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. Hey everyone, and welcome back to Gardening with Ben. For
today's episode, it's a bit later than usual, but the episode is here
and we have been enjoying the sunshine. Wow. Today has been phenomenal.
It said it were like twenty degrees, but I'm sure it must have been
a lot lot warmer than that. It's absolutely roasting today and I feel like
I've caught some some today and I think this is the first proper day of
summer that we've had, even though yesterday was the actual first day of summer.
The longest day so Yeah, it's been absolutely gorgeous down at the allotment
today and we are busy. We are busy at the allotment. And what
have we been up to. Well, let's find out what we've been up
to. We have been harvesting our garlic. And I didn't actually know this
till yesterday. Is that you actually are meant to pick your garlic on the
longest day of summer, because by for Gardener's law, you're meant to plant
it on the shortest day and then it'll be ready on the longest day.
So I never actually knew that when I picked it yesterday. So I've learned
something new myself there. And so we've harvested it all. We've hung it
up in our polytunnel so it can dry out and let all the soil fall
off it what's currently around it. So I'll keep shaking those every day so
let the soil fall off it. And yeah, we'll be making some meals
with it. So if you've got any suggestions for a single person living on
their own what to make with garlic, let me know and I will try
and make something from it. We've also planted where we'd pulled the pola's garlic.
We've planted or load more sweet corn plants now has to start these off
in my shed a couple of weeks ago, not that long ago, to
be honest, they probably should have been a bit bigger, but I wanted
to get them out in the ground, get them rooted, and get them
growing. So we've planted possibly around twenty more sweet corn plants, so hopefully
we're going to have a lot more sweet corn growing. So I need to
make sure I keep those watered over the next few days and get them growing
in this all because they'll dry out and they'll die if not, so we
need to make sure that we do keep us eyes firmly peeled on them and
get them growing well. We've also planted some more sweet corn plants where my
other sweet corn is currently, as there were a few gaps where ones hadn't
taken they died off or yeah, or they're just not taken it all.
So I've planted a few more around there. So hopefully the fingers crossed this
year, we're going to have a lot of sweet corn, and sweet corn
I absolutely adore it's delicious, so nice. I can't fault having sweet corn
grown from home. You have to pick it when it's red eye. Don't
pick it all at once, because it loses its flavor as soon as you
pick it. So pick the amount that you want, take it home and
cook it and eat it that night. So allan pick a couple of day
and just keep eating him every day, every time you've been to the allotment.
So it loses its flavor. And that's a well known fact that,
so only pick what you actually required. Don't store it because it'll lose its
flavor as soon as you pick it. So we've done that, and what
else have we planted? We're planted a lead more peace today, absolutely hundreds.
We had two trays full of peas growing my head, three actually,
and my dad asked me for a tray so I couldn't really turn him down
because he's been watering them. But yeah, we've planted two more tray falls
of peas today. And when I say tray falls, there are like one
hundred plants in each one. So we've planted absolutely load. We've got some
peas currently growing at the moment. They are doing really well. They're about
getting ready. They just need to start swelling up now and start getting bigger.
The peas, So we planted a load more piece so that we'll get
a second crop later on in the year. As obviously when the piece are
ready, they're usually already at the same time. So hopefully we'll get some
decent piece and if you like me, the piece won't even make it home.
You'll end up eating them down at the allotment raw. That's what I
always do with this so juicy and tender. That absolutely phenomena. So we've
done that. What else have we done. We've planted some cucumba. Remember
me telling you that I'd planted like fifty plants fifty seeds and have literally all
grown. Well, quite a few have got nibbled away, so we've lost
a few, but we've planted them all. And this is the first year
that I'm planting some cucumbers outside. I thought, rather than waste money on
lots and lots of compost and spend fortune, I'll plant them outside and give
it a try. As obviously it's turning warm now you never know how well
the summer might be. It might be nice, and obviously if it rains
it waters them for me. But obviously the more at risk of being attacked
by mice, rats, pigeons and stuff like that, so we're going to
have to keep an eye on them and keep them protected until they get quite
tall. But we'll see how they get on and hopefully mister squibl doesn't like
cucumber, so I'll have to keep an eye on them. So we've planted
them all outside today. I've given them a good water, a good drink
because, like I say, it is twenty two degrees today and I think
it's only going to get warmer. So we need to keep an eye on
them over the next few days and keep them watered and well hydrated because,
as you know, cucumbers, they are full of water, so they do
like a good drink. So we'll keep an eye on them. We'll see
how they go. Even if we get about ten plants growing outside, I'll
be happy with that. But I have planted all the plants what we're growing
in the tray, so you never know, we might be inundated with cucumbers.
