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 allotment. So sit back, grab a brew and enjoy
today's episode. Hey everyone, and welcome to Gardening with Ben for a brand
new week of episodes. I hope you are well. It's Monday. Yes,
most of us will be back at work, but some obviously workshifts and
stuff like me. So we've worked for the last couple of days working today,
got two more days after this, and then we've got four days off.
So it's always good to start a brand new week with making a list
of all the jobs that you need to do in the garden. Now,
what I tend to do is I just tend to spend ten minutes going around
my plot, just writing down all the jobs that need doing for the week
ahead. Yes, there is a lot of jobs that need doing, like
weeding and tying things up and stuff like that. But if you're write a
quick list, it's always good to then tick it off once you've completed it
and you feel like you're getting somewhere with doing the garden. And another thing
I tend to like to do is I like to take regular pictures of my
alotment so that it can show the progress of the plot over the year and
how it's come on and informed really and how well you've got on. So
it's always good to take visual pictures as well. And one thing I might
try one year is stand in the same spot every day and take a picture
and then try and put it through like a fast feed to show its progression
throughout the year and see what it actually looks like see if if we can
actually do it and get it looking good throughout the year. That would be
one thing that I would like to try and do. So if you are
listening to this, remind me to do that next year beginning of January and
we'll take a year's worth a pictures and splice the multi events, see what
it comes out like, and see the progress throughout the year or no progress,
depends what sort of year I've got ahead of me. But yeah,
what are we going to be talking about today? Well, in today's episode,
we're going to be talking about making a plan having a good allotment out.
And this is quite vital really, as over the years of having my
allotment, it's about seventeen eighteen years I've had my allotment now, an absolute
long time. In fact, I think it must be going on twenty.
I'm sure I got it when I'm eighteen, So yeah, nearly twenty years
I've had my allotment. Wow, and it's still got a lot of work
to do to it, definitely. So what have we been up to?
So we have been trying to plan our allotment out and get it better every
single year. I try to invest in my allotment a bit every single year
and make a few improvements to it, and eventually by the time I retire,
it'll probably be all nice and tidy and hopefully we'd free but to doubt
it somehow, But we try to create a plan and a design and put
it together to make the allotment look a lot better and easier accessible, and
some things I've not realized until I've done it, if it's worked or not,
or if it needs adjusting. And what I tend to do at the
beginning of the year, while there's nothing growing on the allotment whatsoever, and
stuff like that, I tend to get a piece of paper out and draw
my allotment of how I would like it to look. And that can be
from my shed to my polytunnel, to my food areas, to where my
paths are going to be, to how the exact layout is going to be.
And I've often write down as well what I'm going to be growing in
the certain areas. And over the years, like I said, I've invested
in certain areas and improved it. And quite a long time ago, probably
about ten years ago, I improved all my rhubarb and fruitry area. I
completely stripped it out, I cleared it all. I dug out all the
rubile plants what I've been in there from the beginning of the time since I
had the allotment. I dug them all out. I black membraned it all.
I laid paving slabs down for the path and yeah, that has been
the same position for the last ten to fifteen years and it has served purpose.
So sometimes investing in certain areas and improving them can get them better and
you can take it off as that area is complete and you're happy with it
and how it's looking from and you think, right, I can move on
to a different area of the allotment next year and invest in that area.
You don't have to invest in your allotment obviously, but I don't have a
garden at home, so it's the place where I do like to spend a
bit of money on it and making it better to a nicer And this year
on my plan what I drew, I drew a new seating area and again
I black membraned it all. I would chipped it all. I purchased a
nice chair to sit on, which wasn't a cheap chair. It was like
seventy pound and it were handmade chair. But it's somewhere that I actually go
and sit and enjoy the allotment now and I sit there for about half an
hour before I start my allotment in the morning and just chill out the likes
take it all in and enjoy it and have my morning coffee down there in
the morning, and it's in a good suntrap as well, so it's nice
to get a bit of sunshine on the face in the morning. And I've
still got lots of areas what I do need to improve on the plot.
Like I've also improved my shed this year. It's done need a lot of
work on the inside of it, but on the outside of the shed it's
fantastic. We've rebuilt it all. We've built the extension on it over winter
and that was one big project what me and my dad did and it's one
that I can tick off. Has finished now and sorted. That's all done.
But I may be possibly having to do out all my inside of the
shed this winter. That might be a plan of what I need to do
this year because is bind we'd growing everywhere. It's just a mess, it's
just a tip. So I might completely strip it on the inside, dig
it all over and start from scratch on the inside. But stay tuned for
that because it might need a lot of work doing to it and one of
these that'll start something and think why did I start it? I should have
not done this, I should have left it as it is. But we'll
see. Hopefully we get a lot of stuff sorted and get it ready for
next year. Now, obviously I draw a plan of all where all my
main vegetable beds are going to go, and I've got all them sorted now.
They're all in the right position with me. Yes, I do need
some more wood to replace, someone to fix some of them what have had
it and lotted as I've used the same wood probably with about fifteen sixteen years
now and the frames on the bed to had enough of some of them and
they've got to the end of the time. But that's all looking good.
And the other year I did the top of my plot, I cleared all
that, got all that ready, got a nice herb area at the top
of my plot. I've not touched it this year, so it's a mess
again. Don't tell anyone. I won't show you that on video. But
it is good to plan and show what's going off down at the allotment.
And even if you start off small when you're having an allotment, when you're
starting from scratch with an allotment, it's best not to do it all in
one go, as it can become overwhelming. Like I've seen people go down,
rotivate it all, clear it all and there's not a single weed there.
And then a few weeks later because you've rotivated it, these thousands of
weeds growing back everywhere. And if you've got something like bind weeding your allopment
and you use a motivator, you're going to be stuffed for years to come.
So it's good to start off small. Sometimes maybe just cover the full
length of your plot in black membrane to keep the weeds down, and peel
it back a bit every single year until you get to the top of your
plot. Don't try and do it all in one go and think like you're
Alan tich Marsh or monted On and you can get it old one in monday,
because trust me, I bet they don't do it all in monday.
I bet they have helpers helping them do certain stuff in their gardens. So
try and do a bit year on year and keep improving on that plan,
keep doing a step forward every single year, and eventually you'll get your allotment
or your garden or look in the way that you want it to look.
And I've certainly invested quite a lot over these last few years, and this
year I've purchased a load of flowers on it. It's all looking nice with
colors. Obviously, I'm wanting to get more and more perennials down there because
they'll come back year after year. But I've spent fortunes on bulbs because it
looks absolutely fantastic in springtime. Now looks absolutely gorgeous. But yeah, keep
planning what you want to do down in your allotment and garden and eventually it'll
start to look fantastic. If you put in the time and the effort,
it will certainly pay off the rewards. So that has been our short little
episode today. Remember to make a plan, try and stick to your plan,
ticket off as you do certain bits, and hopefully you'll get some fantastic
produce from your allotment garden. So 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 the instgiration for your own gardening and a lotment journey. If you have
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