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 a lotment. So sit back, grab a brew and
enjoy today's episode. Hey everyone, and welcome back to Gardening with Ben.
Well, when you know that the episode gets published at eight o'clock in the
morning, you know it's been prerecorded. As we are back at work now,
So I recall did some episodes so that you keep getting your podcast fixed,
so that you can keep listening, and hopefully it keeps getting the podcast
out there. Well, hopefully I am still alive fingers crossed. Did you
all see my Instagram post or Facebook post last night? Well, I cooked
my beat route, I tried it. I spent about ten pounds on buying
all the ingredients of the bits of bobs to cook my beatroot. But it
tasted absolutely fantastic. And I've got all the bits and bobs now so I
wouldn't have to pay that again. And basically I looked for a recipe online
of how to cook my beat rooted at air fryer, as I love my
air fire and I love learning new things to cook. And basically all I
did was I washed it and scrubbed it, peeled it, which I've never
peeled beatrout before first time. And yes, I've managed to get all the
red out of my fingers, but yeah, we've done that. And then
what we did we sliced it into chips. Now, I've got one of
these chopper machines where you put it in the top, slammed the top down
and it chops it into pieces. And that was fantastic the first time I've
ever used it. I bought it earlier in the year so that I could
use it for like cooking my corse yets and my squashes and stuff like that,
and I thought, oh, give it a try, see see what
it's like. And wow, it really did chop it well. I was
quite impressed. With that, So I'm going to try it on like my
potatoes possibly next and stuff like that to make chippies from them. So I'm
looking forward to trying that. So stay tuned for me trying them out and
see if I did to buy any more ingredients to put in the cupboard for
them. But yeah, all I did was I obviously chopped them into chips
shapes. I put them in the air fright that'd been spread with some olive
oil, and also I used some rock salt grounded into it and mixed it
all together and put them in the air five for about fifteen minutes on roast
at two hundred and ten degrees. Now, the recipe said four hundred degrees,
but my air fight didn't even go up to four hundred degrees, so
I put it at two hundred and ten and we roasted them and left them
for about fifteen minutes. We tossed them around after about halfway through so that
they were even all over, and then after they couched for about fifteen minutes,
I to come all out, and I'd got some paprika, some coryander,
and some let me just check out with me, some cumin and some
cinnamon and also some black pepper. So I just mixed them all in with
some spices, as that gives it an extra and an extra taste. And
to be honest, when I took out of the airfi and tried them to
say they coated in the spices, they weren't that spicy. All. The
tasted absolutely delicious. Now they're saying not to put the spices on from the
start, just to do it for the last three or four minutes, as
obviously it might burn the spice and then it'd lose its flavor and its taste.
But wow, they were absolutely delicious. So I now know how to
cook beetroot. This is the first time I've ever cooked beetroot in the twenty
years that I've had my allotment. I usually give my beetroot to my mum
and she'll like boil it or do it like that, and then I'll just
eat it raw after it's been boiled. But yeah, I absolutely loved it.
And I'm not looking forward tomorrow because everything might be red when it comes
out. I've done that once before. I ate that much beetroot. It
went red and I'll google him for that. I've got issues and it were
all down to the beat Root, so never google what you think you've got.
I learned that lesson from that. So yeah, I'm absolutely delighted with
that. So what have we got to talk about at the podcast today.
Well, obviously, like I said, I'm back at work, but now
I am busy trying to get things sorted and launched on my new website things.
I've been working hard on that, and I've been working hard on the
podcasts back up and money. I've also been pushing out my Instagram as well
as re something. I've been doing a lot more content for you or I'm
posting a daily tip on there now which is doing well which gets a lot
of views on it, and posting some stuff what I've got up to my
allotment, and last night I started posting daily question as well for everybody to
get involved in interact with. So if you follow me on my Instagram and
Facebook, make sure you get involved in the daily Question that I'm going to
post. It's for your all to get involved and interact and hopefully because for
people interacting it or push my posts out even more, so feel free to
get involved in the Daily Question. So yeah, that is what we've been
up to So what tips are we talking about today? Well, I can't
believe that I just recorded a full rest of the episode. It weren't picking
up the volume. So we've got to talk about what are our favorite flowers,
fruits and vegetables in our allotment? So yeah, hopefully you can hear
me now. I just were ready to upload it and realized it had not
picked up any volume. So fingers crossed, it is working and you can
hear me. So what is our favorite plant on the allotment? Well,
I posted this question on my Facebook and Instagram last night, so please don't
get involved and reply to it and let me know what your favorite plans is
in your garden and in your allotments. So please let me leave a comment
and get involved. This is your chance to get involved in this podcast.