You'll have to wait and see for the pictures for them. Oh my
logan berries are starting to ripen. They're starting to look nice, they're starting
to tasty, and I'm looking forward to having some nice fruit to go with
my Greek yogurt. What I'm on as you know the policing on Instagram.
I've gone back to the gym. I'm trying to get my fitness back in
order. I weighed myself for the first time the other day. Wow,
I've clapped some weight on and the camera had ten pounds, so look worse
on camera. That's why I'm doing a podcast. But yeah, I've got
myself back to the gym. Like I'm always talking about, I struggle with
my mental health, my anxiety, and even after the first session of going
to the gym, I absolutely felt tons better in myself. I felt fresh
this morning. I must have been working hard there because I ate quite bad.
But I'm still happy that I went and I accomplished it, and that
I went to the gym and got myself there. And yeah, I'm going
to be keeping track of my progress. I'll keep sharing posts and stuff with
you how I'm getting on, and you never know, I may have a
six patful World Naked Gardening Day next year. You never know. We'll see.
We'll see about that. But yeah, I'm hoping to put a lot
of effort into it. And I've also purchased one of those eye watchers as
well an Apple Watch, so we've got the little circles on it. I
don't know if those. I've got an Apple Watch. I'm not that up
on it yet. I've not worked out how to use it. So we
need to work out how to use it and hopefully start cracking on it and
start working on getting my fitness back to how it was. That's the plan.
Anyway, you might think that being in allotment all the time keeps you
fit. Yes, I probably would be a way a lot more than I
actually do, but I do a job where it's twelve hour shifts sat at
a desk, so I don't get much activity apart from when I'm at the
allotment. So hopefully this will kick me back into action and get me started
on becoming a fit of myself and get better in the how I am.
So stay tuned for that. So hopefully we're going to be back down at
the allotment tomorrow. We have got it's Saturday tomorrow, so I'm back at
work on Sunday, so we need to get plenty on tomorrow. We're gonna
have to give it a really good soaking. If it is going to be
a hot a few days. We need to give it a good soaking.
I may even have to go down one night, but we'll see. I
don't tend to like going down to the a lotment at night on my own.
I know it's daylight, and I'm like thirty eight years old. I
just don't like going down there at night. You never know who's around.
So tomorrow we might be planting some beat roots, some climbing beans. We
maybe harvesting some lettuce. But yeah, hopefully we're going to get a lot
done tomorrow. And as you know, I'm posting lots more videos on YouTube
now. I posted a tour of my allotment, So if you've not checked
out that video, go and check it out. It's a tour of my
allotment. It's an up to date one so you can see how well things
are growing and how badly things are growing. I'm an open on this gardener
and I share everything that I've been doing. So if you want to look
around my plot, go and have a common YouTube channel called Gardening with Ben.
So I hope you've enjoyed today's episode. I hope you've got a lot
out of it, and yeah, hopefully we'll get some more episodes recorded tomorrow
for the next few days. The tomorrow's episode won't be on until the afternoon
time as I've not prerecorded any for the time being. So yeah, I
hope you all have a fantastic weekend. Make the most of this sunshine.
Don't forget to put the suntime cream on. Make sure your water all your
plants early in the morning or late at night. But it's better early in
the morning because the slugs aren't around in the daytime. They only come out
at nighttime mainly, so make sure you water them early in the morning.
Get up six o'clock, give it a water, go back to sleep,
and then get on with you to day. That's my little tip for you.
So until next time's episode, remember keep smiling, keep shining, and
keep gardening with Ben. Everyone, thank you for joining me on this episode
of Gardening with Ben. I hope you've have found some useful tips and instegiration
for your own gardening and a lotment journey. If you have enjoyed today's episode,
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