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 a brand new
episode today. Wow, the temperature has heated up here in Sheffield, Yorkshire.
Wow. Today has been an absolutely poiling day and it's been summer.
Summer has been here for a single day. And that's all will be getting
it far because I've checked the weather forecast and making I have a stormy night
and it's meant to rain all the way through to tomorrow, so hopefully it'll
stop by the time I go to the allotment tomorrow, as I've got lots
to get on with while I'm off work. And it's been an extremely busy
day today down at the plot. I've done absolutely loads and today has been
a day of sewing all my duly seeds. Now I'm going to talk about
this in another podcast, all the seeds that I've sown, but if you
want to watch, you can check out my YouTube video that I've just posted
today of all the seeds that I have sown. And I've sown a lot
today. I've still got to go back for some more compost and so some
more tomorrow. That's why I don't want it to rain tomorrow so that I
can get down to the plot. I don't want it to be too muddy
while down there. But hopefully we'll get a lot of seeds on and because
the weather is warmer, they will hopefully germinate a lot faster than they would
in the springtime. And we've planted so many more peas, absolutely loads,
so fingers crossed we can get some more peas growing on my allotment ready for
later on in the year. And I planted loads more runner beans as well.
And now I said I wen't going to talk about it and tell you
what I've been planting, but I wanted to tell you and I planted all
loads more runner beans, so hopefully we'll get a load more produced growing later
on. I need to get some potatoes as well, as I do need
to start off my Christmas potatoes. That is one plan that we do need
to do. So we might call and get some potatoes to start for Christmas
today. So make sure you stay tuned for that video as well, because
I'll be sharing that once we've done it, as I do like sharing all
these little videos of what we've been getting up to. I'm not putting making
big long videos nowadays. I'm just making nice short videos for you to watch
on YouTube as and when you can get chance as when I post on Facebook
and stuff like that, they get lost within all the news feed, whereas
if they're on YouTube, you can just watch them when you feel like it.
And if you don't following my YouTube channel, do give it a follow.
It's called Gardening with Ben and you can click the bell icon as well
and it'll notify you when I post new YouTube videos. So I hope you're
all enjoying them little updates that we're doing. So yeah, apart from doing
all the seeds we didn't have to water outside as it rained last night,
so it absolutely chucked it down, and when I got to the allotment this
morning were absolutely soaking. You know when you're walking past stuff and it's just
like dripping on you and you're like, oh no. But that is the
joy of the rain last night that I didn't have to water today, so
that's saved half an hour in its time. But I did water inside my
polytunnel, where my cucumbers are growing, where my peppers are growing, where
I've got all my cuttings, what I've taken from my lavender and from my
salvia what I took yesterday. They're still alive at the moment, so fingers
crossed we do get some roots on them. Obviously, I'm trying some in
soil in the polytunnel, but then at home I've got some growing in little
shot glasses and they're still alive at the moment. I've got some futures.
I've got some lavender growing at home, so hopefully we'll see which ones do
best. I'm guessing the ones in water will do better than the ones in
soil, but that's just my little thinking of which ones will do better.
Hopefully they all take route and then we'll have absolutely loads of futures and absolutely
loads of lavender next year. But we'll see, we'll see how we get
on. It's all worth a try. And like I keep saying, you
have nothing to lose from it as free cuttings. Really you're just snipping them
back, tiding them up, taking the cuttings off and sticking them into water
and see if they take. So yeah, we've watered inside better and we've
continued as well tidying up my smart plants as I've got so many smart plants
growing. I didn't realize how many are planted now. These tomato plants are
what I've started from seed from the supermarket. I went out and bought au
pune of tomatoes mixed martars from Tesco. Took all the seeds out, scooped
them out, didn't dry them out, just planted them straight in soil.
You don't need to dry the seeds out. You can just plant them straight
in soil and they will grow. And they are growing pretty well. So
I'm looking forward to a mixed variety of tomatoes which are grown outside the orange,
yellow and red ones. So hopefully we'll get some good produce from them.
Obviously, they won't grow until a bit later on in the season,
like my dad's smartes in his greenhouse be med. At the moment, they're
doing absolutely fantastic, but I'm not expecting tomats on my plants for probably about
a month or two. They've just started growing little tomatares on them at the
moment and they're coming on nicely. So hopefully this rain and the sunshine will
help bring them on and get them growing faster. But they've got loads of
flowers on, absolutely loads of flowers on, so hopefully the bees will do
the work and pollinate them all and we'll get some great tomatoes growing on them.