So my favorite plan would have had to have been my Victoria plum tree.
However, it has let me down over these past few years. It's done
absolutely atrocious. It's not fruited, that looks like it's dying off at the
moment, which I'm not happy about. It's not looking good and healthy at
all. So that would have been my number one plan on the allotment.
But now that is not doing well. It's resigned itself towards the bottom of
the list. So my favorite plan would have to be my futures on my
allotment, as I've always wanted futures. Futures is something that I've wanted to
grow for years, and I finally got round to buying some plants, getting
them pottered and getting them in the garden to enjoy. And every week they're
getting bigger and bigger, the plants. They're really taking in the ground where
I've planted them and watering them regularly. I'm feeding them once a week with
chicken manure chicken pellets, and they're doing really, really well. And obviously
I went to Gardener's World and they had this massive display on the wall of
all different future plants and they were showing you what they looked like once had
grown well, grown bigger as well, and then you could like choose which
one you wanted and they get a pot of it and you could buy it
and take it home with you. And every nice one that I kept seeing,
I kept saying, is it a hardy one? Is it a do
want to say? Nope, not hardy, not hardy, And I'm like
no, all the best ones weren't hardy and they looked absolutely gorgeous, but
we managed to walk away with some and get them planted in my allotment.
We bought a load of bush variety ones, so they're growing well and hopefully
they'll bush out and fill some gaps in and make it look nice as well.
And then we've got the normal varieties as well, so that has to
be my best flower on my allotment that I am growing. And then secondly
comes in like my sunflowers. My sunflowers looking absolutely gorgeous, and I did
share a podcast on here giving tips and advice on how to grow sunflowers,
how to get them nice and big, and how to care for them and
look after them. And my some flowers are starting to grow really tall now
now that we're looking after them and feeding them again regularly and watering them really
well as well, so hopefully we'll get some massive sunflowers. And then obviously
I've got my sweet peas as well, which are absolutely gorgeous and vagrant.
I picked a load of those today and gave them to my mum as well,
so the more you pick up the more they'll do well. So we've
got some beautiful sweet peas as well. But what is what is my favorite
fruit that I grow on my allotment? Now, obviously, like I said,
my Victoria plum tree would have been up there as my number one fruit
tree to grow on my allotment, and unfortunately it's not doing well. It's
looking worse for wear, and if it comes to it, if it doesn't
keep fruiting, it will come out. Now the top next fruit well would
have to be my rubbarb. My rub barb is absolutely delicious. Now I've
got sixteen crowns on my allotment, probably all figuring why's he got sixteen crowns
on his allotment? Well, that makes me have enough rhubarb to keep picking
it every single week so that I could keep taking it to my parents' house
so that they can keep making me crub balls and have delicious pies as well
from my allotment. And obviously, now we're coming on to the time when
like blackberries are ready, loganberries are ready, with raspberries are ready, so
you can add them into the crumble as well and they'll be absolutely delicious.
And obviously with rhubarb as well, you can keep freezing it as well and
use it as and when you need it. Now, these rhubarb crowns have
been in over twenty years. They are like original from my first things that
I ever planted on my allotment and they've lasted that many years. And I
keep thinking I need to buy some more crowns, but nope, they keep
growing back year after year and doing fantastic on the plot. I'm so pleased
with how my rhubarb is doing on my plot. It looks absolutely fantastic.
And this year I put mulch all around it and it's kept the weeds down,
it's kept it looking good. And yeah, I'm really pleased with how
well my allotment is looking for my roubarb this year. And I didn't realize
how big the roots are on rubib until I actually read it. I can't
remember the figure, but yeah, they grow massive. They quite flims I
but they grow absolutely far down into the ground. Now. I originally started
off with about eight rub barb crowns, but when I readed the area,
I think I did it up. About it must be coming on about ten
years now. I did it all up. I put black membrane down,
I lined them all up and yeah, I reput them all back in.
I halved the ball and put them back in, and they're do it absolutely
fantastic. So I'm not going to touch that area as long as I probably
well continue to be honest, because it grow really well every single year.
