Welcome to Gardening with Ben, the podcast where we dig into the soil of
our gardens and the depths of our green funds. I'm your host, Ben,
here to guide you through the joints of gardening, from sowing seeds to
reaping bountiful harvests. Each episode will explore tips, tricks, and tails from
the garden and allotment, sharing insights from ourself and stories from our own back
garden adventures. Whether you're a seasoned gardener or just getting your hands dirty for
the first time, there's something here for everyone, So grab your brew and
gardening gloves and let's get growing. With Gardening with Ben. Hello, and
welcome to the catch up with Gardening with Ben, the podcast where green funds
and gardening beginners alike gather to share their love for all things green and growing.
I'm your host Gardening with Ben, here to guide you through the wonderful
world of gardening. Each episode will dive into the latest gardening trends, offer
tips for every season, and answer your burning horticultural questions. Whether you're cultivating
a window box of herbs or managing your backyard allotment, join us as we
explore the joys and challengers of gardening. So grab your gloves and your coffee
and let's get our hands dirty in this week's episode of catch Up with Gardening
with Ben. In this episode of Gardening with Ben, we're going to be
talking having a little catch up, just letting you know what we've been up
to down at the allotment and at home really and how we're preparing for this
year in the gardening world. So what have we been up to recently?
So, as you know, the weather has been absolutely horrendous over the Christmas
period and the beginning of January. It's been windy, it's been maining.
We've not had no frost or snow, but the weather has been absolutely terrible.
So every time it's been raining, I've been off work, so I've
not been able to go to the allotment. I could go in my shed,
but I've done everything that needs to do with in my shed at the
moment, So it's a case of sitting it out and waiting for the decent
weather. And today, as I record this episode, it was one of
the nicest days that we've had so far this year. And this episode is
recorded a few days in advance, so it is it's been absolutely gorgeous down
at the a lotment today. Yes, the ground has been absolutely soaked and
wet, but we're still being able to manage to get on and do some
work because obviously it's nice and easy to weed. The ground will be heavy,
but it's easy to dig those weeds out and get them all up and
out of the ground, which is what we're wanting to do. We're wanting
to get all my main plot area cleared now and we're wanting to get it
all ready for this year. I'm hoping to get all my main plot area
done by the end of January, which it's quite a long time giving myself,
but it does need a lot of work doing to it. So hopefully
we can get on the main plot area cleared, all the beds to rebuilt,
all the paths laid, and it looking good for this year, so
we'll see how we get on. Fingers crossed with manager. Hopefully the weather
will be nice tomorrow as well to get back down and do some more.
And yeah, we've set ourselves a bit of a mission this year, but
we are going to smash it and we're going to crack it this year.
It's going to be a good year down on the allotment. I can tell
that for sure this year, but we'll see how we get on, so
hopefully things will progress. What else have we been up to? Well,
all the bulbs are starting to pop through on the plot now. I went
down today, like I said, and I've had a look around. All
my sping bulbs are starting to pop through. Now. There's absolutely loads of
bulbs planted in my lot, from tulips to crocuses, to daffodils, to
hire simps to irises. It's gonna look absolutely beautiful comes springtime. That's if
the squirrels haven't eaten all the bulbs. Fingers crossed, they've not, and
we do get a beautiful display down there. Every year, I keep buying
some more spring bulbs to plant because they do take them. I do know
they do take them from a plot. But every year we keep planting more
and more. And I've got a plan of where I'm going to plant from
next year, the areas that I wanted to plant them, and I've planted
them this year, but next year we've got another area to get them in.
So we're going to start saving us pennies ready for next year to plant
them all and hopefully we'll continue to add the beautiful display that I have down
at my plot on my lotment and make it look absolutely beautiful. And I
do love the spring bulbs on the plot, and every year I always say
we all need plant spring bulbs on this plot to encourage the bees. And
it's the first thing that the bees see when they wake up from hibernation,
and it's the first bit of food that they can get to give them the
energy that they need to get started ready for the year ahead. And without
the bees, we wouldn't get any pollination. So we need the bees down
on our plot. So the bulbs are coming along really really well. And
in regards to my shed, you know that I've been doing a lot of
work on my shed recently. Last year I had a lot of it collapse
and get destroyed through the winter, through the winds, through the awful winds,
and I've literally stripped it all back to its framework, rebuilt half of
the shed where it all collapsed, so I've got bigger shed again and literally
put new plastic on it while recycled plastic and got all them got all that
sort of got it looking ship shape. I stripped out all the shelving.
