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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

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today's episode, it's a bit later
than usual, but the episode is here

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and we have been enjoying the sunshine. Wow. Today has been phenomenal.

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It said it were like twenty degrees, but I'm sure it must have been

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a lot lot warmer than that.
It's absolutely roasting today and I feel like

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I've caught some some today and I
think this is the first proper day of

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summer that we've had, even though
yesterday was the actual first day of summer.

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The longest day so Yeah, it's
been absolutely gorgeous down at the allotment

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today and we are busy. We
are busy at the allotment. And what

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have we been up to. Well, let's find out what we've been up

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to. We have been harvesting our
garlic. And I didn't actually know this

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till yesterday. Is that you actually
are meant to pick your garlic on the

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longest day of summer, because by
for Gardener's law, you're meant to plant

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it on the shortest day and then
it'll be ready on the longest day.

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So I never actually knew that when
I picked it yesterday. So I've learned

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something new myself there. And so
we've harvested it all. We've hung it

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up in our polytunnel so it can
dry out and let all the soil fall

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off it what's currently around it.
So I'll keep shaking those every day so

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let the soil fall off it.
And yeah, we'll be making some meals

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with it. So if you've got
any suggestions for a single person living on

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their own what to make with garlic, let me know and I will try

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and make something from it. We've
also planted where we'd pulled the pola's garlic.

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We've planted or load more sweet corn
plants now has to start these off

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in my shed a couple of weeks
ago, not that long ago, to

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be honest, they probably should have
been a bit bigger, but I wanted

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to get them out in the ground, get them rooted, and get them

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growing. So we've planted possibly around
twenty more sweet corn plants, so hopefully

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we're going to have a lot more
sweet corn growing. So I need to

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make sure I keep those watered over
the next few days and get them growing

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in this all because they'll dry out
and they'll die if not, so we

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need to make sure that we do
keep us eyes firmly peeled on them and

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get them growing well. We've also
planted some more sweet corn plants where my

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other sweet corn is currently, as
there were a few gaps where ones hadn't

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taken they died off or yeah,
or they're just not taken it all.

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So I've planted a few more around
there. So hopefully the fingers crossed this

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year, we're going to have a
lot of sweet corn, and sweet corn

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I absolutely adore it's delicious, so
nice. I can't fault having sweet corn

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grown from home. You have to
pick it when it's red eye. Don't

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pick it all at once, because
it loses its flavor as soon as you

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pick it. So pick the amount
that you want, take it home and

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cook it and eat it that night. So allan pick a couple of day

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and just keep eating him every day, every time you've been to the allotment.

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So it loses its flavor. And
that's a well known fact that,

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so only pick what you actually required. Don't store it because it'll lose its

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flavor as soon as you pick it. So we've done that, and what

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else have we planted? We're planted
a lead more peace today, absolutely hundreds.

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We had two trays full of peas
growing my head, three actually,

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and my dad asked me for a
tray so I couldn't really turn him down

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because he's been watering them. But
yeah, we've planted two more tray falls

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of peas today. And when I
say tray falls, there are like one

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hundred plants in each one. So
we've planted absolutely load. We've got some

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peas currently growing at the moment.
They are doing really well. They're about

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getting ready. They just need to
start swelling up now and start getting bigger.

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The peas, So we planted a
load more piece so that we'll get

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a second crop later on in the
year. As obviously when the piece are

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ready, they're usually already at the
same time. So hopefully we'll get some

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decent piece and if you like me, the piece won't even make it home.

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You'll end up eating them down at
the allotment raw. That's what I

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always do with this so juicy and
tender. That absolutely phenomena. So we've

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done that. What else have we
done. We've planted some cucumba. Remember

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me telling you that I'd planted like
fifty plants fifty seeds and have literally all

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grown. Well, quite a few
have got nibbled away, so we've lost

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a few, but we've planted them
all. And this is the first year

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that I'm planting some cucumbers outside.
I thought, rather than waste money on

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lots and lots of compost and spend
fortune, I'll plant them outside and give

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it a try. As obviously it's
turning warm now you never know how well

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the summer might be. It might
be nice, and obviously if it rains

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it waters them for me. But
obviously the more at risk of being attacked

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by mice, rats, pigeons and
stuff like that, so we're going to

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have to keep an eye on them
and keep them protected until they get quite

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tall. But we'll see how they
get on and hopefully mister squibl doesn't like

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cucumber, so I'll have to keep
an eye on them. So we've planted

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them all outside today. I've given
them a good water, a good drink

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because, like I say, it
is twenty two degrees today and I think

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it's only going to get warmer.
So we need to keep an eye on

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them over the next few days and
keep them watered and well hydrated because,

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as you know, cucumbers, they
are full of water, so they do

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like a good drink. So we'll
keep an eye on them. We'll see

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how they go. Even if we
get about ten plants growing outside, I'll

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be happy with that. But I
have planted all the plants what we're growing

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in the tray, so you never
know, we might be inundated with cucumbers.

