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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 allotment. So
sit back, grab a brew and enjoy

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today's episode. Hello everyone, and
welcome to a brand new episode of Gardening

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with Ben. Where Ben and this
is your podcast? Well, it's now

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the first of July, and summer
is here apparent if that's what the weather's

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forecast. People are saying. We've
been having hot spells, we've been having

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coal spells, we've been having downpours, we've had some hailstone and yeah,

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I'm surprised we've not had nur snow. Mind you up in Scotland they've had

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snow, so yeah, you never
know what we'll have this month. But

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hopefully we'll have some warmer weather,
but this past week that we have had

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a little heat wave here and yeah, it's certainly boosted things along. And

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in this episode, we're going to
be talking about what we've done in June

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and how well we've got on how
badly we've got on the things we've harvested,

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and what our plans are for July. Tomorrow's episode we'll be talking all

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about what to start, what jobs
to do in the allotment and garden in

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July, so make sure you stay
tuned for that episode as we'll be talking

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about that one. So I haven't
recorded a few episodes for a while as

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I've been extremely busy in the background, still working on gardening with Ben.

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And yeah, I'm trying to sort
of brand new website out and get things

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up and running on that as I'm
wanting to do like daily newsletters and daily

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tips and advice. I've been trying
a few of those out on Instagram at

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the moment. You may have seen
them, so yes, stay tuned for

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lots more content coming along. So
I'm trying to get this website up and

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running as fast as possible so that
i can start getting the tips and advice

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out on a daily basis to you
through my website and through newsletters as well.

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So stay tuned for you to sign
up to get the newsletters on a

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daily basis. I will soon be
sharing that link with you all. So

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June down at the allotment, what
have we been up to? Well,

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obviously we went and visited Gardener's World. We went to Gardener's World. It

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was absolutely fantastic and it is too
big to walk around in one day while

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even I get tired from all the
walking around. It is a massive area

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because it's BBC Good Food as well
as obviously BBC Gardeners World, so there's

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so much to see, so much
to taste, so much to buy.

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And yeah, we came away with
quite a few things. We came away

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with a lot of futures. We
came away with some salvia. They're all

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now planted in my garden and they're
growing really well. And please that they've

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all taken. I've not had non
die on me yet. That is a

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success in itself, So yeah,
I'm hoping the futures take because the futures

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that I bought are bushy varieties,
so they'll grow with icon big filling the

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gaps and hopefully make it look attractive
and welcoming to the bees as well,

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so that the bees come down and
enjoy them. So we've got all them

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planted. We've also obviously been doing
lots and lots of weeding. There's always

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weeding to be done at the allotment, but we've been doing that. We've

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also been busy harvesting. Yes,
we've started harvesting our produce. Today I

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harvested my potatoes and they look absolutely
delicious. I didn't get as many as

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I thought, as I'd hoped to
have got, but I think that's down

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to me not watering them as much
as I should have done. If i'd

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have watered them Mark, we probably
would have got a bit of crop.

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But yeah, we've got a decent
crop from them. I've shared that picture

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on Instagram and Facebook. If you've
not seen it, check them out gardening

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with Ben and you'll be able to
see what potatoes I've got them. Just

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looking forward to cooking them now and
trying them. That's the best thing to

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do. I don't know whether to
try air frying them or boiling them,

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that is the question. So we'll
see. We'll give them a try.

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I've got one of these choppers as
well what you're putting it, and it

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just slices it up into pieces as
well, so it might be nice in

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the airfire. But we'll have a
look at them and try out some different

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recipes with them, and I'll let
you know how we get on with them.

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I'm not a chef, but I'll
google things and have a look and

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give things a try. It's always
worth trying new things. So if harvested,

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have potatoes with harvested peas. We've
harvested some peas and they are absolutely

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delicious. They's so scrumptious and nice
and tasty, juicy, succulent peas,

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absolutely gorgeous. We've still got absolutely
loads left to pick, but these ones

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are swelled up and they got to
the right size, so I picked them

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off before they got too big,
because then they will not be as juice

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as there have just been rock hard, So you need to make sure you

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pick them at the optimum time.
If you're picking your peas, don't wait

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until they're already. Pick the ones
that are ready and use them as and

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when they're ready, so that you
can have some delicious peas with your potatoes.

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As well, so yeah, we'll
be having the Sunday dinner soon.

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We've also harvested some lettuce. We've
been wearing iceberg lettuces. They've got a

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nice, fantastic head on them,
absolutely delicious and crunching. Yeah, not

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many slugs hiding in it either,
which is a good things. Sometimes you

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get slugs hiding in the iceberg head
itself, and when you're unwrapping the leaves

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you find little slugs hiding and bugs
and stuff like that, so you always

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got to be careful, make sure
you wash them faoly and they're looking absolutely

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delicious as well. We've had strawberries
off again, not too many this year.

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I've not done very well with my
strawberries. I don't know why,

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but we've not had a good crop
of strawberries this year. Hopefully Fingers Crossed

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will have more next year and will
plant loads more plants from the runners what

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are starting to come off from now. We've had loganberries first year having logan

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berries off on my plot. My
dad gave me some canes off his allotment

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and they're easy to take cuttings from
locan berries. If you've got a whip

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growing out, all you do is
shove the end in the soil while it's

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still attached, it'll grow roots on
it, and then you can just snip

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it off and there you go.
You have a logan berry plant. But

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the logan berries will grow on the
cane what grew the previous year, so

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you might not get some in the
first year, you'll probably get them on

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the second year. So this is
the second year that I've got them in.