So we've done that. We've also harvested some more potatoes, some nice
new potatoes from out of one of my big containers. What I've grown them
in. I didn't grow them in the ground this year. I grew them
all in tubs and I planted about four or five in each one. And
yeah, I'm happy with the amount that I've got in. I've not got
loads, not got loads of potatoes. I should have probably kept on water
more than I actually did, but we've not got loads. We've got a
decent variety and decent cropping just for me. I live on my own,
so I'm happy with how many we've got. So I've found out a quick
way to wash potatoes as well, once you've dug them up. And this
is a brilliant idea. Now I've got one of these plastic crates what you
get from the garden centers to light blue with holes in the bottom. So
I got them all in there, and I'd got the host pipe on at
the time because i was filling my water in butts up as obviously I need
all the water for my own manual seats, and I thought, rather than
washing them under the tap or scrubbing them clean, I use the host pipe
and it got a nozzle on the end, what makes it more finer and
more powerful. And I just sprayed them all in this crate. I didn't
have to move them around or anything, and it brought them up looking absolutely
spotless. It was the fastest way I've ever cleaned potatoes in my life.
So if you hate washing them in a bucket or scrubbing and cleaning stuff like
that, don't do it. Get one of these plastic crates. You can
often get them free at garden centers and put your potatoes in there and just
use the host pipe and spray them clean and they'll come up absolutely beautiful.
They look white and so tasty. I want to eat them now. I'm
just looking at them while i'm recording this, But if you've not seen the
photo of it, go and check them out on Instagram of my potatoes what
I've harvested today. They look absolutely pristine. Now I'm going to use I'm
going to do these in the air fry. I think I'm going to make
some chips out of them and see how they get on. As I don't
have any hobs at the own at home, so I can't really boil stuff.
It's like a portable one, but it's rubbish. So we're going to
air fry them and chip them and probably put a few spices over them and
see what they taste like and how they turn out. So I'm quite looking
forward to how well these come out. It'll be the first time that I've
ever done chips in the air fight as well. I've never done chips before,
so I don't know how long I need to leave them in for.
I'm guessing you put them on air. Five other than on most because I
don't want them. I don't like roast potatoes, so I'm guessing you put
them on air fr but we'll give them a try. It's worth a learning
curve. I'm always up for learning something new, So yeah, I'm going
to be having chippies Tomam and I and we'll see how they get on.
Obviously, we'll post a photo of what they look like once we've trimmed them
all and eating them. Well before I eat them, i'll post what they
look like and how they come out of the air fire. If you've made
chips in the air fire before, let me know. Feel free to drop
me a message on Instagram. I'm always wanting to learn new stuff and I'll
love it how people keep messaging me, telling me stuff and sharing tips with
me. So thank you for everybody that does get in touch. And I
hope that you're enjoying all these podcasts. I say they are coming later in
the afternoon while I'm work because I like to talk about what I've got up
to the allotment. When I'm working, I usually pre recording, and i'll
pre record different topics and talk about other stuff rather than my allotment. So
hopefully fingers crossed. Like I said, we're going to be back down at
the allotment tomorrow if it is absolutely chucking it down. The plan is to
start tidying my shed up before winter, as usually that is a winter job.
I won't tie do my shed up until the winter time. But obviously
we've started a load of the seeds off now for July, so we won't
be planting more seeds much later. But I want to get my shed ready
because if we're going to be starting all these cuttings off, like my futures,
matt lavender, my salvia, my roast cuttings, we're going to be
potting them up and keeping them in the greenhouse over winter, so I need
it to be all nice and tidy in pristine for them growing in there.
Whether it'll be warming off in there, I don't know. It's not got
a heater inside, so we're not on no heat to keep them warm,
but we might have to build something like some bubble wrap over it or some
sort of invention. I'm no good at building, as you all know.
Usually my shed falls down, a shelf falls down in the shed, or
I end up losing a fence. My fence blows down. I'm the worst
DIY person in the world. I will never give any tips out on building,
that is for sure. Don't expect to see a Building with Ben podcast
coming to that is for sure. But yeah, hopefully we're going to have
a great day to morrow down at the Allotment. But obviously I'll keep you
all updated with how well we're getting on. Like you say, if you
don't follow my socials, please do follow my Instagram and my YouTube channel called
Gardening with Ben. Feel free to drop me a message on my Instagram.
I'm always chatting to people and keeping up to date with everyone. So until
next time, remember keep smiling, keep shining, and keep Gardening with Ben.
Everyone. Thank you for joining me on this episode of Gardening with Ben.
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