I stripped out all the cupboards out of the shed. I cleared all the
rubbish out. They must have been about twenty backs of rubbish in that you
don't realize how much stuff you're store in your shed of rubbish. Every week.
I kept chucking some bags away, But we've cleared that much rubbish off.
My allotment is I can't believe that much I had, even from like
Brooken plant ports and compost bags and stuff like that. We've chucked absolutely loads
away. So we literally stripped it back to its core. We've built new
shelving. We've made it all out of wood. All the shelving before there
were metal shelves and stuff like that, and they were too heavy and they
kept collapsing and falling down. So we've made all nice new wooden shelving using
all the wood that I've recycled off my plot from the shed which I took
down. So hopefully when it starts to get a bit warmer, I might
get all painted inside the shed. But that's a job for the backlog.
It's not an important job that needs doing. It's just a job that's there
if I want to do it, just to make the shed look nicer,
but it's not an important job. So we got all the shed ready,
and that was one of the main jobs I wanted to get done over the
winter period because last year I didn't have my shed, so I couldn't start
all my seeds off and get all of them growing. I had to purchase
plants and stuff like that. I couldn't start the seeds off myself, which
made me not do as well on my plot totally because without the shed,
I weren't able to get it all growing myself. So I didn't grow much
last year at all. So yeah, hopefully we can get it all started
again, all the seeds in the springtime, so we'll have to see about
them and see if we can get them all growing. And I've got some
big plans for some seeds this year. I want a good crop from the
harvest off my plot this year. I want to be able to stand proud
and say, yes, I grew all this on my allotment. Look what
I've grown. So I want to be impressed with what I do get to
grow this year. So hopefully we do get some stuff, and yeah,
and please with have the shed to look in. It was one important area
of my plot that needed fixing. I'm still looking at my polytunnel thinking I'm
going to have to replace the skin on there eventually, but it is going
to be pricey. If anyone wants to give me a free polytunnel skin who's
listed a sponsor, feel free. But the worst bit will be digging it
out of retunneling it all and putting it all back on again. That will
be the hardest job. I have to keep sealing it back up where it's
splitting and everything. But one of these days I'm gonna go and it's gonna
all be off, so we'll have to see. Fingers crossed, we might
get it through another year and then start saving for new polytonal skin ready for
next year, but we'll see how we get on with that. But yeah,
and pleas we are, it's coming on. We've got all this fruit
trees sorted, they're all pruned back, all looking good and in shape for
this year. We put wood chip down all around my fruit trees, around
my rubarb, all my rubbarbs popping through our ready, which it shouldn't be.
It should be asleep, but yeah, it's all popping through and it's
looking really healthy. So we might get a really good rubarb crop this year,
so we might be doing a lot of crumbles and pies and stuff like
that. But hopefully we'll get a lot of rhubarb off my allotment and into
the cooker. But we'll see how we'll get on with that. So we'll
keep working hard. We'll keep working on and getting it all together. And
yeah, talking of seeds, I've been out and purchased some smarter seeds.
Well, I've not purchased tomater seeds. I've purchased it to marts themselves.
And if you'll have seen my Instagram post on my Facebook post recently, the
way that I start my tomatoes off is from the tomatoes at a supermarket.
I don't buy the seeds anymore. I purchased tomatoes and scoop the seeds out
and then just shove them straight into composts and let them grow. And when
they started growing, then I'll separate them out grow them on and then I'll
plant them outside in the ground. Because they did absolutely fantastic last year growing
in the ground outside. I couldn't believe how well they did. I was
thinking I might not get any tomatoes on them because they shop bought to Martars,
but they was the best Martares that I've ever grown. And I grew
them outside this year, well last year, rather than inside because the year
before we'd had the heat wave, so it was struggle to keep them watered.
So off, I'll plant them outside where it where there'll be moist and
keep well watered with the water, what's in the soil and stuff like that.
