely fragrant this year,
so we've been about buying some of them,

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and we've also bought some spring meadow
seeds as well as what you do,

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you can just sprinkle those on the
compost and make them over, and

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yeah, hopefully we'll get lots of
spring meadow flowers. But the only issue

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with stuff like that is that you
can never tell them from the weeds to

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the flowers that are growing, so
it's a bit un predictable really. But

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I'm going to be sprinkling those all
dam the borders and we'll see what grows.

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And hopefully we'll get lots of spring
meadow flowers down the side of my

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plot, just to make it look
nicer and attract the bees and the butterflies

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and the wildlife to the mad plot. But it won't stop there. I

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am going to be buying lots more
and more plans, and as you know,

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these podcasts, the bits that I
make from it go towards bits for

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my plot. And yeah, I'm
hopefully looking forward to you seeing my development

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and my allotment this year. And
I've really got back into sharing stuff with

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you all again. As obviously,
like I said, last year, we

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took a nose dive and we didn't
share hardly much at all. Last year,

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we didn't do his podcast, we
didn't do much on Instagram or Facebook,

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but I'm getting back into sharing it
all with you, and I've been

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sharing regular posts as well as myself
is. Obviously, I do like myself

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is down in my allotment, but
yeah, I like to show people that

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I'm still here and still guarding.
But yeah, I'm hopefully getting more and

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more flowers on my plot this year. So if you've got any suggestions of

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what sort of flowers I should try
and grow on my allotment, please do

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let me know, because I do
like trying new things. Like I said,

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last year was the first time that
I grew some loopings, so I'm

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getting more plants of those growing on
my plot. And I'm going to be

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planting loads and loads of gladiolis as
well, beccause gladiolies always do well on

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the plot and the absolutely beautiful ones
are out and the peas can just go

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straight into the trumpets and get the
pollen and the nectar. But yeah,

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hopefully we'll get a lot more flowers
growing on the plot this year as well

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as I'm hopefully going to have my
sweet peas because I always do well with

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my sweet peas sunflowers. I'm going
to have absolutely loads sunflowers. You can't

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beat lots of good sunflowers on the
allotment. They are one thing that I

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will be growing plenty of. I
need to get them ordered off of Amazon.

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Actually, the seeds for that,
because last year I bought a mixed

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packet of seeds and it must have
been like a thousand seeds and I just

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sewed loads and loads black ones,
Teddy Bear wors red ones, all different

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colors and it looks absolutely beautiful.
Obviously you've got to keep them supported and

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steaked and stuff like that, but
it is pretty easy if you've got l

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like a border and stuff to grow
along or against a wall. But we'll

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see how things grow and get on. And obviously, like I said on

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my list, is lavender. I've
never really had success with lavender, but

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I want to get quite a few
plants for that, so I'm saving up

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some lavender plants down at my allotment. And once you get it growing,

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it can bush out and fill in
a good space. So hopefully we'll get

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some beautiful lavender growd. And obviously
that is one of the favorites for bees

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as well, is lavender, as
they do absolutely love it, so I

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might have that for one of my
borders. As well down one side of

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our plot. But we get in
there, and my main concentration at the

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moment is must bring bulbs. I
want to see where they're growing, how

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well they do, and if I
need to get more growing on it and

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more planted at the end of the
year, because I know there is one

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certain side to it that isn't growing
very well. But do do let me

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know what your favorite flowers are to
grow down at the moment, because I'm

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still learning lots and lots more to
grow down at the plot because I'm still

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new flowers. Yeah, i might
have been wearning five or six years,

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but I'm still new to growing different
types of flowers down at the plot.

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Obviously, I shared my photo album
Heather down at my plot at the moment,

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which is absolutely looking beautiful. I
bought that discounted again, discounted at

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fifty pence from being Q when they
were selling it off at end of it

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sea and it's spread and it's filled
up and it looks absolutely beautiful now.

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And I've got about four or five
of those plants. I've got obviously,

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all my spring bulbs in and pants
is in. I've grown geraniums from seed

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before They've done really well and I'll
hopefully be growing some again this year.

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The previous ones I've forgot to dig
them out, so the frost got them.

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So if obviously growing geraniums, you
can dig them out and put them

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in your greenhouse and then plant them
back out the year after. Just give

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them a little trim and get them
growing again. And there is more stuff

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for what I want to learn and
try and grow. And I've obviously got

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some roses on my plot. My
roses look absolutely beautiful last year and it's

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small, beauty, fantastic, so
make gets some more roses planted as well.

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I've obviously got the test girl.
I say, op as it may,

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and at the moment they've got a
trolley full. They're usually only just

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like a little branch what's in a
packet for like two pound, but they

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do well. They grew so I've
never had any bad success with some of

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the plants that I've bought from the
supermarket. They've always grown really well.

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So I might get some more roses
planted this year as well. So we'll

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stay we'll keep you up to date
with it all, and obviously I will

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be sharing my journey with you all
this year, and my Instagram's growing so

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fast as well. I'm like eleven
k followers now, so if you new

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to follow him mate, if you're
new to these podcasts, thank you very

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much. I've been having so many
nice comments at the moment, and it's

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good to see how many people are
listening to it as well. So I'm

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glad that it's back up and running
and you're enjoying it. So hopefully fingers

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crossed, there will be another podcast
to mother and I always say fingers crossed

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because I don't guarantee it. It
all depends how I'm feeling or if I'm

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up for it because I do have
a busy time. But yeah, as

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always, remember keep smiling, keep
shining, and keep gardening with Ben everybody,

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And that wraps up another episode of
Gardening with Ben. Thank you for

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joining me in this journey. Remember, every seed planted is a step towards

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a greener world, and every day
is a chance to grow something beautiful.

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Keep nurturing your gardens and your souls. Until next time, I'm Gardening with

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Ben, reminding you to let your
garden be your sanctuary. Happy gardening,

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and see you in the next episode. Remember keep smiling, keep shining and

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keep gardening with Ben