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You'll have to wait and see for
the pictures for them. Oh my

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logan berries are starting to ripen.
They're starting to look nice, they're starting

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to tasty, and I'm looking forward
to having some nice fruit to go with

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my Greek yogurt. What I'm on
as you know the policing on Instagram.

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I've gone back to the gym.
I'm trying to get my fitness back in

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order. I weighed myself for the
first time the other day. Wow,

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I've clapped some weight on and the
camera had ten pounds, so look worse

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on camera. That's why I'm doing
a podcast. But yeah, I've got

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myself back to the gym. Like
I'm always talking about, I struggle with

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my mental health, my anxiety,
and even after the first session of going

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to the gym, I absolutely felt
tons better in myself. I felt fresh

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this morning. I must have been
working hard there because I ate quite bad.

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But I'm still happy that I went
and I accomplished it, and that

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I went to the gym and got
myself there. And yeah, I'm going

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to be keeping track of my progress. I'll keep sharing posts and stuff with

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you how I'm getting on, and
you never know, I may have a

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six patful World Naked Gardening Day next
year. You never know. We'll see.

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We'll see about that. But yeah, I'm hoping to put a lot

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of effort into it. And I've
also purchased one of those eye watchers as

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well an Apple Watch, so we've
got the little circles on it. I

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don't know if those. I've got
an Apple Watch. I'm not that up

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on it yet. I've not worked
out how to use it. So we

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need to work out how to use
it and hopefully start cracking on it and

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start working on getting my fitness back
to how it was. That's the plan.

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Anyway, you might think that being
in allotment all the time keeps you

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fit. Yes, I probably would
be a way a lot more than I

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actually do, but I do a
job where it's twelve hour shifts sat at

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a desk, so I don't get
much activity apart from when I'm at the

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allotment. So hopefully this will kick
me back into action and get me started

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on becoming a fit of myself and
get better in the how I am.

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So stay tuned for that. So
hopefully we're going to be back down at

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the allotment tomorrow. We have got
it's Saturday tomorrow, so I'm back at

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work on Sunday, so we need
to get plenty on tomorrow. We're gonna

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have to give it a really good
soaking. If it is going to be

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a hot a few days. We
need to give it a good soaking.

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I may even have to go down
one night, but we'll see. I

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don't tend to like going down to
the a lotment at night on my own.

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I know it's daylight, and I'm
like thirty eight years old. I

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just don't like going down there at
night. You never know who's around.

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So tomorrow we might be planting some
beat roots, some climbing beans. We

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maybe harvesting some lettuce. But yeah, hopefully we're going to get a lot

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done tomorrow. And as you know, I'm posting lots more videos on YouTube

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now. I posted a tour of
my allotment, So if you've not checked

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out that video, go and check
it out. It's a tour of my

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allotment. It's an up to date
one so you can see how well things

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are growing and how badly things are
growing. I'm an open on this gardener

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and I share everything that I've been
doing. So if you want to look

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around my plot, go and have
a common YouTube channel called Gardening with Ben.

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So I hope you've enjoyed today's episode. I hope you've got a lot

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out of it, and yeah,
hopefully we'll get some more episodes recorded tomorrow

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for the next few days. The
tomorrow's episode won't be on until the afternoon

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time as I've not prerecorded any for
the time being. So yeah, I

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hope you all have a fantastic weekend. Make the most of this sunshine.

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Don't forget to put the suntime cream
on. Make sure your water all your

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plants early in the morning or late
at night. But it's better early in

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the morning because the slugs aren't around
in the daytime. They only come out

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at nighttime mainly, so make sure
you water them early in the morning.

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Get up six o'clock, give it
a water, go back to sleep,

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and then get on with you to
day. That's my little tip for you.

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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've have found some useful tips and instegiration

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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'll never miss

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a new episode. And if you
have a moment, I'd love for you

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to leave a review and share the
podcast, but fellow of gardening, PUC

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asks your support helps us grow as
community and continue bringing you great content.

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You can also follow us on social
media on every platform, or Gardening with

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Men for daily gardening tips and mondays. Happy gardening, and until next time,

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remember keep smiling, keep shining,
and keep gardening with them,