And yeah, I couldn't believe how well they actually did. They did
absolutely fantastic. We've got a fantastic crop tomatoes. We got red cherry ones,
we got yellow ones with orange ones growing and they were all fantastic.
It was just a multipurpose pack of different colored tomatoes and I just scooped them
out, put them into a plant pot of compost and let them grow.
And I did label them upside you which color or in each plant pot from
the tomato that I took the seeds out of. And they did absolutely fantastic.
So I've gone along them lines this year and for what other stuff can
I try from the seeds of supermarket plants? So I've been and got some
beef tomatoes as well. I'm thinking of, Oh, the beef tomatoes might
have to be grown in the polytunnel because they are bigger, they'll take longer
to ripen, so we might have to try those in the polytunnel rather than
actually growing growing them outside. So we're going to give them a try in
the polytunnel. But we have got some beef tomatoes. And again with the
beef tomatoes, like I think it costs me like fifty pence for the beef
tomato. And when you go to buy the seeds from the shop or from
the catalogs, you won't get many seeds in the packet and it'll be expensive
to buy, so overall it is cheaper. I don't even dry the seeds
out, which everybody used to say that you used to have to do.
You have to dry them out, and then to start them off, I
just leave them in their goo and I just get a teaspoon, scoop it
out and shove it straight in the compost. And it worked. So there
you are. People, if you've been drying them out, don't drive out,
just put them straight in the compost and it will, trust me.
I had a fantastic crop last year, so we've got them to try.
We've also got some peppers to try. I thought I'll give peppers a try.
Seeing as I've done tomatoes and they work fine, I'll try peppers.
So we've got some peppers to try. I've got a red, a yellow,
and a green one to try. And again, you get lots of
seat in a pepper when you cut them open, so we're going to be
trying to do that as well. And the next thing that I tried is
it's because I've grown peppers in the past and sometimes I've struggled with them.
I saw a multi pack of very small peppers, just really small peppers,
so for they'll be better. They could grow better than the big ones,
so I purchased these small ones. They're in a multipack. They like yellow
and red colors, so we're going to give them a try and see how
well we get on with them. So you'll have to stay tuned for them
once and see how we'll well we get on. I don't know whether I
should grow them indoors or whether I should grow them outdoors. I might try
some indoors and some outdoors and see how well they both do. Compare them.
I do like comparing stuff, seeing which works better. I once did
that with seed onions. And with the onion bulbs that you can buy,
and the seed onions did better than the onion bulbs that you can buy.
But obviously it all goes down to the soil and the condition of your allotment.
But I do like trying different methods and trying different ways of growing stuff.
So we've got them, and then we've got some melons to try as
well. I'm going to try some melons because obviously you get a lot of
seeds in them. So yeah, we're gonna have some fun this year.
People, Gardening with Ben is back. Last year we had a disaster with
the plot and we didn't do much. We didn't do no social media,
we didn't do podcasts or anything like that. But this year, trust make
Gardening with Ben is back, bigger, stronger, and better. And I'm
glad that you've all stuck around and that you've all started coming back and listening
to these podcasts again, because it is good to hear, well, not
hear you, good to see you all listening. I can see from the
stats of the podcast how many people's listening and where people listen as well.
It's always good to hear see that people are listening in different countries all around
the world and enjoying the podcasts. So we've got a lot to do over
these coming months, but we are well ahead. We've done a good start
to the year. We're going to have a good year. Down at the
plot, I can feel like it's going to look the best it's ever a
lot to my plot, and I'm certainly going to be enjoying sharing it all
with you this year down on the allotment. So as always, thank you
for listening to today's podcast. If you haven't hit that subscribe all that follow
button, please do hit the follow button and subscribe button. You can also
leave a comment now on Spotify on the podcast, so feel free to leave
a comment and it helps push it out as well. So thanks for all
the support everyone. Until next time, Remember keep smiling, keep shining,
and keep Guardening with Ben everybody, And that wraps up another episode of Gardening
with Ben. Thank you for joining me in this journey. Remember, every
seed planted is a step towards a greener world, and every day is a
chance to grow something beautiful. Keep nurturing your gardens and your souls. Until
next time, I'm Gardening with Ben reminding you to let your garden be your
sanctuary. Happy gardening, and see you in the next episode. Remember keep
smiling, keep shining, and keep gardening with Ben