They're too fantastic and they come back year after year. All I'll do is
just keep putting some fresh mulch down around it as it rots down, and
hopefully we'll have rhubarb year after year to come. Now, after my rubarb,
my favorite fruit would have to be my cooking apples. Wow. Again,
my cooking apple tree has been in my allotment since I took it on.
I purchased four fruit trees when I first took by a lot, but
on that was my cooking apple, it was my plum tree, and I
had a cherry tree and a peach tree as well. Now, my cherry
tree and my peach tree didn't do very well, so they came out,
and obviously if my plum tree doesn't keep doing well, that's coming out.
We have planned to two more Victoria plum trees, but they will take a
few years to get going and get growing, so hopefully these will take well.
And if I do up taking a plum treat out, we have a
backup and we know that it will grow well down there, So yeah,
I'm looking forward to it. This year, we've got a lot of food
on our A lotment. Now, I always say that if you can get
your money's worth back in your allotment from your fruit, you can forget about
vegetables. But if you get enough fruit plants on your allotment, you'll get
your money's worth back. Because cooking apples expensive roobarb you're paying like two pounds
for three sticks expensive, you can easily make your money back on your A
lotment. Now we're not allowed to sell stuff on our allotment as it's against
the rules, but if I make back what I've grown, I'm happy with
how well stuff's come out. So if my vegetables fail, at least I
know my fruit will have always grown and always done well. Now this year
we're gonna have absolutely lots of blackberries. This year was the first year that
we've had logan berries a lot. They've done fantastic and they're sending out loads
more whips on the allotment. So I'm in the middle of tying them all
up and supporting them all ready for them to grow through on next year because
logan berry's grow through on the canes that grew with the previous year, so
we've got all them to sort out. We've got as grapevines, they're growing
well as well this year. I don't think we'll get any grapes this year.
We'll have to wait and see for that. So in a few years
time we'll be having grapes on our allotment as well. Everything's just doing really
well on the plot. It's really taken off and my phone was BlackBerry.
Wow. Now, I didn't realize how long these whips would grow on my
alpment. Literally, I've planted one planet and it's nearly traveled the full length
of my plot and wow, it's done absolutely amazing. So yeah, that
has been a bit of a roundup of what's been what's my favorite flower?
We talked about that my future. What's my favorite fruit, which is my
rhubarb, And we're not talked about what my favorite vegetable is. Now my
favorite vegetable has to be my sweet corn. That is absolutely out of this
world. Now. I've been growing sweet corn for many years now, so
I've learned how to grow it. Well, obviously you grow it in your
square blocks. You don't grow it in rose because the need to pollinate with
one another to produce the corn. Now, one year I got absolutely devastated
by I was about to pick them, and I thought, oh, pick
them all tomorrow. Literally, I came back the day after everyone had been
eaten by mice or rats or something like that, and I was absolutely devastated.
Then another year, I saw a squirrel running down the allotment site with
a corn in its mouth. Literally a full corner was running with it,
and I thought, we need to sort this, and I told my dad
and my that came up with an idea where he gets the water bottles,
cuts the bottom of it and then shoves it over the top of the sweet
corn once it's pollinated and it's starting to grow. So he did that,
and he put one on every sweet corn cob because he saves them all from
all the water drinks throughout the year. Saved them all covered every cop every
cob was fine and nothing attacked them or ate them, and people on other
plots had theirs eating and the squirrel we're taking all theirs. But my dad's
and mine were protected, so we're going to be doing that again this year,
cover all the cobs in water bottles, but make sure you do it
after they've been pollinated and the corn is growing on the plant, because if
you do it before they're pollinated, then they won't grow colder and you'll have
a bad proce. So yeah, hopefully we're going to get some more fantastic
Sweek corn this year, but that's usually ready around September time. We're watering
the plants like mad every single time we're down there so that it gets the
plants growing big and tall, so that we'll get lots of corn growing on
the plants. So yeah, that has been my favorite things down at the
Allotment. I hope you've enjoyed it. Do get involved. Go onto my
Instagram post, on my Facebook post and comment your favorite down there as well.
I want to see everybody's favorites and get it involved. And obviously leaving
a comment does push the post out as well, which does help me.
So if you've enjoyed this episode, please do give it a like, Please
do give it a share as well. Into Instagram stories. Can click the
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And until next time, remember, keep smiling, keep shining, and
keep gardening with everyone. Thank you for joining me on this episode of Gardening
with Ben. I hope you have found some useful tips and inspiration for your
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