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And yeah, hopefully we're going to
get a load more logan berries ready

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in the coming weeks. Because we've
got so many on there. They're like

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weighing down the planet. They're snapping
the branches. But hopefully we'll get some

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delicious logan berries off. And I've
been fastening them up. All the new

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canes are growing ready for next year, So fingers Crossed will have even more

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next year on the plants, and
you'd never known might start making some logan

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berry jams soon. I've harvested more
rhubarb, absolutely loads of rhubarb. The

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plants are starting to die off a
bit now, so I wanted to pick

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the rhubarb before it all died back. And yeah, I gave it all

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to my mum. Usually she makes
me about five crumbles with it. But

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this lot made me et crumbles in
little boxes. She packs them up in

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little boxes, gives me some custard, and I'm set for pudding for the

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weak ahead. So hopefully we might
get some more rubarb off. Will have

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to keep watering it and keep it
growing hopefully, fingers crossed, because we

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do want some more rubib crumbles,
and then it will be onto the light.

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Apple crumbles coming up soon, but
the apples are way off from picking,

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so we've got to keep the rhubarb
going for the time being so that

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we get some more rubob crumbles off. We've also harvested our garlic this week.

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I didn't know this. This was
something I learned the past week.

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I actually picked it on the longest
day of the year, and apparently meant

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to pick it on the longest day
of the year, because you meant to

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plant it on the shortest day and
then plant it pick it on the longest

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day. But I never knew that. I just happened to pick it on

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that day, which is bizarre.
It must be my green fingers. I

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must have had it drilled into my
head sometime or later that I should harvest

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it on the longest day. Well, we've put it all in our polychno.

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It's hung up drying out very far
using And yeah, I've never cooked

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to a garlic before, so that's
going to be an experiment in itself by

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trying to grow cook stuff with garlic. So we'll have to look up some

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recipes for that and see what we
can get with that as well. But

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yeah, I think that is everything
that I've harvested this month. It is

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fantastic when you do start harvesting all
that produce for me a lot, But

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again trying to not harvest too much
at the same once. Just harvest as

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and when you need stuff, and
see what you want as and when you

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want it. Like I've got some
more boxes and potatoes, I have not

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harvested them yet because I've got one
box of potatoes harvested. What I'll keep

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me going for a couple of weeks. So only harvest what you want and

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what you need. And remember to
keep feeding your plants as well as obviously

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they need food and nutrition to keep
them growing. I keep going around with

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some blood meal once a week to
give them some food, and I keep

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sprinkling some chicken pellets around every so
often as well to help hopefully growing bigger

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all the plants that are growing,
Like I've got my sweet corn that's starting

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to get big. Now, I
want some massive sweet corns, so we

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need to keep them growing well.
We're giving them drinks of water all the

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time because they do like a lot
of water sweet corn, So we're going

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to keep them water and keep them
growing. And hopefully I'll be sharing lots

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of sweet corn pictures with you in
them coming months, well September time when

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they'll usually be ready. So it's
been a busy June down at the Allotment.

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Hopefully July is going to be as
busy. Hopefully we're going to get

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some hotter weather and not just rain
all the time. I don't mind it

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if it rains at night, because
send it waters my plot for me.

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I just want it to be nice
and warm in the daytime so that I

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can spend some time down there.
We are having to get wet and miss

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going to the allotment as well.
So yeah, it's been a very busy

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couple of weeks down at the Allotment. Again, in tomorrow's episode, I'm

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going to be talking about what jobs
need to be done in the allotment in

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July, so make sure you stay
tuned for that. If you've not followed

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my YouTube channel, go and check
that out as we've got some videos on

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there. I've not posted any for
a while, but we've got some videos

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on there for you to watch as
well. And if you're not following my

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Instagram, do give that a follow
up because I do post pictures on there

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all the time of what I'm getting
up to, down the allotment and sharing

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what I get up to. And
if you've not followed this podcast yet or

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subscribe to it, please do give
it a subscribe and a follow and click

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the bell so that you get notified
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not left a review, please do
leave a review of my podcast because the

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more reviews we get on the podcast, the more it goes out to people

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and more people see it and give
it a listen to and follow. So

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please just spend one minute leaving a
review and hopefully we'll get our podcast out

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there for more people to listen to. So until next time, everyone,

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remember keep smiling, keep shining,
and keep Guardening with Ben. Everyone,

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thank you for joining me on this
episode of Gardening with Ben. I hope

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you have found some useful tips and
the instegiration for your own gardening and a

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lotment journey. If you have enjoyed
today's episode, please make sure to follow

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and subscribe to the podcast so you'll
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you have a moment, I'd love
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Your support helps us grow this community and

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continue bringing you great content. You
can also follow us on social media on

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every platform pulled Gardening with Ben for
daily gardening tips and of days, happy

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gardening and until next time, remember
keep smiling, keep shining, and keep

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gardening with Ben